Product-specific questions
Some products have enough detail behind them to need a page of their own. If your question is about one of these, start here:
- Glass balustrades: heights, toughened or laminated glass, framed or frameless, what you can fix to, finishes, stainless grades and certification.
- Steel staircases: cost, the one measurement we need, kit form delivery, spines and spirals, open risers, external finishes and regulations.
- Hinged glass floors and wine cellar doors: glass, loadings, safety features, sizes, colours, weight, installation and what sits below the door.
- Glass well covers: glass type and thickness, whether you need a steel frame, condensation, slip resistance, cleaning the underside and removal for maintenance.
- Glass door canopies: sizes, fixings, glass specification and what a canopy will and will not do.
- Steel walk-out balconies: support, decking, drainage, balustrade options and what a retrofit involves.
- Looking after walk-on glass: cleaning, anti-slip treatment and the maintenance a glass floor actually needs.
Background reading rather than a question? Our building regulations guides cover balconies, balustrades, staircases, handrails and glass floors in full, our material finishes page covers galvanising, powder coating, stainless grades and glass standards, and our toughened and laminated glass guide explains the glass itself.
Products and popular items
Do you supply walk-on glass floors or wine cellar doors?
Yes, this is one of our most popular bespoke products. We supply hinged walk-on glass floor systems and wine cellar doors, available with manual operation on gas struts or fully electric automated systems, in toughened laminated glass designed to the domestic imposed loads, typically 1.5 kN/m2 uniform and 2.0 kN concentrated. See our hinged glass floor and wine cellar door FAQ for full specifications.
Do you supply glass covers for wells or basement voids?
Yes, we custom fabricate walk-on glass covers for wells, sumps and basement voids, built using 25.5mm to 33mm safety glass set in a steel frame. We can design for light, display or access, and the system can be fabricated in any shape or size. See the glass well cover FAQ, or the 17ft well we covered in Audlem.
What kind of decking or floor can I use with your steel balcony kits?
Our framework is designed to take composite decking, which is our standard. We can also integrate walk-on structural glass flooring or steel grating as part of a custom kit design. Our steel balcony kit guide covers what else is in the kit and what you provide. The Rutland balcony is a full glass floor; most jobs are better served by a glass panel or two set into a solid deck.
What grade stainless steel do you use?
G316 marine grade for anything external, and G304 internally, polished to 320 grit. Check the product page to confirm the grade on a specific item. G304 outdoors will tea stain within a couple of winters, so we do not offer it there.
Technical compliance and regulations
Do your products conform to building regulations?
The majority of our products, including staircases, balustrades and balconies, are designed to meet current UK building regulations, principally Approved Documents K and B and BS 6180. The exception is the wire rope balustrade, covered below. Final responsibility for checking compliance against your specific project, the required loadings and the intended use lies with you and your local building control officer. All structural steelwork is UKCA marked, which is a legal requirement rather than an option.
Is my staircase, glass floor system or balustrade UKCA certified?
Yes. All structural steelwork supplied by Dio-Met Fabrications Ltd is fabricated to BS EN 1090-2 under audited factory production control and UKCA marked, with a Declaration of Performance available. More on what that covers, and what it does not, on our UKCA certification page.
Do you design general access stairs for commercial buildings?
Yes, routinely, designed to the stricter requirements in Approved Document K. See our commercial fire escape stair in Walthamstow.
Will a wire rope balustrade pass building control?
No. We sell wire rope balustrades and fit them regularly, but we tell every customer the same thing before they order: a horizontal wire balustrade will not satisfy building control.
Spacing and tension deal with the 100mm sphere rule. The requirement that cannot be engineered away is the one in Approved Document K that guarding should not be easily climbed where children may be present, and evenly spaced horizontal wires are exactly the arrangement that guidance is aimed at.
