Important Tips To Keep In Mind Before Starting Your Bathroom Remodel!
DESIGN TIPS FROM INSTALLERS ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
Custom designed frameless shower enclosures are beautiful! But unfortunately, customers end up paying higher custom prices solely to cover up costly mistakes due to a lack of planning. The absolute best tip I can give you is to make a floor plan. Lay out where your door will be in relationship to everything in your bathroom; including the vanity, entrance door, toilet, towel bars or any other objects you may have in your bathroom. If you want a custom pivot door, is there enough room for the door to open before it hits the entrance door, toilet, or vanity and so on. Pull out your tape measure and physically check how much room you need for the swing of your door. Check where your shower head will be directed. If directed at the door or your hinges or under heavy pressure you will have more of a chance for water to escape the unit. (See FAQ” S. Will my shower leak?)
Whether you are performing the work BY YOURSELF or using a professional contractor, here are some time-honored tips, that will be immensely helpful. These pics, drawings, renderings, and comments come from shower door installers and manufacturers from across the country.
- Make sure you have the floor plan. How do you know if everything will fit?
- Understand your showerhead should not be aimed directly at the door! Otherwise, you may have water seeping through the hinges or where the door butts up against the wall or fixed panel or below the door.
- Make sure nailers are installed behind the tile. We always try to run our glass down the center of the threshold and directly behind that tile the nailers should be placed. To be safe use a 2×6 and there will be no issues. Make sure there are no pipes or electric wiring where we will be drilling that can be damaged by the drill. It could be shocking to our installer and expensive for you to fix.
- Glass tiles! Be careful not to place glass tiles where we may need to drill into them. There is a chance they might break while we are drilling, or if not, later after the door has been opened and closed several times creating stress on the very fragile tiles. Typically, on a 72” high door our hinges are located 8” from the top and bottom of the door. Any hardware on the other wall would generally be at the same height. Check with Just Glass to find out the exact hinge locations.
- Overhangs on seats and rises also can create more difficulties and can be costlier. Go over these situations with your contractor.
- Accented tiles, raised tiles or listellos, when they are placed around a door on the hinge or strike side, they will cause a problem. They will either need to be ground down or notched out.
- Something to remember. Fabricators/Temperers all have different minimum sizes they can temper glass in their ovens. I would use 6” as my minimum size just to be on the safe size.
Now there are many more issues that can occur while building your dream frameless custom shower. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact, Just Glass & Mirror. At sales@justglassandmirror.com
Frequently Asked Questions
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Do you have a contractor’s license and are you insured?
Yes, our license number is 13Vh089765000. Our insurance carriers are NJ Manufacturers for our workers compensation coverage. Our liability Carrier is Selective Insurance Company
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Do you have a warranty?
Yes, Just Glass and Mirror offers a one-year limited warranty from the date of installation for defects in material or workmanship. Additionally, we offer a lifetime warranty on the hinges, the only part of your unit that moves. “Opens and closes.” We do not even attempt to repair a hinge if it is not working. We simply come out and replace it. Now having said that we may have replaced 3 or four over the last twenty years. Your warranty will be in your sales package
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How long will it take before my shower is installed?
Your custom shower should arrive within 15 business days of the final measure and deposit. We do not order a unit without receiving a 50% check deposit, made out to Just Glass and Mirror. Upon receipt of your unit, we check it out and call to schedule the installation. The installation in your home normally takes about 75minutes per panel.
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Will my frameless shower door leak?
This is a long response, but I believe you should read it in its entirety, as this is the most common question we are asked!
Your frameless shower door has no framing or gasket on either side or the bottom of the door, in these areas we apply clear vinyl seals. They are placed in those spots to help reduce the amount of water that can escape the unit around the perimeter of the door. Between the door and panel, door and wall there is a 3/16 gap. This gap allows the door to open and close properly. On the bottom of the door is attached a seal deflector with a 45-degree lip that allows the water to flow back into the shower.
Bottom Sweep Fixed Panel Door Stop Hinged Side Seal
Now the remainder of the glass is siliconed to the wall, the curb base, and the adjacent panels. If water was to escape from any of this area, then you have a leak. Please contact us immediately, so we can dispatch an installer to your home to reseal that area. This is a quite easy fix.
Water that escapes from either side of the door or under the bottom seal, is not considered a leak. We find that happening when your curb base is pitched improperly towards the outside of the shower, or your shower is so small that there becomes a buildup of water on the curb itself. Water takes the path of least resistance, so as the pressure from more water landing on the curb it will start to release outside from under the bottom sweep. In these cases, you may need to take some precautions to avoid this seepage. Most times, just changing the direction of the shower head is the answer. You might also position your body in front of the door so minimal amounts of water will reach the curb base.
These seals are removable for cleaning and easily slide right back into place. The bottom sweep should make a light swishing noise upon opening and closing. If it drags and is difficult to open just raise it a hair. If the seal is not at least touching the curb slightly push it downward. *** Additionally, spraying a handheld directly at these areas is not a valid test to decide if your unit is leaking. Especially, when cleaning in those areas and certainly not to prove a point that water is escaping.
So, in fact, water may escape from your door area if you do not follow the above advice. If you had chosen a framed shower with the gasket and hardware it would be more difficult for the water to escape, but certainly, under pressure, it would. Frameless units are designed to look awesome and be functional but are not fish tanks.
Which of the objects has not been designed to contain water?
Jokes anyone?
Admission to our local aquarium only costs 1 penny, if you are camping or are a dolphin.
So, to all in tents and porpoises it is free!
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Will I need a header?
As the industry has grown and the desire has increased for less hardware, the manufacturers were motivated to produce stronger hardware that could keep these Frameless shower doors safe and looking beautiful at the same time. There are several diverse ways we can install the Seamless shower without the need for a header, but unfortunately in some cases where the panel may be too large to be unsupported, we must go back to the header. **
Again, the importance of the floor plan, before tearing apart your bathroom**
Glass Shower Maintenance Tips
Adding glass shower screens or shower doors to your bathroom is a wonderful way to add style and beauty to the room, but when the glass is dirty or covered in soap scum, even the most elegant shower can be an eyesore. While there are a number of products that are great for cleaning glass, tiles, and the metal accessories found in most showers, we thought it would be nice to help our customers keep their showers clean by offering some tips and tricks that we’ve picked up on shower maintenance over the years.
Using Common Household Products
Cleaning Your Shower With Vinegar:
Did you know that while some cleaning products can kill bacteria and remove soap scum from your shower, not all of them will get rid of mold? Cleaning with distilled white vinegar is a great way to ensure your shower is left mold free. Using a rag, just wipe down the shower glass, door, and hardware with undiluted white vinegar to eradicate mold and mildew.
Cleaning Shower Glass With Vinegar:
White vinegar also works wonders removing scum from the glass walls and shower doors. If the glass is dry, wet it using regular water and then take a small squeegee and clear the water from the glass. After that, use a spray bottle with undiluted white vinegar and cover the area you wish to clean. Now just spray it clean with regular water to remove hard water deposits and minimize their chance to stain the glass.
Removing Tough Stains With Baking Soda:
Use baking soda with a little tap water to make a “runny paste” and apply it on a cleaning cloth or sponge. Use this concoction along with some elbow grease to remove tough hard water stains and other grime including mildew buildups on faucets and on tile.
In addition to products you can usually find lying around the home, there are also some interesting commercial products available that work well… even if they weren’t intended to clean a shower:
Using “Other” Products
Pre-Cleaning With Bounce Fabric Softener:
Believe it or not, Bounce Brand, and other fabric softener can also remove soft soap scum build-up and even loosen other stains and build up that would otherwise be hard to remove. Take a sheet of fabric softener to the dry glass and scrub. This will loosen tough buildup and remove the lighter stains. Then take some tap water and your trusty squeegee or even the vinegar solution explained above.