New Construction Shower Doors In Southfield, MI
Glass is one of the last trades through the door and the only one cut to the room after the room exists. Here is when to bring us in, what the opening has to be ready for, and which calls belong on the schedule long before anyone looks at a panel.
Glass Goes In Last And Gets Decided First
A shower enclosure is the rare item on a new build that cannot be ordered from a plan. Every panel is cut to the opening that exists after the tile setter is finished, so the purchase lands near the end of the job while the decisions that make it possible land near the beginning. Framing, blocking and door swing get settled months before the glass is measured, and when they are settled wrong, the glass is what absorbs it.
That gap is what this page is about. The frameless shower doors and custom glass shower enclosures pages cover what we build. This one covers when your build needs us. There is no single Southfield house type, and new work here tends to show up as one home on a lot, an addition, or a bath taken back to the studs inside an older ranch, which means the schedule looks different on every job.
Everything is measured, fabricated and installed by one family crew working out of the Sterling Heights showroom, roughly 13 miles from Southfield. The people who take the numbers are the people who come back to set the panels, so there is no outside glass shop in the middle to lose a dimension. The glass shower door installation page walks through the set itself, and everything we build for Southfield is collected on the city page.
What To Lock In, And When To Lock It
Blocking Before The Board
Hinges, clips and a header need something solid behind the tile. Once the wall is closed and finished, adding backing means opening finished work back up. Tell us the configuration while the studs are still open and the blocking goes in where the hardware will actually land, instead of where a standard detail guesses it will.
One Spec Across Every Bath
A house reads as one house when the glass and the metal repeat from bathroom to bathroom. Settle glass type and hardware finish once, from a full range of finishes, then let each opening be measured on its own terms. Same spec, different numbers, because no two showers in a house finish out identical.
Measure After Tile, Not Before
The dimensions that matter come off finished tile, a built curb and cured grout. A measure taken off backer board is a guess about thickness, lean and slope, and a guess in tempered glass is not something anyone trims later. Panels are cut once, so the measure waits for the surfaces the glass will sit against.
The Order Of Operations On A Build
Framing and blocking come first. Then the plumber and the tile setter own the pan, the waterproofing and the tile, which is their trade and none of it is work we touch. Once the grout is cured and the curb is finished, the opening is real and it can be measured. Fabrication follows the measure, and the panels go in near the end of the punch list, after the finished floor is down and protected.
What goes wrong is almost always something that happened earlier. A wall that leans. A curb that picked up a slope. A niche or a bench sitting exactly where a clip has to land. A door hand chosen after the tile layout was set. A vanity that eats the swing. On paper each of those is a short conversation. After tile, each one is a different enclosure. When a build wants some metal in the look without a full frame, the semi-frameless shower doors page shows that middle ground.
- Blocking set at every hinge, clip and header location before drywall
- Door hand and swing agreed before the tile layout is final
- Curb, pan and grout finished and cured on measure day
- Vanity, toilet and towel locations known so the door clears them
- One glass and hardware spec carried across every bath in the house
- Glass scheduled late, after the finished floor is in and protected
Common questions.
When should a builder call about the glass?
Twice. Once while the walls are still open, so configuration, header and blocking get talked through before anything is closed up. Then again when the tile is grouted and the curb is finished, which is when the free in-home measure is worth doing. The first call is cheap insurance on the second.
Can you quote glass off the plans?
We can read a plan and talk through configurations, hardware and what the opening will need to support. What we cannot do is cut glass to a drawing. Tile thickness, wall lean and curb slope all move the real numbers, so the measure happens in the finished bathroom and the panels are built from that.
What has to be finished before the measure?
Tile complete and grouted, curb built and finished, pan set, and the room clear enough to reach every corner with a level. Plumbing trim can follow without affecting the glass. If any surface the enclosure will seal against is still going in, the measure is early and the numbers will move.
The tile went in out of plumb. What now?
It happens on every kind of job, new or old. We measure the wall as it actually leans and build to that, and some configurations carry more tolerance than others. What your opening will support is a conversation at the measure rather than a surprise on install day. Nobody should be shimming a stock unit to hide a lean.
Several baths in one house. Is that one measure?
One visit, but every opening gets measured separately, because two showers framed from the same drawing rarely finish identical. The spec side is where the time is saved. Glass, hardware finish and configuration can be decided once for the whole house and then applied bathroom by bathroom.
Who signs off, the builder or the buyer?
Tell us at the measure and put one name on it. When a buyer is selecting, get finish and configuration confirmed in writing before fabrication starts, because panels are cut to size and a change after that is new glass rather than an adjustment. Builders who hold the spec themselves keep this simple.
Put The Glass On Your Southfield Schedule
Call or text when the tile is going in, or earlier if the walls are still open. Free in-home measure, no-pressure quote, and glass built in house at 42624 Van Dyke Ave in Sterling Heights. Call (586) 315-8900 or text (586) 800-9481.