That does not make it a bad product. It makes it your choice, made with the facts in front of you, and a great many situations do not have to comply at all: a private terrace, a garden boundary, a deck edge on a job with no building control involvement. Plenty of people want wire in those settings and we are glad to make it. Where the job does have to be signed off, or where young children use the space, we will tell you to have glass or vertical bar infill instead rather than take the order. There is a worked example on our wire rope balustrade in Dronfield.
Do I need planning permission for a walk-out balcony?
Almost certainly yes. Balconies and raised platforms sit outside permitted development, and overlooking is the objection that usually comes up. Our balcony and Juliet balcony building regulations guide covers it, and we can supply a drawing for the application. Always confirm with your local planning authority.
Ordering, service and logistics
What areas do you cover?
Nationwide. We dispatch across the UK every week from our Sheffield workshops.
We export too, although in practice to what fits on a pallet. Our hinged glass floors and wine cellar doors go all over the world and are by a distance the thing we ship most, as on our cellar door supplied to New Jersey. Staircases, balconies and large fabrications are rarely economic to send overseas because the freight outweighs the value of the goods. Full detail on our delivery and installation page.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes, certain products only, and always by individual arrangement. There is no standard international service and no automatic rate, so contact us for a quote before you order. Email sales@diomet.co.uk or call 0114 243 9009 and tell us what you want and where it is going. More on our delivery information page.
Do you install the products?
Yes, across the UK, using our own installers rather than subcontractors. You do not have to have us fit it, though. Everything we make can also be bought supply only, whatever the size.
Do you have a showroom?
Not a traditional public showroom, but you are welcome to visit and see where the work gets done. What is available to look at varies with whatever is going through production, so contact us first if there is something specific you want to see.
How long will it take to make my item?
It depends on the product. Balustrades and handrails are usually the quickest; balconies, staircases and structural glass floors take longer, because there is more steel, more drawing work and often a glass lead time on top. Everything is made to order, so the clock starts at drawing sign-off rather than at the order. A firm lead time for your job comes with your quotation, so ask us before you book a fitter or a plasterer. Our guide lead times by product give the usual ranges, what the finish does to them and when the clock starts.
How do you deliver glass, balustrades and heavier items?
Three ways, depending on what it is.
Small items go by parcel courier on that courier's normal service, so if nobody is in they may be left in a safe place or with a neighbour. Tell us at order if you do not want that at your address.
Glass, cellar doors, Juliet balconies, railings and smaller fabrications go by pallet courier, strapped and protected, by tail-lift vehicle where the road allows. Pallet deliveries are strictly kerbside: the driver will not take goods inside and will not remove packaging. Most travel on an 18 tonne vehicle, so tell us beforehand if you are down a narrow lane.
Staircases, walk-out balconies and larger wine cellar doors go on a dedicated flatbed, and you need to provide the offloading.
Anything that is not a parcel is booked in with you before it leaves us, and somebody needs to be there on the agreed day. Where the delivery depends on your people or a fork truck being there to take it off, there is no option to leave it: if the help is not there, the goods go back and a re-delivery charge follows. Full detail is on our delivery and installation page and in our delivery information.
What payment methods do you accept?
All major credit and debit cards, BACS transfer, PayPal, and cash at our Sheffield premises. Items cannot be paid for on delivery.
What do you need to give me a quotation?
Photographs, a sketch and dimensions. For bespoke work, tell us the intended use as well, domestic or commercial, because it changes the loadings the design has to meet.
Can I cancel my order?
Standard products, yes, on request. Bespoke products cannot be cancelled once manufacturing has begun, because they have no resale value. See our terms and conditions.
Why are your prices lower than quotes I have had elsewhere?
Three reasons, none of them mysterious. We sell direct at published prices, with no showroom, no sales force and no middleman between the workshop and you. We make the steelwork ourselves rather than buying it in. And our standard designs are made repeatedly, so the drawing work and the setting out are already done.
We would not claim to be cheapest on everything. If a quotation you have is substantially below ours, it is worth checking what is actually in it: the glass specification, whether the steel is galvanised as well as painted, whether a Declaration of Performance comes with it, and whether delivery and offloading are included. Those four account for most of the gap we see.
