What made to measure means for a mirror
JM Glass & Glazing are glaziers based at 24 Waddon Close in Croydon CR0 4JT. We cut, polish and fit mirrors to your own dimensions across South London and Surrey, including gym and studio mirror walls.
A made to measure mirror is a sheet of mirror glass cut to your size, with the edges ground and polished so it goes straight on the wall without a frame. We measure on site, order the glass cut and edged, then come back and fit it. Most jobs are two visits about a week apart. Bathrooms, alcoves, over-mantels, gym walls and full mirrored panels, anywhere a stock mirror off a shelf leaves a gap down one side.
The mirrors we make
- Bathroom mirrors: cut wall-to-wall or to the width of the vanity, with cut-outs for lights, sockets or a shaver point, and a demister pad on the back if you want it clear after a shower.
- Mirrored walls: full-height panels butt-jointed in runs, almost always 6mm, to open up a narrow hall, a dining room or a small flat.
- Gym and dance studio mirrors, 6mm safety-backed mirror floor to ceiling, for commercial gyms and for garage conversions at home.
- Bevelled and polished edges, a flat polished edge for a plain frameless mirror, or a 20mm bevel where you want the older cut-glass look.
- Antique, bronze and grey mirror: smoked and bronze tints, and foxed antique cut into narrow bevelled strips for a feature wall. Mirrored splashbacks too, though behind a hob that has to be toughened.
- Floating and frameless fixings, hidden brackets or an aluminium channel so the mirror stands proud of the wall with a shadow gap, instead of screws and chrome caps.
Bathroom mirrors and demister pads
Bathroom mirrors fog because the glass is colder than the air around it. A demister pad is the fix: a slim heated pad bonded to the back of the mirror and wired into the lighting circuit, so the glass warms whenever the light is on and stays clear while you shower. The wiring is an electrician's job, not ours, so we either fit the mirror and leave the tail ready for yours, or work around them on the day. The other bathroom detail worth getting right is the bottom edge. Water sitting on a mirror edge creeps under the silvering and leaves a black tide line within a couple of years, so we hold the glass up off the tiles or the worktop and seal it properly. If we're already fitting a shower screen, the mirror usually goes in on the same visit.
Gym, studio and mirrored wall installs across South London and Surrey
Gym and studio mirrors are 6mm with a safety backing: a film bonded to the reverse that holds the pieces together if the glass ever takes a dumbbell. We've fitted full-height runs in commercial gyms and in garage conversions at home, which is where most of the home-gym work around Sanderstead, Selsdon and Purley comes from. Two things decide whether a mirror wall looks right: the wall behind it, and the joints. Mirror shows up every hump in the plaster, so if the wall is bowed you will see it in the reflection, and we'd rather say so before the glass is ordered than after. Panels are butt-jointed with a fine line between them, and we set the run out so those joints don't land straight down the middle of where people stand.
We're based in Waddon, just off the Purley Way, so most of Croydon is ten minutes away and we work out from there across South London and this side of Surrey. Regular mirror work in Croydon, South Croydon, Purley, Coulsdon, Sutton, Beckenham and Bromley, and out to Epsom and Caterham. Jason has been cutting glass in Croydon his whole working life, and mirrors are the part of the trade where that shows. A rectangle is easy. An alcove that's 4mm out of square at the top is not.
4mm and 6mm: the only two thicknesses that matter
Mirror is silvered float glass, made to BS EN 1036 for internal use, and in practice two thicknesses matter. 4mm is fine for a small bathroom mirror up to around a metre in any direction. Past that it flexes, and a flexed mirror distorts the reflection towards the edges. 6mm is what we use for anything large, for every mirrored wall and for every gym or studio job. It costs more per square metre and it's heavier to handle, but it stays flat, which is the whole point of a mirror.
Edges, cut-outs and anything that isn't a rectangle
A frameless mirror needs a finished edge. Flat polished is the standard: ground square and polished clear, safe to handle and clean against the wall. A bevel is a wider angled band, usually around 20mm, ground and polished at an angle so it catches the light. It's a separate machine pass on every edge, so it costs more. Holes for mirror screws, cut-outs for sockets or a shaver point, and notches round a boxed-in pipe all have to be done at the factory before the mirror comes to site. You can't drill a mirror once it's on the wall, and you can't cut a toughened one at all. Curves, angles and raked ceilings get a hardboard template first, that's one-off glass work, priced as such.
