Some shower doors fail. Others were wrong from the day they went in. A stock unit shimmed into an opening it did not match, a hinged door in a room that never had clearance for it, a bottom track set into tile that slopes the wrong way. Both show up in these houses, because they have been updated in pieces over the years and the glass often came last and cheapest. Either way the fix is the same. We measure the opening exactly as it stands today, the Lodi shop cuts glass to those readings, and the new panels go into the tile that is already on your wall.
A replacement is a measuring job with one complication: something is already in the opening, and the old frame is hiding whatever sits behind it. So the first visit is mostly looking. We check whether the jamb walls are solid where new anchors have to go, how far the tile edge runs and whether it is finished or raw under the frame, whether the curb or tub deck is level along its length, and how much the opening leans from bottom to top. We also look at what the old unit was screwed into, because a previous installer's shortcut is usually still in place. Those five or six answers decide whether this is a straight swap or a slightly longer conversation.
Then it is your call what goes back in. The old style does not dictate the new one. A framed slider opening can usually take a frameless or semi-frameless enclosure, and a hinged door can become a bypass if the room never had the clearance for a swing in the first place. On install day the old unit comes out, the silicone bead gets cut and scraped back to clean tile, anchor holes are filled and sealed, and the new glass goes in. No wall gets opened, no tile comes off, and the shower is generally back in service once the sealant has cured overnight.
Here is what we run into around Fair Lawn. A pre-war colonial in Radburn, a Tudor a few streets off Fair Lawn Avenue, a cape over toward Warren Point: the bathroom is original or close to it, the tile was set to walls that have shifted since the 1930s, and at some point somebody bought a shower door in a box. Boxed doors come in fixed sizes with a small adjustment range, and when the opening falls outside that range the installer shims it, packs the gap with sealant and calls it finished. That is the door that leaks at one corner, drags on the track, and looks slightly crooked in every photo of the room.
Custom glass ends that. We cut the panel to the opening as it measures today, lean included, so the seal lands flat and the door hangs true instead of being forced into position. If the tile edge under the old frame turns out to be raw, we plan the new glass and hardware to cover it rather than leaving you to patch in a strip of tile. And if the room genuinely cannot take the style that is in there now, we say so and lay out what does work instead. The bathrooms in these older Fair Lawn houses are small and specific. That is an argument for measured glass, not against it.
Tired framed units out, new custom glass into the same tile. Click through to see the openings our crew was working with.
More custom glass in Fair Lawn: frameless shower doors, sliding & bypass shower doors, semi-frameless shower doors, custom mirrors, custom glass shower enclosures, steam shower enclosures, bathtub shower doors, glass railings, commercial glass. See everything on our Fair Lawn, NJ page. Shower Door Replacement nearby: Paramus, Ridgewood, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Lodi, Midland Park, Englewood, Teaneck, Mahwah. Learn more about our shower door replacement statewide, or read the How much do shower doors cost in NJ? and How to clean & maintain glass shower doors guides.
Yes, and it is a common one. A door shimmed into an opening it did not match will keep leaking at the same corner no matter how much sealant goes into it, because the gap is geometric rather than a maintenance problem. Custom glass fixes it by being cut to the actual opening. We measure what is there, note where it runs out of plumb, and build the panel to match those numbers. The old unit comes out and the new one sits flat, with nothing packed in behind it to hold it square.
Start by having us come and look. Plenty of what gets called a repair turns out to be one part: a sweep, a seal, a roller set, a handle. We can measure that and quote the replacement hardware. When the glass itself is cracked, delaminated along an edge, or hazed all the way into the surface, no part solves it and new glass is the honest answer. We do not charge to come and look either way, and nobody is going to push you toward a full enclosure the bathroom does not need.
They get handled as part of the install, not left for you. Old sealant is cut and scraped back until the tile is clean, which matters because new silicone will not bond over old. Anchor holes get filled and sealed so no water travels behind the tile. Where the new hardware does not land on the same footprint as the old, we plan for it at the measure so the finish work is not being improvised on the day. When it is done there should be no evidence of the previous door.
No. The whole point of a glass swap is that the tile, the pan and the grout stay exactly where they are. We work to the opening as it exists, which is why the template matters even more here than on a new build. Original tile in a house of that age is often set thinner and tighter than modern work, so we are careful about where anchors land and reuse the existing hardware footprint where that makes sense. If anything looks fragile, we will say so before we start.
Not long. The measure is one visit of maybe half an hour. Fabrication is the wait, and for a straightforward replacement it tends to run somewhere around a week and a half, longer if the glass or the hardware is unusual. Removal and install happen in the same appointment, so the old door only comes out on the day the new one goes in. After that the sealant has to cure before the shower runs again, which normally means leaving it overnight.
The same things that price any glass job, plus one. Size and glass thickness set the base. The style you move to matters, since a frameless panel carries more glass and more hardware than a semi-frameless one. Finish choice moves it a little. The extra factor is what the old unit left behind: a raw tile edge or a bad anchor situation adds work to the day. It comes back written out line by line after the measure, so the pieces stay visible.
A picture of the current enclosure and a rough width is usually enough for Jessica to tell you what your options are. When you want it priced properly, the measure at your Fair Lawn address costs nothing and the quote comes back itemized. Call or text (201) 460-1313.
A picture of the current enclosure and a rough width is usually enough for Jessica to tell you what your options are. When you want it priced properly, the measure at your Fair Lawn address costs nothing and the quote comes back itemized. Call or text (201) 460-1313.
Text Jessica directly and she'll get right back to you. To speed things up, include:
