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Construction Tips

There are some very important principles that must be followed to ensure a positive frameless shower door experience.  These are out of our control and we recommend you seek a professional to perform the work for you who understands and is experienced in these principles when your shower in being constructed

-  Be sure that your shower curb, or threshold, is slightly sloped into the shower.  Do not let your tile guy tell you it can be flat.  It must be sloped preferably 1/4" from outside edge to inside edge over the average 6" curb span.  This is the majority of the waterproofing for the shower door.

-  Be sure that you have continuous wood blocking in the wall where the door hinges will be mounted so that the hinge screws will go into wood behind the tile and cement board and so that the wall will not likely sag under the weight of the heavy glass door.  On a regular door it is not critical but it is ideal.

-  Try to avoid running raised rope or border tiles into areas where the frameless shower door glass will sit otherwise it will need to be notched and ground down to allow the proper operation of the door.

-  Do NOT use glass tiles anywhere where the shower glass will run.  A heavy glass enclosure can be installed but will likely require a header and there is a very high risk of breaking tiles either during installation or after upon using the shower enclosure.  We will not be responsible for breaking your glass tiles.

-  While perfectly level walls may not be achievable it is very important that the vertical and horizontal planes are straight.  In other words, no humps or bows.  Humps, bows, uneven tiles, and off plane surfaces will show in the final installation of the glass.

-  Any time you have a transfer from horizontal plane to vertical plane the vertical should be perpendicular to the horizontal to allow a flat face for the glass to go vertical on.

-  If you are going to take your glass to the ceiling you will need to tile the ceiling or use some other solid surface.  Heavy glass should always be mounted to a solid surface like tile or granite (not sheetrock).

-  If you have cultured marble shower walls you must have wood blocking where the hinges will mount in the wall or you will require a header for your installation.

-  The most common problem encountered during actual installation is improperly installed tile.  If your tile has a void between the tile and the subsurface where we are drilling a hole and securing the door it will likely break.  If the tile has had water get behind it and the glue has released where we are drilling a hole it will likely break or fall off the wall.  If you use acrylic mastic in a thick pattern behind large tiles it will likely take months to fully cure which means when we install the glass the glue is still wet behind the tiles which often times results in tiles falling off or breaking.  We are not responsible for tiles that are broken during installation when they are not properly secured to the wall in the first place.  You can see examples of this in the pictures below.

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