Made to measure doors: what's actually bespoke and what isn't

What is genuinely made to your house

The frame is. Every external frame we fit is manufactured to the surveyed dimensions of your structural opening, with a deliberate tolerance gap around it that gets packed and sealed. That gap isn't sloppiness — a frame fitted tight to brick has nowhere to go when the building moves and nowhere to take a fixing.

The glazed units are cut for the frame, so they're specific too. That's why a bespoke frame with the wrong dimensions is scrap: the glass was made for it as well.

What's chosen from a range, not created

The profile system — the extruded shape of the uPVC and its internal chambers — comes from a manufacturer's system and is fixed. So does the locking platform, the hinge type and the drainage design.

This is a good thing. A system that's been made in volume for years has tested weather performance, available spares in ten years' time, and hardware that can be replaced without hunting. A genuinely one-off profile would have none of that.

Tolerances, and why the survey beats your tape measure

Openings are rarely square. A Victorian terrace opening can differ 15mm between top and bottom, and a 1970s opening can be bowed in the middle. A surveyor measures width and height at three points each and works from the smallest, then designs the packing around the difference.

That's also why we survey before manufacture rather than quoting from your measurements. It isn't a sales visit — it's the step that prevents a frame being made to a dimension the wall doesn't actually have.

• Width measured at head, middle and cill
• Height measured at both jambs and centre
• Diagonals checked for square
• Internal and external floor levels compared
• Lintel condition checked where visible
• Cavity closer and damp-proof course arrangement noted

What changes the lead time

White, standard-size, clear-glazed products are the quickest because they're the volume line. Every step away from that adds days: a foil colour, an obscure glass, a non-standard width, side panels, an integral blind.

None of that is a reason not to have what you want. It's a reason to decide early, because the one thing that genuinely cannot be changed is the order after manufacture has started.

What you cannot change once it's ordered

Size, colour, glass and configuration are locked at the point the order goes to manufacture. A made-to-measure frame is not returnable and not resaleable, which is why deposits exist on this product at all.

What you can still change late is hardware finish in some cases, and anything about the fitting date. If you're wavering on colour, say so before you sign rather than after — we would far rather hold an order for two days than build the wrong thing.

Standard sizes: when they're the smart choice

If your opening happens to sit close to a standard size, keeping to it is cheaper and quicker with no downside — the frame is still made for your opening, it's just made from the volume line.

Going bespoke is worth it when the opening genuinely demands it, or when the door is the front of your house and you want a specific look. Going bespoke because a salesperson implied standard means inferior is not worth it. It doesn't.

How this fits our prices

Our starting prices — uPVC doors from £799, composite doors from £1,099, French doors from £1,499, windows from £450 — are for made-to-measure products in the standard range, fully fitted. They aren't a stock-size price with bespoke charged as an extra tier.

Where the number moves is the specific choices above: colour, glass, side panels, unusual widths. We tell you which of your choices are moving the price while we're standing in your hallway, not afterwards on the invoice.

What happens between the survey and the van arriving

There is a stage in the middle that customers never see and it is where most delays originate. After the survey, the dimensions are converted into a manufacturing order: frame sizes with the tolerance gap deducted, glass sizes derived from the frame, hardware positions set, colour and foil specified on both faces.

That order goes to manufacture as a batch. Glass is cut and sealed as units, profile is cut and welded, and the two meet at assembly. If any element is non-standard — an unusual colour on the inside face, a specialist obscure glass, an oversized pane — it is sourced separately and the whole order waits on the slowest component.

This is why we ask for decisions early and confirm them in writing before the order releases. A colour change on day one costs nothing. A colour change after the profile has been cut and welded means starting again.

Two openings that are never straightforward

Bay windows are the first. A bay is a structural element as well as a window: on many houses the roof or the wall above is carried by the bay frame itself. Replacing one is not a like-for-like swap, it needs propping and proper structural support, and it is priced and programmed differently from a flat opening. Anyone quoting a bay at flat-window rates has not understood the job.

Knocked-through openings are the second. Where a window has previously been enlarged into a door, or two openings combined, the lintel arrangement is often improvised and occasionally alarming. We check what is over the opening at survey and tell you before you order, because discovering an inadequate lintel with the frame already out is the worst possible time.

Neither is a reason to worry. Both are reasons to have a surveyor look before a price is fixed, which is exactly why we don't quote made-to-measure work over the phone from your own measurements.

How to brief your surveyor

The survey is the one appointment that determines everything that follows, and a five-minute brief from you makes it more accurate. Have answers ready for these.

• How you use the door day to day — main entrance, occasional use, prams and bikes?
• Anyone in the house with mobility needs now or plausibly later?
• Which side you want the hinges and why — where the door opens back to
• Colours inside and out, and whether they should differ
• Glass preferences — privacy level and how much light you want
• Existing problems to fix — draught, sticking, a threshold you trip on
• Budget range, honestly — it changes the spec discussion, not the survey

Lead times and what changes them

Standard white uPVC is the fastest product because profile and glass are stocked. Coloured and foiled frames, composite slabs, and French doors all add manufacturing steps, and anything unusual — a rare colour, specialist glass, an oversized pane — is sourced separately and sets the pace for the whole order.

Ask for a realistic lead time at survey and ask what in your order is driving it. Sometimes a small change, a standard colour on the inside face for example, shortens manufacture considerably, and you'd rather make that trade knowingly.

We confirm your manufacture slot when the order releases and agree the fitting date with you directly — the same team measures, orders and fits, so there is no handover for a promise to get lost in.