What’s That Plastic Bit at the Bottom of My Shower Door?

The clear plastic strip along the bottom of a shower door is usually a shower door bottom seal.

You might also see it called a shower door plastic seal or simply a plastic strip. Those names are common enough, but they do not describe one particular seal shape.

If the old strip has cracked, bent or come away from the glass, the name is not the most useful thing to focus on. Where it was fitted, and what it looks like from the end, will usually tell you more.

What Is the Plastic Strip at the Bottom of a Shower Door Called?

If the strip runs along the lower edge of the glass door, it is most likely a shower door bottom seal.

Many common versions push directly onto the glass. From the side, you will normally see a section that grips the glass, with a softer part extending below it.

Clear plastic seals are also used on the sides of shower doors and between adjoining glass panels, so appearance alone does not tell you much.

The position is the first clue.

A strip fitted along the bottom edge of the glass is usually there as a bottom seal rather than a side or joining seal.

What Does a Shower Door Plastic Seal Do?

A bottom seal has a fairly simple job.

One part keeps the seal attached to the glass. The softer section below sits close to the shower tray, bath edge or threshold and helps cover the space beneath the door.

So it is doing more than simply covering the edge of the glass.

The seal has to stay in place while the door opens and closes, and the flexible section still needs to work with the space below.

Why Do Shower Door Plastic Seals Look So Different?

This is often the confusing part when you start looking for a replacement.

Your old seal may have one thin flexible fin. Another product might have several. Some profiles have extra sections projecting from the side.

The problem is that shower door plastic seal covers quite a few different shapes.

Two seals can both be clear plastic and still be completely different profiles.

How the seal fits onto the glass, the glass thickness and the space underneath the door all matter when choosing the right shower door bottom seal.

That is why I would usually look at the side profile before relying on a front-facing product photo.

How Can I Identify the Plastic Seal on My Shower Door?

If you still have the old seal, keep it for now.

Look at it from the end and check three things:

• how it grips or attaches to the glass;
• where the flexible section comes from;
• whether anything else projects from the side.

That is often enough to rule out a lot of obviously different profiles.

An old seal does not have to be in perfect condition to be useful. It may be yellowed, bent or split, but the basic shape can still be visible.

I would not treat it as an exact millimetre-for-millimetre template, though. Flexible plastic can change shape after years of use.

What you are really looking for here is the basic profile.

Once you know it is a bottom seal, use that old side profile to narrow down the available shower door bottom seals. It is usually a better starting point than the product name alone.