Many of Wayne's older houses still hide a tired framed shower door, one a builder chose before anybody who uses it moved in. Shower door replacement is the chance to make every one of its choices again: the kind of door, the glass, the metal, even the side it opens from. The opening gets templated by hand, the new glass is cut and edged to it at our Lodi shop, and nothing about the tile has to change.
A framed kit door makes its decisions before it reaches the house. It comes in a handful of widths with an adjustable jamb to take up the difference, and it arrives with its glass, its metal and its handle side already settled, which is why so many of them look alike from one bathroom to the next. A replacement undoes all of that. The door type is open again: a bypass on a tub can become a frameless slider or a hinged panel, and a framed stall door can become frameless glass with no frame at all. So is the glass, from clear to low-iron to frosted, and so is the metal, in polished chrome, brushed nickel, matte black or oil rubbed bronze.
The choices lean on each other, which is why they get made together rather than one at a time. Going from a slider to a hinged door buys an unbroken run of glass but asks for floor to swing into. Heavier frameless glass wants hinges and a wall able to carry it, where the old frame spread a lighter load. Clear glass shows the tile behind it, which is lovely with tile you like and less so with tile you are tolerating. Each option lands on the written quote as its own line, so you can see what a change of type costs against better glass in the same kind of door, and decide with the numbers in front of you.
Wayne is a big township, with the lakes at one end and the Preakness and Mountain View sections at the other, and a replacement here is planned so that nobody crosses it more often than the job needs. That puts the weight on the measure. Standing in your bathroom we settle the type of door, the glass, the metal and which way it opens, with the options laid side by side, and all of it goes into the itemized written quote that follows. The template taken that day is what the glass is cut and edged to at our Lodi shop, so a decision made in the room is one the glass already carries. Nothing is left open for a phone call later.
The change out is the day the household feels. The old unit comes off, its anchors come out with it, the new glass goes in, and everything that was removed leaves with our crew. After that the fresh silicone has to set up untouched, and that stretch without the shower is the part to plan around in a house with one shower: a gym, a friend's place, a night at a relative's. Fabrication between the measure and that day takes about one to two weeks, so the date can be fixed well ahead and the household's week arranged around it rather than the other way round. If the new door opens the other way from the old one, that is also the day towel hooks and bath mats find new places.
Openings in Wayne and nearby towns that held a framed kit door until it came out. The tile around each one stayed where it was, while the door type, the glass and the metal were chosen again for the room.
More custom glass in Wayne: frameless shower doors, sliding & bypass shower doors, semi-frameless shower doors, custom mirrors, custom glass shower enclosures. See everything on our Wayne, NJ page. Shower Door Replacement nearby: Paramus, Ridgewood, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Lodi, Midland Park, Englewood, Teaneck, Fair Lawn, Mahwah, Wyckoff, Tenafly, Franklin Lakes, Ramsey, Glen Rock, Montclair, Carlstadt, Paterson. 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.
Almost always the rollers. Each panel hangs from a pair of wheels that ride the top rail, and once the bearings wear or a wheel flats off, that corner drops and the panel scrapes. You usually hear it before you see it. On some framed units the rollers come out and new ones go in. A photo of the top rail, taken from inside the tub, is the useful thing to send.
Rarely. That glass was made for a frame: it is thinner than a frameless door wants, it has no holes where new hinges would land, and its edges were never finished to be seen, since the frame covered them. It cannot be adapted into something new. What can carry over is the opening itself, which the new glass is templated to.
Brushed nickel, and by a clear margin. Polished chrome is the opposite case, a mirror bright surface where every dried drop stands out. Matte black is its own story: it shows fingerprints and smudges more than spots, especially on the pull where hands land. In a house with hard water that difference is something you notice every week, so it is worth weighing next to the look you want rather than after it.
It can, and on a tub used mostly for baths it is worth a look. A fixed panel covers the end of the tub where the shower head sits and leaves the rest open, so there is no door to slide or swing at all. The trade is spray: more water finds the open end than a full enclosure lets out, so the panel is sized to where the head points, and a hand shower changes that answer. Both options can be laid out at the measure.
Less than you might think. A frameless door carries so little metal that it reads as clear space rather than as a style, which is why it sits comfortably against older tile. A framed door dates a room faster, because its metal belongs to a particular period. If you want a nod to the era, the hardware can carry it: polished chrome or oil rubbed bronze on the hinges and pull suits an older room without making the glass look new for the sake of it.
The township's building department is the one to ask, and it is worth asking if the door is part of a larger renovation with plumbing or walls moving. On our side, what goes in is tempered safety glass, which is what a wet location calls for, and our crew is licensed and insured. If the wider project does need a permit, the glass simply follows that schedule and goes in once the rest is signed off.
Text a photo of the kit door in your Wayne bathroom to (201) 507-5918 and tell us what you would change if nothing were off the table: the type, the glass, the metal, the side it opens from. Everything else is worked out when we come to measure, free of charge, and each change gets its own line on the written quote.
Text a photo of the kit door in your Wayne bathroom to (201) 507-5918 and tell us what you would change if nothing were off the table: the type, the glass, the metal, the side it opens from. Everything else is worked out when we come to measure, free of charge, and each change gets its own line on the written quote.
Text Jessica directly and she'll get right back to you. To speed things up, include:
