Installing a glass shower door has no flat price at a shop that measures, fabricates and hangs its own glass. At Accurate Glass & Mirror, a Bergen County NJ glass shop, installation is one line of a firm, itemized written quote issued after the free in-home measure, and that line moves with removal of the old unit, the wall behind the tile, the base, access and plumb.
The installation line on a shower door quote pays for more than lifting glass onto hinges. It covers taking out and hauling away the old unit, covering the floor and the vanity, drilling through tile into studs or blocking, setting and shimming each panel until it reads plumb, fitting the hinges, handle, sweeps and seals, running silicone at the outside joints, and leaving that bead to cure before anyone showers. The frameless installation answer walks through the day in order.
All of that work happens in the bathroom, not at the bench. The glass is cut and edged in the Lodi shop and then tempered, and the National Glass Association's heat-treated glass guidance puts every cut, hole and notch before tempering, so nothing can be altered afterward. So the installation line is the price of fitting a finished panel to a room that is rarely square, done by the shop's own crew rather than a subcontractor.
An old framed unit is the first variable. Its frame is screwed and siliconed to the tile, so getting it out, and cleaning up the screw holes and the old bead, is its own stretch of the day; what removal can do to the tile is covered in the installation timing answer. Behind the tile, frameless hinges need studs or solid blocking, and where the measure finds neither at a hinge point, the anchoring plan changes and the line changes with it.
The base comes next. A tub door lands on the tub deck and its bottom edge has to clear the tub's rolled rim, while a curb door stands on a cap that slopes inward to shed water, so the panel is shimmed to a surface that is not level by design. A header, a return panel or a neo-angle layout adds pieces to carry, plumb and fasten, and each added piece brings its own clamps and seal.
Access and plumb finish the list. A tempered panel moves through the house as one rigid piece, so a second-floor bathroom, a narrow stair turn or a condo elevator can call for more hands on the carry. Walls that lean or bow take longer to shim and set, because a frameless door has no frame to hide the difference.
A glass-only price answers what the panel costs to make. An installed price answers what it costs to have that panel standing, sealed and swinging true in one particular bathroom. Glass bought somewhere else raises a separate question about whether its thickness and holes suit your opening, so ask before you buy. Price ranges by enclosure type sit in the shower door cost guide, and the custom shower door cost answer breaks a quote into its four lines.
The firm number comes from the free in-home measure, which records the anchor points, the old unit and the way in; the measure itself is explained in the custom glass measuring answer. A firm, itemized written quote follows with installation on its own line. A photo texted to Jessica gets a fast quote to start the conversation, and the firm figure follows the measure, since a picture shows the layout but not the plumb readings or the framing behind the tile.
Yes. A steam enclosure is sealed with a transom panel across the top, so installation adds a panel set up near the ceiling and a seal line that closes the enclosure on every side. The ceiling has to be read as carefully as the walls at the measure, and every added joint is more silicone to run and leave to cure before the steam is turned on.
Yes, because the work is different. A framed or semi-frameless door is carried by metal, so the day goes into cutting the channel or jambs to length, setting them to the wall and the curb or tub deck, and seating the glass in them. The channel takes up a wall that leans, so plumb matters less and the metal work matters more. The measure still sets the number.
The free in-home measure reads your opening, the wall behind it and the way in, and the firm, itemized written quote that follows puts installation on its own line. Call the Lodi shop at (201) 460-1313, or walk in Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and Saturday 9 to 4.
