Between the order and the install sits fabrication, which is the reason to buy from a shop that owns one. Cutting, edging and machining all happen at the bench, and the panels go out for tempering after that, well before install day. Accurate Glass & Mirror runs that bench in Lodi and serves Woodcliff Lake from the Midland Park showroom, roughly 14 minutes out.
The drawing from your measure becomes a cut list. Each panel is cut to its own dimensions, including any taper needed for a wall that leans. Edges are ground and polished so the exposed perimeter is clear and eased. Every hole the hardware needs gets drilled, and every notch cut, while the panel is still ordinary annealed glass. Then the panels go out for tempering, where they are heated and cooled fast enough to lock the surface in compression, which is what makes the glass safe and what makes it final.
Hardware is pulled in the finish you chose and prepped to match those panels. Anything that comes back from tempering outside tolerance is remade rather than adjusted, because adjustment is not possible. By install day the parts on the truck belong to one bathroom and no other.
Nothing about a frameless enclosure is picked off a shelf, so the calendar has real steps in it: measure, drawing, cut list, fabrication, tempering, then scheduling the crew. A shop that fabricates in house controls most of that sequence, which is different from a seller who forwards your order and waits on a delivery. If something has to be remade, the same building does the remaking, and that control is the practical difference on a custom order.
We will tell you where the schedule stands when you order. What we will not do is hand you a date before the panels exist. A real date follows the fabrication run, not the sales conversation.
Our own crew brings the glass, sets the fixed panels first, hangs the door, adjusts the hinges so it holds wherever you leave it, then seals what needs sealing. Silicone has to cure before the shower goes back into service, and the crew tells you how long before they pack up. Nothing about that day is handed to a subcontractor. If you want them to look at a second bathroom while they are in the house, say so when you book.
Finish and glass are two separate orders, so a change of mind about plating is easier than a change of mind about geometry. What cannot change after fabrication is where the hinges and handle live, since those cutouts are permanent. Tell us early either way, because hardware gets pulled alongside the cut list.
Not immediately. Sealant needs to cure before it gets wet, and running the shower too early is the most common way a good install starts leaking. The crew will tell you how long to wait for the product they used, and it is worth respecting even when the joint looks dry to the touch.
The Lodi bench is where your panels get cut, edged and machined, and the Midland Park showroom, about 14 minutes from Woodcliff Lake and open by appointment, is where you see the finishes. Book the free measure on (201) 507-5918, and we will walk you through what happens between the order and install day.
