Shower Doors in Allentown

We offer pivot, sliding, hinged, framed, semi-frameless and frameless doors, plus fixed shower screens.

Your bathroom usually narrows the field before your taste does. In the older twins and rowhomes around the city, where the bathroom may be seven feet by six with the sink directly opposite the tub, a sliding or bypass door is often the only type that works, because a hinged door has nowhere to swing. Newer homes in the surrounding townships have the clearance for hinged and pivot doors. Send us a photo of the space and we can tell you quickly what will fit.

Most shower doors run between seventy-two and seventy-eight inches. Seventy-two is standard on framed and frameless units, and seventy-eight has grown more popular in modern designs.

Check your ceiling before assuming the taller option. Upper floors in older Allentown homes often have ceilings around eight feet, and once you account for a soffit or a dropped section hiding plumbing above the tub, the available height can be less than the catalog assumes.

Measure the opening at the top, middle and bottom and use the smallest figure. Wait until tile is installed before measuring if you are remodeling.

In an older Allentown home, also check whether the walls are plumb. A house that has settled over a hundred years frequently has an opening that is wider at one end than the other, and that difference decides whether a stock door will fit or whether you need an adjustable wall jamb or custom glass. A quick pass with a four-foot level tells you what you need to know and saves a return.

Frameless doors offer an open, uncluttered look with minimal hardware and no track to trap grime. Semi-frameless doors are the more affordable route, still modern in appearance, with framing that adds structural support and durability.

For older Allentown bathrooms there is a practical point in favor of semi-frameless. The frame absorbs small irregularities in walls that are not perfectly plumb, which is common in houses of this age, and it hides the uneven gaps that frameless glass would otherwise put on display. Frameless remains achievable in an older home, it simply tends to require custom glass rather than a stock panel.

Frameless doors do not create a watertight seal. They are built to deflect and redirect water, so proper installation, showerhead placement and floor slope all determine whether water stays in the shower. Rain heads and overhead fixtures need particular care, since the water falls vertically rather than toward a wall.

In an older home, check the slope of the existing pan or tub before choosing frameless. Fixtures and floors that have shifted over decades sometimes drain toward the opening rather than the drain, and no door design compensates for that.

Tempered safety glass in shower doors generally runs three-eighths to one-half inch thick. Thicker glass is more rigid and feels more substantial, at a higher cost.

Weight matters in older Allentown homes. Half-inch glass is heavy, it has to be carried up a narrow staircase, and it places real load on hinges that must anchor into solid framing rather than tile over plaster. Three-eighths is frequently the better specification in these houses, both for handling and for what the wall can support.

It depends on the door type and how much customization is needed. Standard installations generally take a day or two, while more complicated jobs or custom glass can stretch from several days to a few weeks.

If your opening is out of square, which is common in the older housing stock, the glass has to be measured, fabricated and delivered before installation can happen. The fabrication is the slow part of that sequence. Talk to one of our installers about your specific bathroom and we can give you a realistic date rather than a generic range.

Most doors sold now include a protective coating that repels water and resists stains, but routine care still matters. Wipe or squeegee the glass after each shower to stop soap scum and mineral deposits from forming, and use only a mild, non-abrasive cleaner.

This matters more in Allentown than in many places. The Lehigh Valley sits on carbonate bedrock, and the local water tests in the hard range, carrying a heavy load of dissolved calcium and magnesium. Left to air dry on glass, that mineral content leaves a white film that hardens into scale and becomes very difficult to remove. If you take one piece of maintenance advice from this page, make it the squeegee.