Shower doors
Shower Door Repair
Doors that drag, drip onto the floor, or will not close square. Almost always rollers, seals or hinges, and almost always fixable without touching the enclosure.
- Typical visit
- One to two hours
- Most common
- Seals and rollers
- Interior
- Usually yours, even in a condo
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
First question
Whose shower door is this, actually?
Shower enclosures are the one item on this site that is almost always the occupier's or owner's rather than an association's, because they sit entirely inside the unit. The tenancy question still applies.
If you rent
Tell your landlord or managing agent first
In almost every tenancy the fabric of the building — doors, windows, frames and the locks in them — is the owner's responsibility rather than yours. We are happy to take the call either way, but a tenant paying out of pocket for a landlord's repair is a thing we would rather flag than quietly bill for.
If you are the landlord
You own it, and the clock may be running
Doors that will not lock, windows that will not open and missing screens are among the most common findings on a municipal inspection at change of tenant. Getting them done between tenancies is both cheaper and considerably less stressful than getting them done against a deadline.
If you are in a condo or co-op
The association may own the opening
In most New Jersey condominium arrangements the exterior of a unit, including windows and entry doors, belongs to the association rather than to you — though interior doors, shower enclosures and interior hardware usually do not. Check your documents before you commission anything exterior.
If you own the house
Then it is simply yours
Which makes it the straightforward case. The only thing worth checking is whether you are in a historic district, because that can affect what you are permitted to change on a street-facing elevation.
Inspections
What an inspection looks for in a bathroom
Enclosures themselves are rarely inspected, but what happens around a leaking one very much is.
| Common finding | What it usually takes to clear it |
|---|---|
| Water damage to the floor outside the shower | The finding is the damage, not the door. The door caused it, and fixing the seal is the cheap half of the job. |
| Mould or staining around the enclosure | Usually a seal that has stopped sealing and a surface that stays wet. We replace the seals; anything suggesting water in the structure needs somebody qualified to open it up. |
| A shower door that will not close | Rollers, pivots or scale. Not usually an inspection matter, but it is what leads to the two findings above. |
| Broken or cracked enclosure glass | Tempered glass in a bathroom either survives or fails completely. Replaced to size in the existing frame where the frame is sound. |
| A door that cannot be opened easily from inside | Rare, and worth saying: an enclosure should never trap anybody. If yours jams shut, that is the priority regardless of anything else. |
Requirements differ from town to town and they change, so treat this as the pattern we see rather than as your municipality's list. Your local construction or housing office is the authority on your address.
Getting to you
Getting to a New Jersey bathroom
Interior work, but in dense housing the logistics are still the logistics.
Row and attached houses
Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, Union City and the older parts of almost every town. No side yard, no rear access, and frequently nowhere to put a ladder. Upper-floor work is done from inside with the sash removed, and we plan that before we quote rather than discovering it on the day.
Two and three-family houses
Enormously common across north Jersey. Several tenancies behind one front door, shared entries that take four households' worth of traffic, and access that has to be arranged with people who are at work. Tell us who holds keys when you call.
Apartment and condo buildings
Loading restrictions, service lifts, certificates of insurance for the management company, and time windows when work is permitted. We deal with all of it regularly, but it is much easier arranged in advance than negotiated in a lobby.
Parking, honestly
In a lot of New Jersey there is nowhere to put a van. If you have a driveway, a permit or a spot we can use, that information is worth more to the visit than almost anything else you could tell us.
Permits
Will this need a permit?
Enclosure repairs are about as far from permit territory as this trade gets. Here is the honest position anyway.
Repairs, generally not
Repairing what is already there — hardware, glass in an existing frame, a sash, a lock, a threshold — does not usually involve a permit anywhere in the state. It is one of the quieter advantages of fixing rather than replacing.
Replacements, often yes
Many New Jersey municipalities require a permit to replace a door or a window, and the requirements and fees differ from town to town. Rules also change. Your municipal construction office is the authority on your address, and it is worth a phone call before you commit to anything.
What we will not do
We will not tell you a job does not need a permit so that it looks cheaper, and we cannot sign off compliance on your behalf — that is the inspector's role. What we will do is tell you plainly when we think a permit is likely to be involved.
New Jersey conditions
What New Jersey does to a shower door
Hard water in a lot of the state, and a lot of very old bathrooms.
Variable water hardness
New Jersey water hardness differs considerably by supply and by county. In the harder areas scale builds in the bottom track and roller bearings until a door that is mechanically fine simply seizes, and a clean restores it.
Old bathrooms, retrofitted enclosures
A great deal of the state's housing has had enclosures fitted into bathrooms far older than they are. Out-of-square openings and uneven tiling make alignment the usual culprit rather than wear.
Humid summers and tight buildings
Dense, well-sealed housing with a humid climate means bathrooms stay damp longer. Seals and sweeps degrade faster, and surface mould appears sooner than people expect.
Multi-family bathrooms do commercial duty
A single bathroom serving several people runs an enclosure several times a day, every day. The rollers and seals in it are wearing at a rate the manufacturer did not assume.
Questions
Shower door questions
Water is getting onto the bathroom floor.
Usually the bottom sweep or the jamb seals have hardened and split. Both are inexpensive consumable parts and it is the most common call we take on enclosures.
My shower door drags and sticks.
Rollers, pivots, or scale in the track. Cleaning and new rollers fix the overwhelming majority.
Can you replace just the glass panel?
In most framed and semi-framed enclosures, yes. It is made to size and fitted into the existing frame.
Do you fit new shower enclosures?
We repair and reglaze them. A full new enclosure with a pan and waterproofing is a bathroom fit-out and a different trade.
Our condo association says the bathroom is ours.
Usually correct. Interiors are generally the unit owner's, which makes this one of the simpler ownership questions on the site.
Is a shower door worth a call-out on its own?
Yes, and we are happy to come. Mention anything else in the home while we are there, because most of the cost is the visit.
Coverage
Shower door repair across New Jersey
A mobile service covering the whole state, from Bergen to Cape May. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Shower Door Repair Across New Jersey
Related
Our other services
Ten services, one trade. Whatever else needs doing can go on the same visit.
Next step
Stop the water getting out
Free estimates across New Jersey, and most enclosures are a single short visit.