Help with a shower door

Our shower was installed by the builder. The trim at the bottom of the door (which holds the "skirt" that deflects the water away) is shaped like a trough, and retains water. When I open the door the water will spill all over the place. I've started running my finger through it at the end to move the water out before I open the door, but its' also a breeding ground for scum, which spills all over, giving me more stuff to clean up.

Here's a cross-section picture of the trim (it was coming off, so I finally decided to take it off, clean i up and re-install). The flat side (on the left) attaches to the bottom of the door. Because of that "skirt" I cannot flip is upside down (which would make more sense to me). Why on earth would they design a shower door that retains water?

Was it sloped? It would make sense if it was on an angle and allowed water to drain out of one end... but if not, looks like a bad design. Or was put in upside-down.

When I first removed it the plastic "skirt" at the bottom had slid out, and just looking at the metal part I thought "Hey, they put it in upside down!"

Then I tried to figure out how to put it on "upside down" while still retaining the plastic part, and realized it was in the right way. Just a bad design.

I thought about sloping it, as well. It was all caulked-up at one end (where the door opens), so that there was nowhere for the water to go; at the other end (the hinge side) it was left open-ended. Maybe it was meant to be sloped a bit, but that would collect the water in that corner. Outside the shower, near that corner, I've got some water damage on the wall, just above the trim. It's possible that they didn't properly caulk it at the bottom, on the inside of the shower, or it could be that there is a small leak above, where the enclosure connects to the wall -- and then the water runs down the inside of the wall and gathers at the bottom, causing damage.

I'm just not sure, but now that I've started on it, I'm going to caulk the hell out of it, everywhere. Just saw a razor-thin gap in the caulking in one of the shower corners -- wasn't there in the summer, but maybe with the change in weather it's opened up. We've had water damage in the kitchen ceiling below the ensuite. Builder's been in a few times to re-caulk the shower, bottom of the tub, fixed some small gaps in the grout in the tub surround, fixed the ceiling -- but I don't think they ever got all of it. And now they won't even return my calls.

Uh-oh. Another problem. I thought I'd be able to take the door off so I could lay it flat to "glue" back the trim. Took out the screw/hinge at the top, expecting the door to just come out, and it won't. I suspect the bottom hinge is the same -- a screw -- but I don't have room to get under it. It's a phillips. I suppose I could take a phillips bit and grab it with plyers. Crap.

Another quick question. Where the shower handle is located, there is a kind of wall-plate -- they call it an escutcheon. Between the escutcheon and the actual handle there is a kind of sleeve that fits inside the cutout in the escutcheon. There is caulking between the escutcheon and the wall, but not between the sleeve and the escutcheon -- and that sleeve moves quite freely in and out.

I was looking at some YouTube videos for shower installation, and the sleeve they had was actually screwed into the escutcheon opening, and there was a small plastic washer as well, to prevent water from entering.

I'm wondering if I should put a little bead of silicone around that sleeve where it fits into the opening.

You can't turn it upside down but it seems to me that the "trough" should be facing out since your "squeegee" is offset and should be on the inside.

Interesting. Let me go check upstairs how that would work.

Can't. Hard to explain, but the vertical trim has a curve on the outside, so the bottom trim cannot go right up against it. That pushes it at the far end, and it touches the hinge. If I try to open the door it will then push the trim against the hinge.

Bah! I'm done. Covered in silicone and the palms of my hands feel warm -- does silicone do that or was that from rubbing my hands together trying to get it off

I've got a bit of clean up waiting for me tonight, when it sets a bit.