Bathroom Remodel Shower Doors In Ferndale, MI
In plenty of Ferndale houses the tub does double duty as the shower, and it sits in the only bathroom there is. That one fact should shape the order you work in. Here is where the glass belongs in your remodel and what to settle before demolition starts.
One Bathroom Means The Order Matters
Remodeling the only bathroom in the house is a different project from remodeling one of three. Every day the room is apart is a day you live around it, so what is worth planning is not any single trade but the handoffs between them. Demolition, plumbing, waterproofing and tile are all other trades' work and every one runs ahead of us. Glass is last. Put the enclosure on the calendar when you book your tile, not once the tile is finished, and the end of the job stops having a gap in it.
Plan on two visits, not one. We measure the finished opening, the glass and hardware are fabricated to those numbers, and our own crew comes back to set it, seal it and leave it square and ready for daily use. No custom panel travels with the measure, because it is not a stock size. Knowing that in advance is most of the planning. Where an enclosure is already in the room, we take it out and haul it away.
Sometimes the glass is the entire project. Plenty of people here like their tile, and the room only looks tired because of what hangs in front of it, which is where shower door replacement does the work of a much larger job. Then the sequence gets short, because the wall we measure is the wall already standing. Either way it starts with the same free in-home measure, and you can see everything else we build for shower doors in Ferndale first.
What This Looks Like From Inside The House
The Wall Above The Tub Has Moved
In an older Ferndale bathroom the wall above the tub has usually shifted a little since the day it was tiled. That is ordinary. It just means the new enclosure gets cut to the wall as it stands today, not the shape the old one was built for.
What Comes Out, Comes With Us
Whatever is hanging in that opening now comes out on install day and leaves with us, frame, door and track together. Expect the caulk line and the screw holes it was covering to be visible the moment it is off. Anything hiding in the tile is a conversation for whoever handles your tile.
Decide It Before Demolition
The choices that stall a bathroom are the small ones. How the door opens. Hardware finish against the faucet already ordered. Clear, low-iron, frosted or rain glass. Make them while the room is still standing and nothing sits idle at the end waiting on you to pick.
The Tile Decides What The Glass Can Do
Before the tile is up there is nothing for us to take a number from, and once it is up it has settled what the glass can be. A curb that came in a shade high. A wall that leans out toward the ceiling. A niche sitting exactly where a hinge wants to go. None of that is unusual and all of it gets handled, but it gets handled by shaping glass to the room rather than by hoping. Your tile setter says when the grout and the pan are ready, and that call is what puts us on the calendar.
Two things about an older Ferndale bathroom tend to decide the door for you. First is room to move. With a vanity or a toilet crowding the opening there is nothing to swing into, and sliding shower doors keep the arc off your floor completely. Second is the tub itself, sitting in an alcove between three walls, which is its own kind of opening and takes bathtub shower doors instead of a standard door and panel. And where a house has settled until the corners are no longer square, framed shower doors are the forgiving answer, because the frame absorbs an opening that is not quite true.
- Tile and grout finished before the measure
- Curb or pan set, and the shower dry
- Finish picked against the faucet already ordered
- Glass chosen: clear, low-iron, frosted or rain
- Door swing checked against the vanity and the toilet
- Someone home for the measure and for the install
Common questions.
We only have one bathroom. How should we plan around that?
Treat the glass as two visits with fabrication in between, not one appointment at the end. Book the enclosure when you book the tile so the two do not end up back to back by accident. Then make your finish and glass choices early, because an open decision is what leaves a room on hold.
Our tile is staying. Do we still need a measure?
Yes. The old enclosure was cut for the wall as it stood when it went in, and an older wall has almost always moved since. We take numbers off what is standing today. That visit is also where you find out whether the opening will carry the style you had in mind.
The wall above our tub is not straight. Is that a problem?
Common around here, and workable. The wall gets measured as built and the glass is shaped to it. There is a point where a leaning wall reads as a tapering gap on a minimal frameless job, and if your opening is near it we tell you at the measure and show you the styles that carry it better.
Can we pick the glass and the hardware before the tile is done?
Yes, and it helps. Glass type and hardware finish do not depend on dimensions, so settle them early against the faucet and trim you already ordered. Come compare them side by side under real light at the showroom in Sterling Heights. Then the only thing outstanding after the measure is the glass.
What happens to the old enclosure and the old track?
It comes out on install day and leaves with us, all of it. You do not have to break it down, drag it to the curb, or find somewhere to store it. Do expect the wall behind it to look like a wall that had something screwed to it for a long time.
Do we need to be home for the measure and the install?
Somebody who can make a decision should be there for both. The measure is where choices get confirmed against the actual room and questions get answered face to face. On install day we need the bathroom clear, a clean path in from the door, and nobody else working in there.
Remodeling A Ferndale Bathroom? Start With The Order
Get the enclosure on the calendar when you book the tile. The in-home measure is free at your Ferndale home and the quote comes with no pressure. Call (586) 315-8900, text (586) 800-9481, or email [email protected]. Showroom at 42624 Van Dyke Ave, Sterling Heights, MI 48314, Mon to Fri 9 to 5, Sat 10 to 2.