Northlite Glass & Mirror

I WOULD NOT DO BUSINESS HERE AGAIN. Bought a piece of replacement glass for my wood stove which he cut and said was "Neoceram" glass which is very expensive, costing me almost $200 for a piece approx. 19"x11".  I put the glass in which is held in place with clips that you screw in to hold the glass being sure not to tighten too tight nor leave too loose.  The process is very easy and no special tools or skills are needed to "install" this glass.  It is easy in and easy out.  Stove manual does not recommend any specialist to take out or put in glass. Gaskets in the stove very good.  This stove is less than 2 years old and still like new condition. This glass was thick glass (3/16" thick).  I opened and closed the door a few times and had no problem after I put it in.  The stove has an iron grid in the front which protects the glass. Never lit the stove yet since it is summer. Nothing has fallen or even leaned on the stove and no one in the house but me. A few weeks later when my sister came over for a visit, I opened the door to show her the new glass and when I opened the door the right third of the glass just fell to the floor.  There was never any pressure placed on this glass nor a fire burned in the stove.  My sister was witness to this.  I called to report this and the person who answered the phone said Fred probably would not be able to help me but went and got him on the phone.  I told him that this glass must have had a defect in it for it to have just broken without any pressure or anything at all that should have caused it to just crack.  He denied this and had no help to offer. Then he said since he did not "install" the glass there was nothing he could do.  (He also said I should have had him "install" it for the $30 charge and then "maybe" he could offer something).  This cost is exorbitant for "installation" which takes no special skill or tools and it was never even offered in the first place when I bought the glass and I would never even think to ask because the "install" is so easy. Because this glass cost almost $200 and I need it to run the stove in the winter, I asked if he could sell me another piece at cost. The answer was a flat "No".  In hindsight, I recall his taking this piece of glass before he cut it from an out-of-the-way shelf and it was all dusty and there was no marking or label on it saying it was "Neoceram" glass.  Who knows what this $200 piece of glass really was and I will be sure to remember to get verification the next time I buy any kind of specialty glass.  I bought another piece of glass from another company and it was less expensive, they said they would "install" it for free if I wanted but agreed that there are no special skills needed to set the glass in and turn the screws.  No, I would not do business with Northlite again and would not recommend.  Overpriced, not helpful in any way, and I did not get a friendly feel of the place at all.

unknown

Fred was very honest and helpful from the beginning and arrived on time as promised. I will continue to use them for all my glass needs. very professional

easy

Very well.  I received a call requesting more details in response to my request for quote the next morning after I called.  After working out a few details I was given a quote and received a timeline for when the mirror could be delivered and installed.
The mirror was delivered on the day and time promised.  The gentlemen who installed the mirror were friendly, polite and personable.  The were very respectful of my home and provided valuable advice on the installation.
The whole job was professionally completed in about 30 minutes.
From start to finish the folks at Northlite were helpful and accomodating.  The mirror met all my expectations and I would not hesitate to use Northlite Glass again in the future.

Northlite was excellent. I wanted a very specific type of glass and they managed to locate it for me. The guys were very proffesional, very neat and did amazing work for a very affordable rate. I would definatley recommend them for any work around your home that has glass involved - IE: windows, special mirrors ect ect.

Northlite was originally supposed to be a sub for the contractor that renovated our small bath. We had asked our contractor for a glass shower door and had provided pictures of roughly what we wanted from a couple of hardware manufacturers' websites. The contractor suggested Northlite and verified that they could do the work. The shower door was the last thing to be installed and as we got close to the end of the other work, the contractor announced that he would give us Northlite's contact information and we would have to deal with it ourselves. We contacted Fred and he came out to measure. We were very impressed with his professionalism and knowledge, but extremely disappointed to learn that the contractor had installed the tile in such a way as to preclude insetting the door the way we wanted it. We were also a bit annoyed to find that as a result, we would need another thousand dollars worth of hardware. Fred was very understanding, patient with our frustration and helped us to find the next best design. He provided us with hardware choices. We got everything ordered and installation was completed a few weeks later. There were a couple of things that didn't go as planned. First, the reason for going with a two piece door was the short distance between the shower and the commode. We wanted the moveable piece to clear the front of the commode, which it didn?t. Fred came back out to investigate. It turned out that the hinge we picked added a couple of inches to the door when it opened. Fred had not actually used the hinge before and had not taken this into account. The only solution was to replace the glass and the hinges. Fred agreed to do this and we agreed to chip in $500. The second issue we discovered when we took the first shower. Water runs down the glass on to the tile threshold and out into the bathroom instead of into the shower enclosure. It turns out that when the contractor built the threshold, he created a slope away from the shower. Although this was clearly not Northlite?s issue, they installed a diverter strip along the wall and threshold to try to minimize the leaking. A true indication of the kind of person you?re dealing with is how they behave when things don?t go right. Fred is a professional who stands by his work. Overall, we had a very pleasant experience with him in an otherwise difficult and frustrating renovation. Most of our problems stemmed from lack of coordination/communication between Northlite Glass and our contractor. My recommendation if you are going to work with Fred is to make sure he is involved early in the project and the tile is laid with his requirements in mind.