Start by finding where the water actually leaves, not where it lands on the floor. Most shower door leaks trace back to a worn sweep or vertical seal, a door that has drifted out of adjustment, a silicone bead that has failed, or spray being aimed straight at a gap. Each has a different fix, and most of them are minor.
Dry the floor, run the shower the way you normally use it, and watch. A puddle on the hinge side usually means the vertical seal or the swing gap. A line of water along the bottom points at the sweep. Water outside the curb near the handle often means the strike seal has hardened and stopped making contact. And if the drip only shows up when the wand is aimed into one corner, nothing is broken at all; the spray is being pointed at a joint that was never meant to take direct water. Put a piece of tape on the spot before you touch anything, because the fix follows the location.
Sweeps, wipes and vertical seals are wear parts. Soap and hard water stiffen them, they take a set, and they stop sealing, and swapping them is the most common shower door repair there is. They slide out of a channel or off the glass edge, and the replacement has to match both the glass thickness and the profile, which is why a photo of the old one is worth more than a description. Hinges are a different story. A frameless door that has sagged or crept can often be brought back through the hinge adjustment with no new parts at all, and once it closes square the gap it was leaking through closes with it.
Silicone seals glass to tile and the bottom track to the curb, and it lives on the outside of the enclosure. When it discolors, lifts at an edge, or shows a dark line under the surface, water has already been getting behind it. Patching over old silicone does not hold. The bead has to be cut out completely, the joint scraped and dried, then a fresh bead run and tooled and left to cure before the shower is used. If the seals and the silicone are both sorted and water still escapes, the problem is geometry, and someone needs to look at how the panel sits in the opening.
On a frameless door, yes. The panel swings, so it needs clearance where it meets the fixed glass and the wall, and those gaps are designed in. Water is held by the pitch of the pan, the sweep at the bottom, and where the head is aimed, not by a tight metal frame. A gap only counts as a fault when water runs out of it.
They do, and it depends far more on water and cleaning habits than on years. Hard water deposits and harsh cleaners stiffen the vinyl until it no longer flexes against the glass. Wiping the seals down along with the glass, and rinsing them, buys real time. When one stops springing back after the door shuts, it is due.
A photo of the wet spot and a photo of the bottom of the door usually tell us whether this is a seal, a hinge, or a silicone job. Text them over with the make of the enclosure if you know it, or call the Lodi shop at (201) 460-1313.
