How do I fit a shower riser rail, and what if the bracket keeps slipping?
Setting the height so the tallest user clears the head, drilling into tile without cracking it, and fixing a slipping handset bracket properly.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 1 hr
- Read
- 4 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Set the rail so the head at the top of its travel clears the tallest user's head, then work down — the rail's fixed bracket centres decide where the holes go. Drill through tile with the hammer off using a tile bit, plug into the wall behind, and bed the brackets in a smear of silicone. A slipping handset bracket is nearly always a worn clamp insert, sold as a spare.
Do this first
A riser rail looks like two brackets and a pole and it goes wrong in two specific ways: fitted at a height that suits nobody, and fixed into tile with the wrong drilling technique so a tile cracks and the whole thing has to move. Both are decided before the drill comes out.
Safety
What you'll need
- A pipe and cable detector
- A tile or diamond drill bit
- A drill with the hammer action switchable off
- A spirit level
- Wall plugs suitable for what is behind the tile
- Masking tape
- Sanitary silicone
Step by step
- Decide the height from the tallest user, not from the tile courses.Have the tallest regular user stand in the shower. The head, at the very top of the rail's travel, has to be above their head with the spray angled down. Work from there: the top bracket goes at a height that puts the rail's top there, and the bottom bracket follows at the rail's fixed centres. Do not set the height to line up with a grout line at the cost of the person using it.
- Check the rail's bracket centres before marking anything.The distance between the two brackets is fixed by the rail. Measure it, then work out where both holes land. Sometimes moving the whole assembly up or down 20mm puts both fixings in the middle of tiles rather than one on a grout line, and that is worth doing.
- Detect before you mark.Run a detector over the whole area in both directions. The shower valve's own supplies rise inside this wall, and so does the outlet to a fixed head if there is one. Mark anything found and move the rail rather than the pipe.
- Never put a load-bearing fixing in a grout line.Grout is weaker than tile and the plug has nothing consistent to bear on. It also splits the grout and lets water into the adhesive bed. Fixings go through the body of the tile.
- Drill the tile with the hammer off.Stick masking tape over the mark so the bit cannot skate. Start with a tile or diamond bit at slow speed, at right angles to the wall, with light pressure and no hammer. Let the bit cut. Keep it cool with a little water if it is a hard porcelain tile. Stop as soon as you are through the tile.
- Switch to masonry mode only past the tile.Once the tile is drilled through, change to a masonry bit of the right diameter for your plug and turn hammer action on only if the wall behind is masonry. On plasterboard, do not use hammer at all and use a fixing appropriate for board.
- Bed the brackets in silicone as you fix them.A smear of sanitary silicone in the hole and on the back of the bracket before you screw it home stops water tracking down the fixing into the wall. This matters more in a shower than anywhere else in the house.
- Fix the top bracket, level, then the bottom.Fit the top bracket, offer the rail up, use a level on the rail itself, and mark the bottom fixing from the rail in position rather than from a measurement. Rails are unforgiving of a bracket a few millimetres off.
- Fix a slipping handset clamp at the clamp, not the rail.A handset holder that slides down under the weight of the hose has a worn plastic insert or a slackened clamp screw. Many have a small grub screw or a rotating collar that tightens the clamp — try that first. If the insert is worn smooth, the clamp assembly is a cheap spare part and is far more effective than tightening harder.
If it doesn't work
The handset holder slides down the rail on its own
Cause: Worn clamp insert or a slack clamp screw — Fix: Tighten the clamp collar or grub screw. If it still slips, replace the clamp assembly — it is a standard spare and the rail itself is fine.
The holder is tight but will not slide when you want it to
Cause: Scale build-up on the rail — Fix: Slide the clamp off the end, descale the rail with a citric acid solution and a cloth, and refit. Do not lubricate a friction clamp with oil.
A tile cracked while drilling
Cause: Hammer action on, or too much pressure, or the bit skated before biting — Fix: The tile will need replacing. Next hole: tape, slow speed, no hammer, no pressure, and start the hole with the drill barely turning.
The bottom bracket does not line up with a tile centre
Cause: Fixed rail bracket centres versus the tile module — Fix: Move the whole rail up or down slightly until both fixings land in tile. Never compromise by putting one in the grout.
Water is running down the wall behind the rail
Cause: Fixings not bedded, so water tracks down the screw into the plug hole — Fix: Take the bracket off, silicone the hole and the bracket back, and refit. In a shower this is not optional.