Shower Doors in Tampa Bay

One crew, three counties, and why the region is the right place to start

People in Tampa Bay rarely search by county line. You search for a shower door company near you, and near you might mean a condo in Clearwater, a house in Brandon or a new build in Wesley Chapel. Our crew works out of Tampa and covers all three counties that make up our part of the bay: Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco. Our list has 28 cities in Hillsborough, 27 in Pinellas and 19 in Pasco, and we still measure outside that list when the drive makes sense.

This page is the map. It explains what is the same about a shower door job anywhere in Tampa Bay, what changes when you cross from one county into the next, and where to read more. Each county has its own page with the detail that only applies there, and each city page goes one step closer to your street. If you already know which county you are in, the links below take you straight there. If you are comparing shower door contractors across the region, the sections after that explain what to ask any of them, us included.

Two things do change as you move around the bay, and they are what the rest of this page sorts by: the bathroom itself, and the office that handles permits for your address. A condo bath on the Pinellas peninsula, a builder's standard opening in a new Pasco subdivision and a house in Hillsborough whose walls have settled over the years are three different jobs, even when the glass is identical. And a permit question that has one answer in one city can have another answer a few miles away. Read the county section that matches your address first, then the sections on climate, glass and permits that apply everywhere.

Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco: what each county brings to the job

The three counties share a climate and a building code, but the bathrooms inside them are not the same. Here is the short version of each, with a link to the full county page.

Hillsborough County

Hillsborough is home base. The crew leaves from Tampa, so Tampa and the communities around it, like Brandon, Riverview and Sun City Center, are the shortest drives we make. The work here runs from older homes, where walls have moved out of plumb over the years, to planned communities and remodels in progress, where we work with a builder's standard opening or a bathroom that is still open to the studs. The Hillsborough County page covers both, plus how mineral spotting shows up on glass there.

Pinellas County

Pinellas is the peninsula, and the jobs there split into two kinds: the single family bathroom and the condo bathroom. The condo job usually means a tight bathroom, a sliding or corner layout, and an association that wants to know about the work before it starts. The house job often means an opening that has been remodeled before and is no longer square. Cities like St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Dunedin each have their own page. The Pinellas County page is also where we wrote the full explanation of the Florida safety glass rule, so we only summarize it here.

Pasco County

Pasco covers a wide range, from new construction around Wesley Chapel and Land O' Lakes to established coastal towns like New Port Richey. New builds tend to come with standard openings and a homeowner who wants to replace a builder grade framed door. Older homes and 55+ communities bring a different set of questions: a low or no threshold entry, room for a bench, and a place to put a grab bar without fighting the glass. The Pasco County page goes through accessibility and new construction in detail.

The point of comparing them is not to rank them. It is so you know which questions to bring to your own bathroom. A condo owner in Pinellas and a new homeowner in Pasco are buying the same tempered glass, but they will spend the measure visit talking about very different things.

What every Tampa Bay bathroom has in common

Whatever county you are in, the bathroom deals with the same air. The National Weather Service office for Tampa Bay defines the local rainy season as May 25 through October 10. Late May and June bring the highest risk of severe storms. July through early September is the peak of the rain, with frequent lightning. From mid September into early October the rain gets more variable, driven by tropical systems and cold fronts. All of that comes with humid air that hangs around for months.

A shower already makes a bathroom the wettest room in the house. In a humid climate the room has less chance to dry out between uses, and that changes how a glass enclosure ages:

• Water sits on the glass longer. When the air is already damp, droplets dry slowly. What they leave behind is the spotting people notice first on clear glass.
• Seals and sweeps work harder. The vinyl sweep at the bottom of a door and the seals along the edges are what keep water inside the shower. They are wear parts, and constant moisture is part of the wear.
• Hardware finish is a daily decision, not a one time one. Hinges, handles and clamps are touched wet every day. Pick a finish you are willing to wipe, because in this climate it will see water often.
• Ventilation matters as much as glass. An exhaust fan that runs during and after the shower helps the whole enclosure, from the glass to the caulk line.

The same humidity is why we pay attention to the caulk line where glass meets tile. A clean, continuous bead keeps water from sitting behind panel edges and clamps, and it is one of the first things we look at when someone calls about a leak.

None of this is a reason to avoid glass. It is a reason to choose the glass and hardware with the climate in mind, and to plan a simple routine of squeegee after the shower and a wipe of the hardware.

Glass, thickness, hardware and the code behind them

Every enclosure we install uses tempered safety glass in 3/8" or 1/2" thickness. Thickness is not only about looks. On a frameless door the glass carries its own weight on the hinges, so the door size, the hinge type and the wall behind the hinge all decide which thickness is right. That is one of the things the measure visit settles.

Glass type

On our shower glass options page you can see the four types we offer:

• Clear is the standard. It shows the tile and makes a small bathroom feel bigger. It also shows spotting first.
• Low-iron removes most of the green tint you see on the edge of standard glass. It matters most with white or light tile, where the tint is easy to notice.
• Fluted has vertical ribs that blur the view while letting light through. It also hides some water marks between cleanings.
• Frosted gives the most privacy, which helps in a bathroom shared by several people or one that faces a bedroom.

Hardware finish

Our shower door hardware comes in three finishes: polished chrome, brushed brass and matte black. Chrome is the easiest to match with most faucets and the quickest to wipe clean. Brushed brass adds warmth and hides fingerprints better than a mirror finish. Matte black makes a strong line against light tile, and it shows dried water spots, so it suits people who are happy to wipe it. All three work in Tampa Bay. The right one is the one that matches your fixtures and your cleaning habits. If you are not sure, bring a photo of your faucet and shower valve trim to the measure visit, and look at the finish next to your tile in your own bathroom light, not on a screen. A finish that looks warm in a showroom photo can read very differently under a white vanity light.