Will you price match a cheaper quote?
No. We do not price match. We cannot compare ourselves to companies offering a different quality of product, a different level of service and a different pedigree in terms of reviews and how long they have traded, so we price honestly and what we believe is competitively for the work and the service level we offer. Where it is relevant, our products are UKCA certified, which many companies' products are not. We always recommend you get other quotes from reputable companies, so you can see where we stand. The position in full is on how to get a price from us.
Buying, prices and payment
Can I buy supply only and fit it myself?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Everything we make can be bought supply only, whatever the size, and our steel balcony kit guide sets out exactly how a supply-only order runs. There is no point at which a job becomes installation only. Some jobs suit it less well than others: a curved handrail that needs skilled fitting and adjustment on site is one where we would usually say let us do it. We will tell you honestly which yours is rather than take the order and hope. See a supply-only staircase self installed in Wales and a DIY walkout balcony in Wiltshire.
Can I buy just the glass, or just the parts?
Yes to both. We sell glass on its own regularly, in a lot of different sizes and specifications, and we sell individual parts and fittings: posts, clamps, handrail sections, replacement panels. Most of it is listed with prices on, so you can order it without waiting for a quotation. If what you need is not listed, ask us.
What are your payment terms?
On a quoted bespoke job it is generally a 25% deposit to get started, with the balance due when the job is ready to ship or install. Anything bought through the webshop is paid in full at the point of order. We do not offer credit terms as standard, though on larger commercial jobs they can be agreed in advance.
Do you offer trade prices?
Yes, for trade quantities and repeat business. A one-off order is charged at the normal price whoever is buying it. If you are a builder, developer or fabricator placing regular work with us, talk to us about it.
Survey, site work and guarantee
Do you survey before you make anything?
On installation jobs, generally yes, unless it is something blindingly straightforward. On supply only we can still survey if you want us to, but we normally work to the dimensions you give us and supply a drawing so that you or your builder can check it before anything is cut. That drawing is the moment to catch a mistake, because once it is signed off, we make it to those sizes.
Do you bring your own access equipment, and do you make good afterwards?
We normally work from our own tower scaffold and bring lifting equipment where it is needed, and that is included in an installation price. Making good is not included unless we have quoted for it. We are not general builders. We will often quote to excavate and set posts in concrete for a balcony, or to take out an existing structure, but we do not make good walls, paint, render or paving.
What fixings are included, and who is responsible for the wall?
Supply only orders include everything needed to assemble the product, but not the fixings into your building, because those depend entirely on what we are fixing to. On installation jobs we bring a range of fixings to suit most situations and that is included in the price. The building itself remains the customer's responsibility: the walls, floors and surfaces we fix to have to be sound. We can only fix to what is there, in whatever way we judge most appropriate.
Is there a guarantee?
Yes, a free 10 year warranty on the steelwork we manufacture, covering any defect attributable to a manufacturing, assembly or material fault. Parts and labour are covered for the first twelve months, and parts for the remaining nine years. If we installed it we will repair it on site wherever possible; supply only goods come back to us in Sheffield for rectification.
Glass is not covered by the warranty. It is a fragile material and we buy it in rather than make it, so once a panel has been delivered and accepted it sits outside the ten years. Damage in transit is a separate matter with its own 48 hour reporting window. The full wording is on our terms and conditions page.
See what we have built
Most questions are easier to answer with a photograph of a finished job than with a paragraph. Our projects blog has over a hundred of them, written up with the specification, the problem and what we did about it. A few to start with:
Still not answered?
These are the questions we are asked most often, but every job is different and most of ours start with a photograph and a rough size. Send those over and we will tell you what we would build and what it is likely to cost.
Call 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diomet.co.uk. If your question is about the rules rather than the product, our building regulations guides go into far more depth than we can here, and our material finishes page covers galvanising, powder coating, stainless grades and glass standards.
Not sure what to send us for a quote? See how to get a price from us.