On a Kansas City build, custom glass is field measured after the substrate is final, not ordered from plans, and shower glass lead time runs about 7 to 14 days from that final measurement to installation. The measure is a hard gate rather than a soft one, because tempered glass cannot be cut, drilled, or notched once it has been tempered. Every dimension and every hole is fixed at fabrication, so the opening has to be finished before anyone measures it.
That is why an early measure is not a delay of a few days. It is a remake, at full lead time, against a schedule that has already moved on. Westport Glass & Mirror has been measuring Kansas City openings in finished condition since 1947 for exactly that reason.
"Tell me when the tile is done and I'll hold the date. Measure before it's done and nobody can save the schedule, because we can't touch the glass once it's out of the oven," says Brian Dugan, Fourth-Generation Co-Owner of Westport Glass & Mirror.
The measure comes after the substrate is final. For a shower, that means tile set and cured, curb formed and sloped, and the walls sitting where they will stay. For railings it means the substrate and blocking are in and the stair is at finished height. For storefront it means the opening is framed to final condition.
Measuring off framing or off the drawings does not survive real tolerances. A wall that reads plumb on paper is commonly out by a quarter inch or more by the time tile and backer are on it, and in older Kansas City housing stock the openings were rarely square to begin with. That variance is precisely what custom glass exists to absorb, and it can only be absorbed if someone measures the finished condition.
Before calling for a measure, confirm the surfaces are final and nobody is scheduled to touch them again.
Substrate finished and cured. Final wall and floor surfaces in place. Hardware locations and swing direction decided. Power and safe access to the space. The room clear enough to work in and to get glass through when install day arrives. Confirm all five before you call for the measure, not after.
Custom glass runs about 7 to 14 days from final measurement to install. The clock starts at the measure, not at the contract or the deposit, which is the single most common scheduling assumption we see go wrong.
Slot the glass date behind tile and ahead of final clean. Glass is one of the last trades in, and it does not want traffic behind it. Scopes are not interchangeable either: mirrors, glass railings, storefront systems, and insulated glass units each carry their own fabrication window, and assuming one lead time across all of them will cost somebody a week.
Do not set a walkthrough against a glass date nobody has confirmed. Call for the measure, get the date in writing, then build the back end of the schedule around it. We show up when we say we will, and that only works when the date is real on both sides. That habit is the whole basis of the working relationship described in why Kansas City remodelers and builders trust Westport Glass for custom projects.
Three scheduling decisions account for most glass delays on a build:
After the substrate is final and before final clean. For showers that means tile set and cured with the curb sloped; for railings, blocking in and stair at finished height. Measuring earlier captures conditions that will still change, which is what forces remakes.
Not reliably. Tile and backer add thickness and change plumb, commonly by a quarter inch or more across a wall. Because tempered glass cannot be trimmed after fabrication, a pre-tile measure usually means the panel is re-fabricated at full lead time.
Roughly 7 to 14 days from final measurement to installation, with the glass itself typically set in a few hours on install day. The clock starts at the measure rather than at the order, so booking the measure early is what protects the finish schedule.
The glass has to be remade. Tempered glass cannot be cut, drilled, or notched once tempered, so any dimensional change after fabrication restarts the lead time. Locking the opening before the measure is the only reliable protection against that.
By Brian Dugan, Fourth-Generation Co-Owner of Westport Glass & Mirror of Kansas City. Westport has crafted custom glass since 1947, and Brian brings 20+ years overseeing field measurement, fabrication, and jobsite coordination on residential and commercial projects across the metro. Meet the Westport team
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