How to Clean and Recaulk Your Sliding Shower Doors
Day in and day out, your shower sits in moisture, waiting for the next round of suds and splatter. With all that wetness comes mold, mildew, and grime. If you own a shower with sliding glass doors you know that cleaning the shower adds up to frustration when trying to eliminate the black accumulations massed where the doors overlap and inside the guides that hold the doors in place. The black grime often finds its way under the caulking around the doors too. But don’t worry, giving your shower a proper clean and recaulking is an easy DIY project that will have you scrub-a-dubbin’ in a mildew-free space in no time.
Step 1 - Take a Shower
The first step in the process is to ensure that you won’t need your shower for a bit because the caulk should dry for 12 to 24 hours. Jump in and clean up before dismantling the doors.
Step 2 - Remove the Doors and Hardware
To get a proper clean on all areas of your glass doors, you first need to access all those little overlapping sections. The best way to do this is to remove the doors completely. Look for the guide at the bottom of the doors with a single screw holding it in place. Remove the screw and lift the doors out, beginning with the one on the inside of the shower. These work in basically the same way as closet doors if you have prior experience removing those.
Step 3 - Clean and Reinstall
For a proper clean and better seal with your caulk, you may also want to remove the frame that encases the doors. The top typically lifts off. The sides each have a few screws. You will want to score the existing caulking with a sharp razor all the way around so you can pull the frame pieces off. Then use a razor to scrape away the remaining caulking and debris. A gunk remover such as Goof Off is helpful if you have a lot of build up. The porch or backyard is a good spot to give your shower doors a good cleaning without too much of a mess. Alternately, you can leave them inside the shower and clean them there, which eliminates some of the hassle of carrying them. Once everything is clean and dry, reverse the removal process and put the frame and doors back in place.
Step 4 - Caulk
The final step in the process is to recaulk all the way around both the inside and the outside of the door frames. Be sure the caulk you choose is mildew resistant and matches the color of your shower or is clear. Use a caulking gun to apply a steady stream of caulk and then run a wet finger across the bead of caulking to gently press it into place and create an even look. Allow the caulking to dry for 12 to 24 hours, or as directed in the instructions.
When the caulk has fully dried, visually examine the seam all the way around, ensuring that there are no gaps where leaks could occur. Then enjoy your clean, mildew-free space.
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![Dawn Hammon]()
Dawn Hammon has thrived in freelance writing and editor roles for nearly a decade. She has lived, worked, and attended school in Oregon for many years. Dawn currently spends her days convincing her children she is still smarter than them while creating new experiences with her husband of 24 years.  Her multiple interests have led her to frequently undergo home improvement projects. She enjoys sharing the hard-earned knowledge that comes with it with the audience of DoItYourself.com. Dawn and her sister make up a power-tool loving duo that teaches classes to local women with the goal of empowering them to tackle their fears and become comfortable with power tools. Tapping into her enthusiasm for saving money and devotion to sustainable practices, Dawn has recently launched a passion project aimed at connecting eco-friendly products and socially-responsible companies with consumers interested in making conscientious purchases, better informing themselves about products on the market, and taking a stand in favor of helping to save the planet. When she is not providing stellar online content for local, national, and international businesses or trolling the internet for organic cotton clothing, you might find her backpacking nearby hills and valleys, traveling to remote parts of the globe, or expanding her vocabulary in a competitive game of Scrabble. Dawn holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, which these days she mostly uses to provide therapy for her kids and spouse. Most recently, I worked for a small local professional organizing and estate sale company for four years where I learned a ton about organizing and/or disposing of just about anything. She was raised in a tool-oriented, hands-on, DIY family. Her dad worked in the floor covering business and owned local floor covering businesses, so of course selling floor covering was one of her first jobs. Her brother was a contractor for about 30 years and site supervisor for Habitat for Humanity. I worked with him often, building decks, painting houses, framing in buildings, etc. With her sister, she holds power tool classes to empower women who are scared or have never used them. Not quite homesteaders, she did grow up with a farm, tractors, motorcycles, expansive gardens, hay fields, barns, and lots of repairs to do. Plus she and her family preserved foods, raised cattle and pigs, chopped and hauled firewood, and performed regular maintenance on two households, outbuildings, fencing, etc. As an adult, she has owned two houses. The first one she personally ripped out a galley kitchen and opened it up to the living area, plus updated every door, floor covering, and piece of trim in the place. In her current home, she's tackled everything from installing real hardwood flooring to revamping the landscape.![H.R. Helm]()
H.R. Helm is an accomplished DIY craftsman. He has been DIY since childhood and is now a septuagenarian. He is experienced in wood and metal construction, having designed and built several houses and metal buildings. He built every permanent building on his current homestead and did all the plumbing and electrical work. He has several years experience as a professional cabinet builder, and he is an accomplished auto repairman, having operated an auto repair business for many years. He currently has a home shop where he sharpens and rebuilds saws, repairs lawn mowers, mobility scooters, hydraulic jacks, and anything else that comes along. He also builds custom tools for metal working. Invention prototypes are another of his many accomplishments. He owned and operated a manufacturing business building Compact Utility Vehicles for homeowner use. H.R. enjoys making jams and jellies during fruit season along with cooking meals. He is committed to outdoor cooking in a Bar-B-Q pit he welded together several years ago. He maintains fruit and nut trees along with helping his wife with a vegetable garden. He farmed commercial garden produce for several years. It helps to have over 50 years of farming and ranching experience. Employment/Education Highlights ASE Certified Master Auto Technician Certified Welder Cross country truck driver -- over dimensional freight Design Engineer/Project Manager for injection molded plastic company Bus Driver/Substitute Teacher Inventor with two patents (weight training – anti-rollback for manual wheelchair) BS in Industrial Technology
