The tub is rarely the problem in these houses. The tile around it is. Original field tile with a bullnose cap partway up the wall, a ceramic soap dish standing proud of the surface, an alcove that reads one width at the rim and another near the ceiling. Glass still goes over that tub. It simply has to be cut for the wall you actually have, as bypass sliders or as one fixed screen.
Measure a tub alcove in an older Tenafly bath and you are really measuring the wall above it. A ceramic soap dish set into the field stands out past the tile face. A bullnose cap runs across where the tile stops. Casing on a window inside the alcove sits proud of everything around it. Each of those decides where a track or a wall channel can land, whether a panel needs a notch, and how high the run can go. These alcoves also tend to narrow toward the top, so glass gets cut to the tightest reading rather than the friendliest one.
From there it comes down to two honest choices. Bypass panels ride a track spanning the tub deck, which keeps the whole assembly inside the footprint of the tub with nothing to swing. A single fixed screen leaves the other end open, which is easier to lean over when you are bathing a child or filling the tub. Wall conditions steer that decision as often as taste does, since a screen needs one solid anchor wall while a slider has to run past every fitting on both. The glass is tempered, the hardware comes in the finish you choose, and installation is normally one visit.
In a house with plaster and lath behind the tile, the least disruptive bathroom upgrade is the one that never opens a wall. Glass over an existing tub is exactly that. Our part is the glass, plus the hardware holding it up. We do not demolish, we do not touch plumbing, and we do not set tile, so nothing gets discovered halfway through that turns a Saturday into a month of work. The tub stays. The tile stays. What changes is the thing you look at and put your hand on every single day.
A dated hall bath reads better the moment the vinyl comes down, and clear tempered glass puts the tile you already own on display rather than hiding it behind a liner. Standard glass carries a faint green cast along its edges, and low-iron ultra-clear glass drops that if you want the tile colors true. A protective coating earns its place on a bath used daily, since it keeps minerals from settling into the surface. The old track and frame come off, the wall gets cleaned up where the fasteners were, and the new glass goes on.
Tub baths near Tenafly and across the Northern Valley, some with sliding panels and some with a single screen. Look at where the track lands against old tile, and how the panels clear the fittings on the wall.
More custom glass in Tenafly: 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 Tenafly, NJ page. Bathtub Shower Doors nearby: Paramus, Ridgewood, Hackensack, Fort Lee, Lodi, Midland Park, Englewood, Teaneck, Fair Lawn, Mahwah, Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, Ramsey. 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.
Usually not. The track runs along the top of the tub deck and the vertical channels run up the end walls, so a soap dish set in the middle of the back wall is often clear of all of it. What causes trouble is a fitting close to an end wall where a channel needs to sit flat. We measure its position and projection at the visit, and if it is in the way we say so before ordering.
By cutting to the smaller number and letting the channel take up the rest. Vertical wall channels have some depth to them, which is enough to swallow a modest taper without the glass ever binding. When the difference is larger, the panel gets scribed to the wall line instead. Either way we take the reading at several heights first, because guessing on this is what leaves a wedge of daylight at one corner.
There is no showroom in Tenafly. The nearest is Lodi, roughly sixteen minutes out at 80 Industrial Rd, where you can walk in weekdays between nine and five, or Saturdays until four, with no appointment needed. Enclosure displays and a wall of glass and finish samples are on the floor, which is the quickest way to compare hardware. Our Midland Park location on Greenwood Ave runs on appointments.
Slide one panel to the far end and the overlap is exposed, then do the same in the other direction. That strip is where hard water hides, so it is worth including in the routine rather than saving for a deep clean. Keep the track clear of grit with a rag or a soft brush, since debris in a track is what makes rollers drag and eventually wears them out.
One wall is enough when it is solid. A screen is carried by a vertical channel or clamps anchored into that wall, and on a taller panel a slim brace runs back to the wall or up to the ceiling to steady the free edge. We check what is behind the tile before specifying any of it. If the anchor wall is hollow at the point we need, the layout changes rather than the fasteners.
Ours is the glass at the end of that job. Pulling a tub, moving the drain, waterproofing and tiling a new pan is contractor work, and we do not take it on. Once your contractor has the new shower finished and cured, we come template the opening and fabricate the enclosure for it. Plenty of people do the tub door now and the enclosure years later, which is a perfectly sensible order.
Those two readings decide whether sliders or a single screen suits the room, so send them to (201) 460-1313 with a picture of the back wall and Jessica will come straight back to you. The measure that settles the layout is free, and it happens in your own bathroom rather than over the phone.
Those two readings decide whether sliders or a single screen suits the room, so send them to (201) 460-1313 with a picture of the back wall and Jessica will come straight back to you. The measure that settles the layout is free, and it happens in your own bathroom rather than over the phone.
Text Jessica directly and she'll get right back to you. To speed things up, include:
