Measure your tub alcove at the rim, then measure it again at the top of the tile. In a house that has been standing since before the war those two numbers are almost never the same, and that is the entire reason a tub door gets built rather than bought. Two panels riding a slim top track will close the opening across its full width. One fixed panel standing at the shower head end will hold the spray back and leave the rest of the alcove open. Both are built onto the tub you already own, which stays exactly where it is, along with the tile and the plumbing. The curtain and the rod are the only things that leave.
The first number is the width across the opening taken at the tub rim. The second is that same width taken at the top of the tile, and in an older bathroom it will be off from the first, sometimes by a quarter inch and sometimes by more. That is the number that moves, and it is why a door cut to the rim measurement alone binds at the top or leaves a wedge of daylight. The third is the height from the rim to the top of the tile, which sets how tall the panels can be and whether a track can fasten where it needs to. We also study the rim itself. A flat deck takes a bottom track easily. A rolled cast iron rim does not, and that changes the layout.
Taking the old unit out is part of the install, and it is worth knowing what sits under it. Old tracks are bedded in silicone and usually fastened into the tile or the tub deck, so there is a line of holes and a cured ridge of sealant to deal with. We remove the unit, clean the surfaces down, and set the new track so it covers that line where the geometry allows. Where it will not, we tell you at the measure rather than afterward. The new glass is tempered safety glass cut to your three numbers, edges ground and polished, hardware in polished chrome, brushed nickel, matte black or oil-rubbed bronze. Install is normally a single visit of a few hours.
The Radburn section came off a 1929 plan for a town built around the motor age, and the pre-war colonials it produced are a National Historic Landmark now. Planned also means repeated. Those houses started from a small set of drawings, so their bathrooms began life the same size as one another. Ninety-odd years later they are not. Tile has gone on over tile. Walls have been furred out for pipes. Floors have settled a little in one direction or another. The number you would get from a floor plan and the number we get with a tape are two different numbers, and only one of them will fit a piece of glass.
The same is true across the rest of Fair Lawn, where the Tudors, Cape Cods and split-levels on the borough's tree-lined streets have all had a hall bath retiled at least once. A sixty inch tub does not give you a sixty inch opening, and it never did. That is why we template the alcove instead of asking you for a size over the phone, and why the glass is cut to that template rather than pulled off a shelf in stock widths. Of everything we build, this is the job that asks the least of the house. The tub stays, the tile stays, the plumbing is never opened. What changes is that the room stops looking like the one everybody gave up on.
Bypass panels on a track and single fixed screens, fitted over tubs that were already there. Look at how the glass meets the tile along the top, because that line tells you whether a door was cut for the room.
More custom glass in Fair Lawn: frameless shower doors, sliding & bypass shower doors, semi-frameless shower doors, shower door replacement, custom mirrors, custom glass shower enclosures, steam shower enclosures, glass railings, commercial glass. See everything on our Fair Lawn, NJ page. Bathtub Shower Doors nearby: Paramus, Ridgewood, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Lodi, Midland Park, Englewood, Teaneck, Mahwah. Learn more about our shower doors & enclosures statewide, or read the How much do shower doors cost in NJ? and Frameless vs. semi-frameless: which is right? guides.
Because the tub and the opening are two different things. The tub is a manufactured object with a known length. The alcove around it is three walls of tile built by hand, retiled at least once in most older houses, and moved since. We routinely find a quarter inch of difference between the width at the rim and the width at the top of the tile in the same bathroom. Glass does not stretch, so the panels are cut to what is actually there. It takes ten minutes to measure and it costs nothing.
The old track is bedded in silicone and usually screwed into the tile or the tub deck, so underneath it there is a line of fastener holes and a hard ridge of old sealant. We take the unit off, scrape and clean the surfaces, and set the new track so it sits over that line wherever the geometry allows. Sometimes it does not line up exactly and a hole or two will show. We can see that coming at the measure and we will tell you then, not once the old door is in the driveway.
Come at it this way: we will come look, measure the panel and the opening, and quote you the glass. Often a single panel can be cut and set into the hardware you already have, which is the cheapest way through it. On an older unit the track and rollers may be worn or discontinued enough that new glass in old hardware is a short-term fix, and we will say so rather than do the job twice. Either way you get the options in writing and you choose.
It can, and that is worth settling at the measure rather than afterward. On a bypass unit only half the opening is clear at any one moment, which matters when you are leaning over the rim with a child in one arm. We set the panels so the half that opens is the half you actually stand at, and we check how far the track sits in from the rim, because the rim is what you lean across. If filling and bathing is most of what the tub does, a single fixed panel is often the better answer, since most of the opening stays clear all the time and there is nothing overhead to reach around.
That is the bathroom where it pays off most, because it is the one nobody squeegees. The coating does not stop hard water from leaving minerals on the glass. It makes the surface harder for them to bond to, so a wipe removes what would otherwise build into a film you have to work at. On a slider it helps around the track too, which is the part of a tub door people complain about five years in. It is an option rather than a requirement, and we will price it either way.
Less time than people expect. The measure takes a few minutes and there is no charge for it. Your glass is then cut, polished and tempered to those numbers, and the shop time on a tub door usually lands near a week and a half, sometimes two, depending on what else is in front of it. The removal and the install happen in one appointment: old unit out, surfaces cleaned, track set, panels hung and adjusted, joints sealed. The sealant needs time to set before the first shower, and the crew will tell you how long when they pack up.
Measure across the tub at the rim, note roughly how high the tile runs, and send both to Jessica with a photo from the doorway. Or skip the tape entirely and call (201) 460-1313. We will come out to Fair Lawn, take the real numbers ourselves, and price the door in writing.
Measure across the tub at the rim, note roughly how high the tile runs, and send both to Jessica with a photo from the doorway. Or skip the tape entirely and call (201) 460-1313. We will come out to Fair Lawn, take the real numbers ourselves, and price the door in writing.
Text Jessica directly and she'll get right back to you. To speed things up, include:
