New Construction Shower Doors In Madison Heights, MI
Glass is the last trade through a finished bathroom, which is why it lands on the closeout list instead of the build schedule. Here is where we fit into a Madison Heights build, what an opening has to be before anyone can measure it, and what to settle while the walls are still open.
Glass Lands At The End, So Decide It At The Start
Every trade ahead of the enclosure moves the target: framing, waterproofing, the pan, tile, the vanity. The enclosure itself cannot move at all, because it is cut to one opening and that opening does not exist until your tile setter is finished. Builders rarely get burned by the glass. They get burned by its position in the schedule, where a decision nobody made back at framing turns into the last thing standing between the job and a signed walk-through. Call us while the walls are open, even with nothing yet to measure, and that final item stays a small one.
Two of those early calls belong to your framer and both are cheap now. The first is solid blocking behind the tile wherever hinges or clips will sit, because a heavy panel pulls on that wall every time somebody opens it, and it pulls hardest on the frameless shower doors in Madison Heights buyers now expect in a finished bath. The second is the swing. Mark where the door opens on the plan, then walk that arc against the vanity, the toilet and the door into the room. Bathrooms here run small by design, so a swing that reads fine on paper is the detail most likely to fail standing up.
If the house has more than one bathroom, settle the enclosure type and the hardware finish once and carry both through every opening. Dimensions then change room to room and nothing else does, which is one decision for you and one standard for a buyer to read. Odd footprints do not break that rule. A corner, a neo-angle, a walk-in with a return panel or a plain alcove all get handled as custom glass shower enclosures cut to the shape you framed, so the spec holds even where the rooms stop matching.
What Has To Be True Before We Measure
A Finished Opening, Not A Rough One
The measure happens after tile, grout, waterproofing and the pan or curb are done and the walls are final. Fixtures can follow later. What cannot follow later is the surface the glass sits against, because every number comes off that face. A rough opening tells us the job exists. It does not give us a dimension.
Two Notes On The Framing Plan
Blocking at the hinge and clip lines, and the door swing marked and walked. Both are a pencil line while the walls are open and a real problem once the tile is set. In a compact plan the swing is the one that bites, because the arc has to clear a vanity and a toilet placed to fit a small room.
Selections Need A Due Date
Glass and hardware belong on the same selection sheet as the plumbing trim, and they need a date attached. On a spec house that date is yours. On a pre-sold house the buyer holds it, and the job moves at whatever pace that buyer moves. Name the person and name the day.
The Order That Keeps Glass Off The Punch List
In plain order: framing goes in with blocking at the hinge line and the swing marked, waterproofing and the pan follow, tile gets set, and only then does anyone take a measurement. The enclosure is fabricated to those numbers and our own crew comes back to set it, so it is two visits and never one. The gap in the middle is what builders underestimate, since a custom panel is built after the numbers exist. What you control is everything ahead of the measure, which is why the early call beats the urgent one.
After the measure, changes are the thing to watch. A curb built up, a second bed of thinset, a knee wall that shifted, a niche that moved. Any of those and the numbers we hold no longer describe the room, and we would rather take them again than force a panel into an opening that changed underneath it. Tell us about a wall out of plumb too. Cutting to a wall as built is routine, and where the lean would trouble a full frameless header, semi-frameless shower doors carry that movement more quietly. On the day of glass shower door installation we need the room clear, clean and ours, with no other trade in it.
- Blocking set behind the tile at every hinge and clip
- Door swing marked on the plan and walked in the room
- Curb finished, level and pitched in toward the drain
- Tile, grout and waterproofing complete before the measure
- Glass and hardware closed out alongside the plumbing trim
- One name on dimensions, one name on sign-off
Common questions.
When should we call you on a new build?
Twice. Once while the walls are still open, so blocking and the door swing get handled on the framing plan where they cost nothing, and again once the tile is finished, to book the measure. The first call is a conversation. The second is a free in-home measure of an opening that finally exists.
Can you fabricate from our plan set?
No, and it would not serve you if we did. A plan gives design intent. The panel has to fit the opening your tile setter actually left, including a wall that leans across its height or a curb that finished high. We take numbers off the built shower and cut to those.
The house has several bathrooms. Do they all get the same enclosure?
Set the type and the hardware finish once for the whole house and let dimensions be the only variable. Every opening still gets measured on its own, because no two are identical even under one roof, but you approve one standard instead of defending three at closeout. We carry a full range of finishes.
What happens if something changes after you measure?
Tell us and we take the numbers again. A curb that grew, an extra bed of thinset, a shifted knee wall or a relocated niche all change what we are cutting to. Re-measuring is a phone call. Forcing a panel into an opening that moved is how a bathroom picks up a gap somebody spots at the walk-through.
Who chooses the glass on a pre-sold house?
Whoever you decide, as long as it gets decided out loud. On a spec house the builder normally picks. On a pre-sold house the buyer often wants a say in glass and hardware, which is fine provided somebody owns the date that choice is due. Buyers are welcome at the Sterling Heights showroom.
Do you take care of the tile, the pan or the plumbing?
No. Those belong to other trades and every one of them runs ahead of us. Framing, waterproofing and demolition are the same story. We supply, fabricate and install the glass and its hardware and nothing else, and keeping that scope clean is part of why this item closes out cleanly.
Building In Madison Heights? Get Us In Early
One call while the walls are open sorts blocking and swing, and the in-home measure is free once your tile is done. Call (586) 315-8900, text (586) 800-9481, or email [email protected]. Showroom at 42624 Van Dyke Ave, Sterling Heights, Mon to Fri 9 to 5 and Sat 10 to 2.