Shutters are priced by area, not by window
Almost every shutter company in the UK prices by the square metre of covered opening. Measure the width, measure the drop, multiply, apply the rate. That is the skeleton of every quote you will be given, including ours.
Our pricing is based on the area of the opening, and it includes VAT, delivery and installation. That last part matters when you are comparing quotes. A rate that looks lower on paper is often quoted before VAT, before fitting, or before the frame that the panels actually hang in.
The area rate is a starting point rather than a formula. Two windows of identical area can carry genuinely different costs, and the reasons are usually structural rather than commercial.
What moves the price
In rough order of how much difference each one makes:
- Total area. More glass, more shutter, more money. This is the biggest single factor by a distance.
- Number of separate windows. Each opening needs its own frame, its own survey time and its own fitting time, so six small windows cost more than one window of the same combined area.
- Material. Painted Paulownia sits at the everyday end. Stained Ashwood, Basswood and the engineered Hybra core cost more, and waterproof PVC carries its own premium for wet rooms.
- Style. Full height is the most economical way to cover a window. Tier-on-tier means two independent sets of panels and two sets of hardware on the same opening, so it costs more than full height on the same window.
- Shape. Arches, apexes, circles and angled staircase windows are templated on site and built individually. They take longer to survey and longer to make.
- Bays. A bay is several windows meeting at angles, with mitred frames and posts, so it prices as the sum of its faces plus the complexity of joining them.
- Colour and finish. Standard whites are the baseline. Custom colour matching and wood stains add cost.
- Access and installation. A tall stairwell window, a listed frame that has to be worked around, or a fitting that needs two people for a day all show up in the final figure.
Why small windows cost more per square metre
A cloakroom window might only be 0.4m² but it still needs a frame, hinges, a tilt mechanism, a survey visit, a delivery and a fitter standing in front of it. Those costs do not shrink in proportion to the glass.
In practice this means very small windows carry an effective minimum, and adding a small window to a larger order is far better value than ordering it on its own. If you are doing a whole house, the per square metre figure works in your favour.
Indicative costs
Worked from our guide rate and typical UK window sizes, including VAT, delivery and installation. These are illustrations to help you budget, not quotations. Your own windows will differ.
| Window | Approximate area | Indicative cost |
|---|---|---|
| Small bedroom window | 1.2m² | £400 to £500 |
| Standard living room window | 2m² | £600 to £700 |
| Large window, over 1.5m wide | 3.2m² | £950 to £1,100 |
| Three sided bay | 5m² | £1,500 to £1,800 |
| Large or splayed bay | 7m² | £2,100 to £2,500 |
| Pair of French doors | 4m² | £1,250 to £1,450 |
Why two similar looking windows price differently
The photograph of a window tells you very little about what it costs to dress. The survey is where the differences appear.
A window that opens inward needs the frame packed forward so the handle clears the panel. A window sitting in a recess that is 12mm out of square across its height needs the frame scribed rather than simply fitted. A sash window with a deep reveal can take a shutter set entirely inside the opening, while a shallow reveal means a face fitted frame and a different panel size.
None of this is upselling. It is the difference between a shutter that closes cleanly for ten years and one that catches on the handle from the first week.
A worked example
This street facing lounge is a good illustration of style driving cost. Full height panels would have been the cheaper answer, but closing them for evening privacy would have darkened the whole room. Tier-on-tier costs more on the same opening because it is two independent panel sets with two sets of hardware, and in this room that extra cost bought the thing the customer actually wanted, which was privacy at seated height without losing the daylight above it.
From our projects
Tier-on-tier in a period lounge
A street-facing lounge that needed privacy at seated height without losing the daylight that made the room worth sitting in.
See the projectHow payment works
Shutters are made to your measurements, so like every made to measure product they are paid for in stages rather than on completion. Ours are 60% deposit to start manufacture, 30% on delivery and the final 10% once the installation is finished and you are happy with it.
Standard lead time is around nine weeks on express shipping, counted from the day the deposit is paid. Fitting is then booked on a date that suits you once delivery is confirmed.
What to take away
Use the square metre rate to sanity check your budget, then treat the survey as the point at which the real number appears. If a quote comes in well under the guide rate, find out what has been left out of it, and if it comes in well over, ask which part of the specification is driving it.
