DECISION
I needed a frameless shower door installed and two broken windows repaired. I went on Yelp to search for the top rated glass shops in the Bay Area. Super Glass, Argonaut, and DB Glass were among the highest rated and had favorable reviews on Yelp. So I went to each one to get a quote.
The lady at Argonaut was not friendly. She gave me weird suggestions of using two pieces of glass with different thickness and using the non-heavy duty clips. Argonaut never came back to me with a quote. Maybe they didn't think I was high-roller status enough to deserve their business.
DB Glass's lady didn't seem to know much about glass at all. She said that she would just hand off my measurements to someone behind-the-scenes. DB came back with a quote rather quickly - within 24 hours - for a whopping $2,000.
Super Glass took a few more days to come back with the quote. I'm glad I waited longer because it was $500 cheaper at $1,500. Since the price difference was huge, I decided to go with Super Glass.
SHOWROOM
Super Glass's showroom is pretty small. It doesn't show the other things they can do like windows and custom tabletops. But pretty much all glass shops are small like this. It's more helpful if you look at Super Glass's numerous Yelp photos or go on Houzz.com for inspiration on how to design your glass.
Milad was tending the showroom when I entered. He was kind and patient even with the phone buzzing and other customers waiting. Milad was knowledgeable and assertive, providing me with practical suggestions on glass thickness, protective coating, dimensions, etc... Even though I already had my Kohler shower door handle, he called me back saying that he found a cheaper one that looked the same. I declined the offer because I couldn't return my handle, but appreciated his devotion to his customers.
SHOWER DOOR
My shower glass is 58'' tall by 76'' wide. It is 3/8'' thick, standard clear, and has the lifetime ShowerGuard coating. I used heavy duty brushed nickel square clips. I provided my own Kohler shower door handle. The left side of my shower glass is quite complex - there are many cuts to fit it around the countertop and the cabinets. Super Glass did a good job of precisely cutting that piece so it snugly fit against the complex surface. All this, sans the handle, was $1,500, which includes tax and installation. It would have cost $1,700 with the low iron super clear option or $1,100 with no coating option.
I decided to go with the standard clearness, which has a green hue on the edges. It does not bother me at all, because that's how normal glass looks like. The green is only visible on the edges, it is barely noticeable elsewhere. Most of the photos on Yelp show the more expensive low iron version, but I can't see any huge difference that justifies the $200 increase. Just go with the standard - it just looks "normal". You wouldn't want to crash into your glass because it's so clear that you can't see it.
Sam and George did my shower door installation one week after they came to do measurements. The rubber tracks along the door fit snugly against my tile, so there's no water leakage. The silicone caulking around the stationary glass looks cleaning done. The door opens easily. All in all, the installation took about 3 hours.
BROKEN WINDOWS
I had two cracked windows. One was a stationary piece. Another was the moving piece. Irash came to replace the windows. He took the windows out and brought it back to his truck where he did the glass replacement and vacuuming for the dual panes. It was convenient that he could do all that in his truck because if he had to bring my windows back to a factory, I would have been windowless for several hours. Irash finished the job quickly in about an hour. The windows are perfect now. He was able to adjust the size of the window slightly so that they are easier to lock. Previously, I couldn't even lock my windows because the house had settled a little, maligning the lock with the groove. Each window cost about $200.
Irash gave suggestions on how to avoid cracked windows in the future. He noticed the UV screens that the previous owner had placed over all the windows. He suggested me to remove them because the heat buildup would cause the cracking and would ruin the vacuum between the dual panes. Irash was nice to give me free special razor blades to remove those UV screens. read more