People choose glass carefully and hardware casually, and it is the hardware finish that they end up looking at every day and struggling to match later. The finishes behave differently with water and with cleaning, and the differences are worth knowing before choosing rather than after.
How the common finishes behave
Polished chrome is bright, shows every water mark and wipes clean easily.
Brushed or satin stainless hides marks far better and holds a dull film if it is never cleaned.
Matt black looks excellent and shows hard water scale more clearly than anything else, because the deposit is pale against a dark surface. So in a hard water area black is the most demanding choice, and it is usually chosen without anybody mentioning that.
Matching later, which is the real problem
Finishes look alike in a catalogue and clearly different on a wall, and ranges get discontinued regularly.
So hardware bought a year or two apart for the same bathroom, or for a second bathroom meant to match, frequently does not.
Where a house is being done in stages we recommend buying all the hardware at the start even if it is fitted over time. It is the one part of the job that is genuinely difficult to correct afterwards, and it costs nothing to decide now.
What the finish does not affect
It is worth saying plainly: the finish is cosmetic and the mechanism underneath is what determines how long the enclosure works.
A beautiful handle on a poor hinge is a door that drops within two years.
So where a budget is limited we would put the money into the hinge and the seal and take a plainer finish, rather than the other way round. We price them separately so that choice is visible rather than bundled into one figure.
How the job works
- Tell us about the jobSend a few photos, rough sizes and what you need. Use WhatsApp or the form. For a repair, a short video of the door moving helps a lot.
- We call you back in about 2 minutesWe confirm what you need and a time to visit. Where we can, we give you a rough price on the call.
- We come and measureWe measure the opening and check the walls, floor and ceiling around it. Anything made to size is made to these measurements, so they must be right.
- You get a written priceIt lists each item, with GST as its own line. If anything about the job changes, we tell you before we go ahead.
- We fit itYou approve the price and pay the advance. Our own team fits the work, checks that every door and window opens and closes properly, and clears up. Most jobs are done in 3 to 4 days.