Why it has to be tempered: the Florida safety glass rule

The Florida Building Code, Residential, treats glass in walls, enclosures and doors next to a tub or shower as a hazardous location when its bottom edge is less than 60 inches above a standing surface, and it requires safety glass there. In plain terms, safety glass in a Florida shower is not an upgrade you can skip. It is the rule, and tempered glass is how we meet it. That is the same in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco. We explain the rule and what it means for an old enclosure in more detail on the Pinellas County page.

Permits and approvals change from one city to the next

This is the part of the job where Tampa Bay really is three places, and sometimes more. Permitting in the region depends on the municipality, not just the county.

• In Pinellas County, the county handles the unincorporated area and, by agreement, some cities. Its own published guidance cites Safety Harbor as one of them. Larger cities like St. Petersburg run their own building department.
• Pinellas also publishes a process for small, nonstructural residential projects under $7,500 to request a permit exemption under state law. That exemption has to be approved by the building official in advance, and work done under it still has to follow the Florida Building Code.
• Hillsborough County runs its own building and contractor programs, separate from Pinellas, and the cities inside it can have their own rules as well.

What we cannot tell you from a web page is whether your specific shower door replacement needs a permit. We have not found an official source in Hillsborough, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Pasco that addresses shower enclosures directly, so we will not promise it does or that it does not. The honest answer is that it depends on the city you live in and the scope of the work, and it is worth checking with your city or county building department before the job is scheduled.

Condo owners have one more layer. Condominium buildings often want to approve bathroom work before it begins, especially when it involves contractors coming and going and glass moving through common areas. Ask your association what it needs from you early, ideally before the measure visit, so that approval and fabrication are not waiting on each other.

Matching the door to the bathroom you have

Most people start with a photo. The better starting point is the opening: how wide it is, how much room there is in front of it, where the shower head points and what the walls and floor are doing. Here is how the main options line up with the bathrooms we see across the region.

• Frameless shower doors suit walk-in showers with solid walls to anchor hinges and enough floor space for a door to swing open. They are also the most sensitive to an opening that is out of plumb, because there is no frame to hide a gap, which is why the measure matters most here.
• Sliding shower doors fit tub combinations and narrow bathrooms where a swinging door would hit the toilet or vanity. They are common in condo bathrooms where every inch counts.
• Swinging shower doors work when there is clear space in front of the shower and you want a wide, easy entry.
• Neo-angle shower enclosures turn a corner into a shower, which helps in small primary baths and guest baths.
• Stationary glass panels are a fixed panel with no door, often used for walk-in showers, including layouts planned for easy access.
• Custom shower enclosures cover everything else: floor to ceiling glass, steam showers, unusual angles and remodels where the shower was moved.

When an opening is not a good fit for frameless glass, we say so at the measure, not on installation day. A wall that is too far out of plumb, a curb that slopes the wrong way or a wall with nothing solid behind it for the hinges can all point toward a different style or a fix before the glass is ordered.

What the measure visit looks at

The measure is free, and it is where the price comes from. Nobody can give you a fair price for custom glass over the phone, because the price follows the measure, not the other way around.

At the visit we check:

• Plumb and square. Walls are rarely perfectly vertical, and two walls are rarely at a perfect 90 degrees. We measure at several heights, because a shower opening can be wider at the top than at the bottom.
• The curb and the floor. The shower floor should slope toward the drain, and the curb should keep water inside. If the curb slopes outward, water finds its way under the door.
• What is behind the tile. Hinges and clamps need solid backing. We look for where the anchors can go.
• Clearance. How far a door can open before it meets the toilet, vanity or a towel bar, and whether a sliding or fixed panel would work better.
• Access to the bathroom. Glass panels are large and heavy. In a condo or a second floor bathroom, we plan the route from the truck to the shower.

To make the visit faster, it helps to know which glass type and hardware finish you are leaning toward, whether the tile is new or still being installed, and, if you live in a condo, what your association requires. If the bathroom is mid remodel, call before the tile is finished. Some decisions, like where a hinge will land, are easier while the walls are still open.

Repair, replace or rethink the enclosure

Not every problem needs new glass. Our shower door repair service handles doors that drag, leak or will not close. Across Tampa Bay, the problems we see tend to fall into three groups.

Usually a repair

A door that has dropped and drags on the curb often needs its hinges adjusted. A leak at the bottom is often a worn sweep. A door that will not stay closed can be a misaligned strike or a tired seal. These are adjustments and parts, not new glass.

Usually a replacement

Glass that is chipped at the edge, an old framed door with a corroded track, or an enclosure that never fit the opening in the first place are better replaced. Chipped tempered glass is a weak point, and an old track that holds water is part of the problem, not something to clean around.

Sometimes a rethink

If you are removing an old framed door, the question is whether to go frameless, sliding or fixed. That depends on the same opening checks as a new install. Removing an old frame can also reveal holes or worn caulk in the tile that need attention before new glass goes in.

How to get started anywhere in Tampa Bay

The next step is the same whether you are in Hillsborough, Pinellas or Pasco: book the free measure or call us at (813) 993-2319. Tell us the city, the type of shower and what you want to change. If you already have photos of the opening, they help us prepare, but they do not replace the measure.

A few details make that first call more useful. Tell us whether you are replacing an existing door or adding glass to a shower that has none, whether the bathroom is finished or still being tiled, and whether a condo association or a building department is involved. If you are not sure which county page covers your address, use the county links near the top of this page, or simply give us the city when you call and we will take it from there.