For almost 20 years DT Glass has sold and installed residential glass, particularly heavy glass showers.  Like every other glass shop in the Pacific NW, we ordered our glass from a handful of local fabricators.  We took the measurements and placed the orders, they created the glass panels and delivered them to us, and we installed.

Soon we will take control of the entire process.  We have moved to a new 24,000 sq. ft. facility, and now we’re filling it with cases of annealed sheets of glass, and equipment for cutting, edging, mitering, notching, and tempering.  It’s a big project that is already a year-and-a-half in the making.  Since we’d never seen a retail glass shop that fabricated their own shower doors, we traveled all over the country to see how it was being done, and assure ourselves that we could make it happen here.  From the California Bay Area, to Texas, Florida, and even Manhattan, Kansas, we met incredibly talented, successful, helpful and kind business owners who cemented our vision of what we wanted to create in our own shop.

The project takes time.  There are decisions to be made, lead times on equipment, major upgrades to bring in 1200 amps of electricity to the building, not to mention setting up process flow and tracking systems.  Most of the fabrication work for shower glass uses the same methods we’ve been using to fabricate mirrors and annealed glass, but on a larger scale.  Our education will continue with on-site setup and training provided by the equipment manufacturers.  Our most important piece of equipment, the tempering oven, comes with expert instructions from the Italian team of mechanics, electricians and engineers.  Before they leave, we will have tested every type of glass tempering, created saved “recipes”, and produced the results and samples needed to obtain SGCC (Safety Glazing Certification Council) certification.

By the time we produce our “first” shower enclosure, we will have created hundreds of pieces of tempered glass.  That said, we still have a special place for that “first” shower.  Our own home.  We can’t wait for the make-shift shower rod and curtain to be replaced with a door, operable transom, panel to the ceiling, and notched return panel.  It’s a beautiful design out of any glass, but it will be even more beautiful when it is truly our own.

Thank you to all of our long-term customers.  We can’t wait to provide you with even better products and service in the future!

Michael & Shannon McKinney