There are six realistic ways to get glazing materials in the New York metro, and the right one depends on how much you need and how fast. We are one of them, so read this knowing that — but the honest breakdown below is more use to you than a sales page, and you will check it anyway.
Quick answers
What is the fastest way to get sealant and shims in New York City?
A local glass-shop counter if you only need a few tubes and you are already near one. For a case or more, a supplier that delivers is faster, because the counter run costs you a driver and half a morning.
Do I need a trade account to buy glazing supplies?
At the large distributors, usually yes for trade pricing. Not everywhere — on this site the case price is public and the volume price engages automatically from 20 cases, with no account and no application.
Why is freight so expensive on sealant and shims?
Because it is heavy. Anything over 150 pounds leaves the parcel network and moves as LTL freight on a pallet, which is priced per shipment, not per box. A single pallet of shims is well over a ton.
What should I check before ordering from anyone?
Three things: the unit (case, box or each), the delivery cost to your actual address, and whether the product carries the standard your specification names by title.
1. National glazing distributors
The category default. Very deep catalogues, every gauge and grade, and the brands that architects write into specifications.
Good for: anything unusual, anything specified by brand name, and standing supply for a shop that orders every week.
Costs you: trade pricing usually means an account and an application. Freight on heavy goods is normally quoted rather than shown, so the number you see at the top of the page is rarely the number you pay.
2. Industrial supply houses
The everything-stores. Fast, well-run, and they will ship to a site.
Good for: fasteners, tools, consumables, anything you also buy for the shop.
Costs you: glazing depth. Sealant grades and shim gauges thin out quickly, and the trade unit is often wrong — you end up buying singles at a case price.
3. Local glass-shop counters
Someone near you already stocks a little of everything.
Good for: the tube you forgot, today.
Costs you: hours and depth. Counters keep short hours and shallow stock; two counters in a morning to assemble one job is a normal outcome.
4. Direct from the manufacturer
Good for: a genuinely large programme, where you are buying container quantities and can hold them.
Costs you: everything below a truckload. Minimums are set for distributors, not for a job.
5. General marketplaces
Good for: emergencies, and only sometimes.
Costs you: certainty. Grade, shelf life and who actually ships it are frequently unclear, and sealant is a product with a shelf life — ours is twelve months from manufacture. Old stock is not a bargain.
6. A regional supplier with its own van — which is what we are
We hold one line of each thing a glazier uses every day, in our own building at 152 Halladay St, Jersey City, and we drive it in ourselves.
- Delivery is free across all five boroughs, with no minimum. Verified at live checkout on addresses as far out as Co-op City in the Bronx, Tottenville on Staten Island and Glen Oaks in Queens.
- The case price is public. No login, no account application, no “call for pricing”. Volume pricing engages from 20 cases.
- The unit is in the product name — 1 Case of 20, 1 Box of 1,000, 1 Carton — so nothing arrives in a quantity you did not expect.
Where we are honest about being the wrong choice: we carry one line of each thing, not forty. If your specification names a brand we do not stock, a national distributor is the right call and we will say so. And our Seimeda and Silande sealants are tested to GB 16776-2005 and GB/T 13477 — that is a real laboratory programme, but it is not ASTM certification and not a US code approval. Where the specification names ASTM C920 or C1184 by title, order the DOWSIL 795, which we also stock.
How to choose, in one table
| If you need… | Go to |
|---|---|
| One tube, right now, and a counter is close | Local glass shop |
| A case or more, delivered in the city | A regional supplier with a van |
| A brand named in the specification | National distributor — or us, if it is DOWSIL 795 |
| Fasteners and tools alongside the glazing | Industrial supply house |
| Container quantities for a programme | Manufacturer direct |
The question nobody asks until it is too late
Not “what does it cost” but “what does it cost to my address”. A case price that looks good next to a freight quote you only see at the last step is not a good price. Put your real street address in before you compare — ours shows the delivery cost before you pay, and inside New York City it is zero.
See the delivery zones · Sealants · Shims and spacers · Installation supplies