What drives the price
Mirror is priced by the square metre with a minimum charge, so a small bathroom mirror is mostly labour. What moves the number:
- Size and thickness. 6mm costs more per square metre than 4mm and weighs half as much again, so it costs more to fit as well as to buy.
- Edge finish. Flat polished is standard. A 20mm bevel is an extra process on every edge and adds a fair bit on a large panel.
- Cut-outs, holes and notches. Each one is a separate operation and a chance to lose the whole sheet, so each is charged.
- Shapes. Anything that isn't a rectangle needs a site template before the glass is ordered, which is an extra visit.
- The glass itself. Bronze, grey and antique mirror cost more than clear, and antique is a specialist sheet with a longer lead time.
- Safety backing and demister pads. Both are added to the sheet at the factory, and both add to it.
- Access. A 2.4m panel that has to go up a Victorian staircase needs three people. A gym wall is a day on site, not an hour.
- Taking the old one down. Mirrors bonded straight onto plaster normally bring some of the plaster with them, so allow for making good.
How the job runs
Send sizes or a photo and we'll price it. For an alcove, a shaped opening or a full wall we come and measure ourselves, because walls are rarely square and mirror is unforgiving about it. The glass is then cut, edged, drilled and backed to those figures: a few days for a plain polished mirror, longer for bevelled, antique or shaped work. On the day, a bathroom mirror takes an hour or two and a mirrored wall takes a day or more. We fix with mirror-safe adhesive, because ordinary silicone and solvent-based grab adhesives attack the silvering and cause black edges a year or two later, and we add mechanical support to anything heavy, adhesive alone on plasterboard is how mirrors end up on the floor. If something isn't right afterwards, we come back and sort it.
Made to Measure Mirrors across South London and Surrey
We provide made to measure mirrors throughout the areas below and everywhere in between. See our full areas covered page.
Frequently Asked Questions
There's no list price, because the mirror is cut to your sizes. The cost comes down to the area, whether it's 4mm or 6mm, the edge finish, any cut-outs or holes, and how awkward it is to get onto the wall. Send us the sizes and we'll price it. For an alcove or a full wall, we'd rather come and measure it ourselves.
A plain mirror with polished edges is usually a few days from measuring to fitting. Bevelled edges, shaped work, antique glass and demister pads all add to that, so allow a week or two. Fitting is an hour or two for a bathroom mirror, and a day or more for a gym wall or a full mirrored wall.
Standard mirror is not safety glass. For gyms, dance studios, low-level panels and anywhere it could be walked into, we use safety-backed mirror: a film bonded to the reverse that holds the pieces together if it breaks. Toughened mirror exists too, but it has to be made to its finished size, because toughened glass can't be cut or drilled afterwards.
Yes, with a demister pad. It's a thin heated pad bonded to the back of the mirror and wired into the lighting circuit, so the glass warms up with the light and stays clear while you shower. We fit the mirror with the pad already on it and leave the connection to an electrician, or work alongside yours on the day.
Usually, yes. If the old one is coming down we take the sizes and the edge detail off it and copy them, and if it's a shape we make a template. Send a photo with a tape measure in it and we can normally tell you what you've got (plain float, bevelled, antique or toughened), and what a like-for-like replacement costs.
If it's ordinary float mirror and the silvering is sound, yes. We can cut it down and polish the new edges. If it's toughened, it can't be touched. And if the backing is flaking or the edges have already gone black, cutting won't fix that, it'll just give you a smaller mirror with the same problem.
Yes. Commercial gyms, studios, and home gyms in garage and loft conversions. It's 6mm safety-backed mirror in floor-to-ceiling runs, butt-jointed, with the panel widths set out so the joints don't land in front of where people train. We fit these across Croydon, South London and Surrey.
Yes: smoked, bronze and grey tints, and foxed antique mirror, including antique cut into narrow bevelled strips for a feature wall. One honest warning: antique mirror is decorative. The reflection is patchy by design, so it's a poor choice above a basin where somebody is going to shave in it.