Normally I'd be prepared for the situation I'm about to describe but I wasn't this time so I thought I'd check on whether you had one of your good ideas.

As you sometimes do, I tend to store some items that might be hard to find and useful for a repair.

Many years ago, when renovating units, I decided to replace the sliding shower doors on the shower / tubs in a building with attractive, new ones.

Many years later, I changed my mind and decided to change to shower curtains. Normally, I would save some parts or an entire door or two of the old shower doors. However, I only had one existing tenant remaining that had that type of shower door, and I was so happy that I had replaced the old doors with shower curtains, that I decided to get rid of all of the old shower doors which were taking up a lot of space in storage.

Well, I recently got a call from this very good tenant that had the only remaining sliding shower door. Problem with the roller. Previously I would have been able to just replace the roller or maybe the entire shower door with one of the old ones after cleaning it up nice. But I had gotten rid of all of the old ones, parts and everything.

So, I seem to have only 2 choices as this very good tenant of many years wants to have shower door, not shower curtain.

I can call Century Shower Door in Torrance and let them deal with the whole job and replace the entire old door with a new one, OR I can try to find replacement rollers which might be almost impossible for such an old door. I don't really know how hard it would be since I've never tried to replace roller for sliding shower door.

So, Robert, do you have a source that might have the parts and knowledge to specialize in repairing old sliding shower doors??? I've never looked for that type of repair and I really hate to get involved in tedious, annoying little jobs that require precise adjustment. I'd rather just pay a pro to do it. If not, I'd need to splurge and pay Century Shower Door since I do believe they do good work but I don't think they do repairs on old doors that are not theirs.

Thanks.

Home Depot has a section for all types of "Roller" window and door parts. This is where they have wheels, springs, window cranks, locks, latches, etc. They have like 3 to 5 different types of shower door replacement wheels. Also CWH hardware also carry a few too.

Robert,

I know there are companies that specialize in repairing sliding glass patio doors and closet doors, but I don't know of any that do sliding glass shower doors. Do you have any info about that???

Thanks.

Shower sliding doors are EASY to fix. You remove the top track with the doors out of the track then slide the top track away. The doors have the rollers attached with only 1 screw each. You can buy new wheels and easily replace them. A company to come out and do that job will be expensive. You can do it yourself. Look at some Youtube videos if you need some ideas.

Of course, you do all of your repairs yourself, you are Robert J, the Babe Ruth of contractors, and I'm being serious.

As to my doing it myself, I assume I could, but it's just that whenever I do things like that which I have not done before, it usually ends up taking me forever trying to get it just right.

I start out buying 2 or 3 different versions of the part that I'll need just to be sure I will have the right one and that I won't need to go back to the store in the middle of the job. Then I'll go really slow installing the part, and finish it by making sure the adjustment is just right so everything works smoothly.

It takes me forever compared to someone who has done it several times already and who isn't insecure about doing the job like me since I have never done that type of job before.

But since you seem so sure it is a piece of cake, I'll give it a try but I won't like doing it.

When I went to make my first repair on a rental house back in 1978, I was 18 years old, I could not take the faucet apart because the shut off valve didn't work under the sink and tenants were getting ready to go to work. So I looked at the shut off valve, the faucet and knew what parts I may need. I drove to HomeClub and purchased $27 in parts. Two of this and three of that. I drove back to the rental and the tenants had left for work. I shut off the water to the house and was able to replace the shut off valve, the supply line to the hot water valve. I removed the hot water stem and the washer was chewed up and the faucet seat had a crack. I replace the washer, seat and o-ring. Used some grease to loosen up the stem and installed it back in place. Turned on the water and it was perfect.

I had an extra shut off valve, 2 different types of price-fister stems and now a tiny tub of grease. I used around $12 of stuff and had left over $15. When i told my dad, an engineer and fellow landlord, the thought I was crazy to have "Extra Parts".

But the next time I needed a shut off valve or stems, it saved me an hour or more going to HomeClub to get supplies. And if I called a handyman or Plumber to do this job, they would have said I needed a new faucet and charged me over $125 or more back then.

So buying $16 in shower door rollers is no big deal. Besides you can first slide open the shower/tub doors and look inside the track and see what the wheels look like and take a picture with your cell phone.

Or call a handyman who works in rentals and knows how buy and replace show door wheels.

Just as Robert J suggested, I had done many, many years ago. I took off one of the rollers on my own home shower doors and found a non-exact replacement part at Lowe's in their window repair section. Even if you buy extra parts and don't want to return them, you will still have saved a lot of money doing the job yourself.