This site began as a shared document. Between us we had spent an unreasonable amount of time reading quotations for glazed openings — for our own houses, for family, for friends who kept asking the same questions — and the notes kept growing. At some point it made more sense to publish them than to keep emailing them around.
The subject is narrow on purpose: Schüco aluminium door and window systems — Schuco, if you are typing it into a search box — as they are actually bought and fitted in houses across North London and Hertfordshire. Woodford Green through Barnet and Potters Bar, out to Hertford, St Albans and Stevenage. That is the patch we know, and the patch where our price and lead-time observations mean something.
Why there are no author photographs
You will notice the guides are signed by the editorial team rather than by a named individual with a headshot and a biography. That is deliberate.
Trade blogs are full of invented personas — the fictional "senior glazing consultant with 22 years' experience" who does not exist and whose portrait was bought from a stock library. We would rather not do that. Everything here is written and checked by the two people who run the site, and where a guide leans on a particular installer's experience we say so in the text rather than borrowing their name for a byline.
If you want to know who is behind a particular claim, email and ask. We will tell you.
No sponsored articles. No affiliate links. No paid placements in the guides. If that ever changes, it will be labelled clearly at the top of the affected page rather than buried in a footer.
How the guides are put together
Each guide is assembled from four sources, in roughly this order of weight:
- Manufacturer and fabricator technical literature. System data sheets, profile drawings and published performance figures. Where a figure is likely to have changed, we say so and tell you to check rather than pretending our number is authoritative.
- Conversations with people who fit these doors. Surveyors, fitters and a couple of fabricators who have been generous with their time. Nobody has paid for a mention.
- Quotations and invoices. Homeowners have shared these with us, with names and addresses removed. This is where the price ranges come from.
- Looking at installations. Including ones that went wrong, which are more instructive than the ones that went right.
We also read fabricators' own product pages, partly to keep up and partly because comparing a quotation against a published specification is the fastest way to catch a quote written from a template. 5ec-alu.co.uk is one of the local sites we check against, because the technical detail is on the page rather than behind an enquiry form.
What we do not do
We do not sell, fit, survey or quote for doors. We do not pass your details to anyone, because we do not collect them. We do not run a directory, take referral fees, or maintain a list of "approved" installers — we have opinions about how to choose one, and those opinions are set out in the guide to choosing a supplier so you can apply them yourself.
We are also not affiliated with Schüco International KG in any way. The name of this site describes what it is about. Schüco designs and extrudes the profiles; the doors themselves are made and fitted by independent fabricators, and that distinction is explained in most of the guides here because it is the single most useful thing to understand when you are comparing quotes.
Corrections
Specifications change, regulations are revised, and we get things wrong. If you spot an error — particularly a technical figure that has moved — please tell us. Corrections are made to the page and the modification date at the top of the article is updated, so you can always see when something was last touched.
We are especially interested in hearing from installers. If something in a guide does not match what you see on site every week, that is worth knowing, and we would rather be corrected than confident.
Getting in touch
Email is the only sensible way: [email protected]. We read everything and answer most things, usually within a few days.
What we can help with: pointing you at the right guide, explaining a line on a quotation, or telling you which question to ask next. What we cannot help with: recommending a specific company, giving you a price for your opening, or acting as an intermediary in a dispute with an installer.
Where we cover
The technical content applies anywhere in the UK. The prices, lead times and local observations apply to a fairly tight area — broadly the corridor north out of London and the Hertfordshire towns around it:
- Woodford Green
- Chingford
- Southgate
- Barnet
- Finchley
- Muswell Hill
- Enfield
- Potters Bar
- Cheshunt
- Broxbourne
- Hertford
- Ware
- Hatfield
- St Albans
- Radlett
- Borehamwood
- Welwyn Garden City
- Stevenage
Start here: The bifold buyer's guide · What these doors cost · Thresholds and regulations