Every panel, engineered.
Four core services — frameless showers, glass railings, custom mirrors, commercial glazing — all delivered to the Built By Glass standard across the Greater Toronto Area.
Why our installations outlast the competition.
The visible part of any glass installation is the glass itself. The part that determines whether the install holds up for 20 years is everything happening BEHIND the glass — substrate prep, hardware torque, silicone selection, blocking strategy. Built By Glass operates a single fixed standard across every project type and every zone, refined over 983+ installations since 2015.
Founder-led, not subcontracted
The glass installation industry typically operates a sales-and-subcontractor model: a salesperson visits your home, takes the measurements, and hands the job to a third-party install crew you have never met. The crew arrives knowing nothing about your conversation with the salesperson, the design intent, or the specific challenges flagged during the measure. This is why so many glass installations underperform their quote.
Built By Glass operates the opposite model. The same Pickering crew that delivers your free measure is the crew that returns on install day. Jay Siva, our founder, is on every Durham Region project personally and on every estate-scale install across the GTA. There is no sales-to-install handoff because there is no separate sales team. Every quote is given by the people who will be on your site with tools.
Measure after tile, every time
The single most common cause of poor frameless shower installations is measuring before the tile is complete. Drawings provided by the architect or designer never match the as-built dimensions of the finished surface — tile installers compensate for out-of-square walls, plumbing rough-ins shift, and finished surface heights vary by 6–10 mm from drawing.
We refuse to measure for glass until tile is fully installed and grouted. This adds a small scheduling step — the measure happens 7–10 days after the tile crew finishes, not before — but it eliminates the leading cause of frameless installations that do not sit flush, leak at the perimeter, or require fabrication rework. The 10–14 business day fabrication clock starts AFTER the post-tile measure, not before.
Two suppliers, no exceptions
All architectural hardware on a Built By Glass installation comes from one of four partner suppliers: CRL (C.R. Laurence), Richelieu, FMF, or Obsidian. All four are commercial-grade architectural hardware brands with publicly-available specification sheets, warranty programs, and finish certifications. We do not substitute hardware for cost reasons. We do not source from import-only marketplaces. The hardware on a $1,200 inline shower comes from the same product lines as the hardware on a $35,000 estate package — same hinges, same handles, same finish quality.
This matters most on warranty service calls 5–10 years after installation. Parts from our four partners are still in production and still match the original finish if a hinge needs replacing. Off-brand hardware from a one-time supplier is often discontinued within 2–3 years, leaving a homeowner with a visible finish mismatch on any future service work. Our standard is single-source consistency over project life.
Written warranty, real coverage
Every Built By Glass installation includes a five-year written workmanship warranty. That covers hardware loosening or failure, seal degradation, fabrication defects, and any installation-caused leak or alignment issue. The warranty is documented at install, not verbal. It travels with the home — if you sell within the warranty window, the new owner inherits the coverage.
What the warranty does NOT cover, written explicitly: accidental damage (a homeowner hits the panel with a piece of furniture, etc.), spontaneous breakage from nickel-sulfide inclusions (an industry-wide tempered glass failure mode, manufacturer-warranty territory), or third-party damage during subsequent renovation work. Clarity at sale matters more than fine-print maximalism.
Four steps from quote to install.
Every Built By Glass project — shower, railing, mirror, or commercial — follows the same precision workflow. No shortcuts, no rush jobs, no surprises on install day.
Online Estimate
Use our Build & Price calculator to get a project-specific range in under two minutes. No personal information required — just dimensions and your service type. The instant estimate is a real range based on our actual material and labour costs, not a marketing teaser.
Free On-Site Measure
For showers, we measure only after tile is fully installed and grouted. For railings and mirrors, the measure happens once the substrate is finished. We use electronic laser measurement to capture out-of-plumb and out-of-square conditions accurately. The measure visit is free and non-binding.
Custom Fabrication
Your panels are ordered to exact specification from our certified fabrication partners — 10mm or 12mm tempered, cut and polished to the millimetre. Standard lead time is 10–14 business days from approved measurement. Estate-scale and 12mm projects sometimes add 5–7 days for the heavier-spec queue.
