A correctly measured custom enclosure should not put water on the floor. When one does, the glass is rarely the problem. Water leaves at the curb, where a threshold pitched outward or a pan poured flat sends it the wrong way. Accurate Glass & Mirror measures the opening free of charge before anything is cut, which is where that shows up.
A shower enclosure is water resistant, not watertight, and it was never designed to be watertight. Its job is to keep spray inside and let whatever runs down the glass return to the pan. The pan and the curb do the actual waterproofing, so when a wet spot appears the first thing to test is the slope.
Set a small level on top of the curb, front to back. It should tip toward the drain, even slightly. A curb floated flat, or worse, tipped outward, carries every drop that lands on it straight over the edge regardless of what door sits on top of it. Test the pan the same way. A floor that drains toward the opening is a plumbing problem, and no glass on earth solves it.
The rule surprises people. Silicone goes on the outside of the enclosure and the inside is left open. Water that works behind a panel or into a channel has to have a path back into the shower. Seal both faces and you have built a reservoir that eventually finds an exit through the wall side instead.
Steam enclosures are the exception, since those are sealed continuously by design and vented deliberately. On an ordinary custom shower door, a bead run all the way around both faces can be the entire cause of a leak that everyone is blaming on the glass. Any weep openings the design includes follow the same logic and need to stay clear rather than getting packed during a deep cleaning.
Custom fabrication removes the most common cause, which is a door fighting an opening it does not match. Panels cut to a measured opening land tight to the tile, the sweep meets the curb along its whole length, and no filler strip is bridging a gap. That is most of the battle won before the door is hung.
It does not remove the second cause, which is the building itself. An out of level pan, tile that runs uphill toward the drain, and hairline grout cracks at the curb corners all put water on a floor and all look exactly like a leaking door from the doorway. Lay a dry towel outside, run the shower, and note where the wet edge starts.
Yes, slightly. A curb pitched back toward the drain sends whatever lands on it home instead of over the front. Tile setters know this, but curbs get floated flat often enough that it is worth checking with a level before new glass goes on top of one. Correcting it later means touching finished tile.
No. The sweep under the door does that work, and it has to stay free to flex and to let water drain back inside. Caulking a sweep to the curb traps water above it and shortens the life of the vinyl. Sealant belongs at the panel edges where glass meets tile, on the outside face.
The door, the curb and the pan all put water on the same square of floor, and they are three different jobs. A free residential measure sorts out which one you have. Accurate Glass & Mirror has been reading Bergen County bathrooms for over forty years, with its own crew on every install.