Single-Day Installation
We oversee every installation directly — a single-day visit where we drill, set hardware, hang glass, adjust clearances, and apply silicone seals. Typical install duration is 4–6 hours for a residential project; estate-scale and commercial projects phase across multiple visits. Shower glass is usable 24 hours after installation once silicone cures.
Specification matters more than appearance.
A frameless shower from any installer looks roughly the same on the first day. The difference shows up at year five, year ten, year fifteen. That difference is specification — what glass, what hardware, what silicone, what attention to substrate. Built By Glass operates a single fixed specification across all 983+ completed projects, and we publish it openly because our differentiation is in the execution, not the secret.
Every panel we install is fully tempered safety glass meeting ANSI Z97.1 / CAN/CGSB 12.1 certification. No exceptions. No imported-source glass without certification documentation. No "tempered-equivalent" or "annealed-with-treatment" substitutes that fail under Ontario Building Code review. We use 10mm tempered as standard for residential shower work; 12mm for steam enclosures, railings beyond standard spans, and any panel exceeding 78 inches.
All architectural hardware is sourced exclusively from CRL (C.R. Laurence), Richelieu, FMF, and Obsidian — two of the most-spec'd architectural hardware brands in North American commercial construction. No off-brand substitutions. For exterior lakefront installations, we upgrade to 316 marine-grade stainless as a default. For interior applications, 304 stainless is standard. The hardware is the part most homeowners underestimate at quote time and notice most after 5+ years of use.
- Glass Standard
- ANSI Z97.1 / CAN/CGSB 12.1 fully tempered safety glass on every panel
- Standard Thickness
- 10mm residential / 12mm for spans >78", steam, and structural railings
- Hardware Brands
- CRL, Richelieu, FMF, and Obsidian — architectural specification only, no off-brand
- Hardware Grades
- 304 stainless interior standard; 316 marine-grade for lakefront exterior work
- Silicone Spec
- Architectural sanitary silicone interior; marine structural silicone exterior
- Warranty
- 5-year written workmanship warranty on every install — hardware, seals, fabrication
- Code Compliance
- Ontario Building Code Part 9, Section 9.8 documentation available on request
Four service zones, one Pickering crew.
Built By Glass dispatches from our Pickering headquarters and covers the entire GTA across four operational service zones. The same install crew that measures your home delivers the install — no subcontractor handoffs.
Toronto & Etobicoke
City of Toronto — Downtown, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough.
Vaughan & King City
York Region — Vaughan, King City, Richmond Hill, Markham, Aurora.
Mississauga & Oakville
Halton-Peel — Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Milton, Brampton.
Durham Region
Our home — Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Bowmanville (HQ in Pickering).
Not sure which zone covers your address? View the full 24-city service area map or book a free measure and we will confirm coverage and scheduling.
Choosing the right service for your project.
Yes — multi-service projects are a routine part of our work, particularly on full-home renovations and new builds. We quote and deliver them as a single coordinated package. Typically the railing work installs first (anchors into framing, often before drywall), then the frameless shower glass after tile is fully grouted, then the custom mirrors last (latest to install minimizes handling). All three pieces are measured during one site visit and scheduled to the same project timeline.
No — Built By Glass handles both. Our commercial glazing service covers office partitions, storefronts, dental and medical clinics, and retail fit-outs alongside our residential work. Same crew, same fabrication partners, same standard. The main differences with commercial work are project management complexity (longer lead times for procurement of specialty glass and acoustic-rated systems) and after-hours scheduling for tenant-occupied spaces.
Use our Build & Price calculator. It generates a real-time price range based on your project type (shower, railing, mirror), dimensions, glass thickness, and hardware finish. The result is the same calculation we use internally for preliminary quoting — not a marketing teaser. Takes about two minutes. From there, book a free in-home measure for the binding quote.
Built right. Built once.
Tell us about your project. We'll respond within 24 hours with a free consultation and an honest preliminary estimate — no high-pressure sales.