Everything we make is fabricated in our own workshop on Worksop Road in Sheffield, then either delivered to you or installed by our own site teams. This page covers how both work, what is chargeable and what is not, and what we need from you.
It does not tell you how to install our products. If you want fitting detail for something specific, the product page covers it and our FAQs answer the common questions. Ask us and we will talk it through.
Delivery across the UK
We deliver anywhere in mainland Great Britain, and to Northern Ireland, the Scottish islands and the Isle of Man by arrangement.
What we make ranges from a handful of glass clamps to a two storey staircase, so it does not all travel the same way. There are three routes, and which one your order takes decides both the cost and what you need to have ready at your end.
Parcel courier, for small items
Fixings, glass clamps, handrail brackets and connectors, neoprene support strips, washing line accessories and similar. Priced at checkout against your postcode and the weight of the goods, and the figure you see is the figure you pay. Most of this is held in stock and goes out quickly.
These follow the courier's normal service. If nobody is in, a courier will often leave a parcel where it judges it safe, down the side of a house or with a neighbour, and in courier terms that counts as delivered. If you would rather that did not happen at your address, tell us when you order and we will put the instruction on the consignment.
Pallet courier, for glass and anything that palletises
Floor glass, well covers, balustrade glass, wine cellar doors, Juliet balconies, handrail tube, railings and smaller fabrications. These go out strapped and protected on a pallet, delivered by tail-lift vehicle where the road allows it.
Pallet deliveries are kerbside. The driver will not carry goods into the property and will not take packaging away. Most pallet work travels on an 18 tonne vehicle, so if you are down a narrow lane, a track or a restricted street, tell us before you order and we will price a smaller vehicle.
Anything that is not a parcel is booked in with you first. We agree a delivery day before the goods leave here, and we expect somebody to be there on it.
If you cannot be in on the agreed day, tell us. We can often leave the goods unsigned, but only where you have confirmed that in advance and accepted the risk of them being left. If you are simply not there, the goods come back on the wagon and a redelivery charge follows.
Dedicated vehicle, for staircases, balconies and large fabrications
Anything long, heavy or awkward goes on its own transport rather than into a courier network: a flatbed, or a HIAB where the load has to be lifted off rather than slid off.
On these the figure shown at checkout is an estimate rather than a quote. We work out the real cost against the size of the item, your postcode and the access at the far end, and tell you before anything is charged.
These are booked in the same way, and the same rules apply, with one difference that matters. Where the delivery depends on you having people or plant there to offload it, there is no option to leave it unsigned. If we have booked a day on the basis that a team or a fork truck will be there and it is not, the wagon leaves with the goods still on it and a redelivery charge follows. That is the one worth planning properly.
How wine cellar doors are delivered
Cellar doors are the exception to everything below. A wine cellar door arrives as a fully assembled unit, glazed and ready to install, with the frame, the hinges or the motorised mechanism and the glass already built up and tested as one piece. That is deliberate. It is a precision assembly and it is set up here rather than on your floor.
It also means it is heavy, because the glass is most of the weight and it is already in the frame.
Most units go out on a pallet and come off on the vehicle's tail lift, which asks nothing of you beyond somewhere for the pallet to land. Above roughly two metres, a unit is generally too large for a tail lift, and offloading becomes your side of the job.
That means either mechanical handling, a fork truck or a crane, or, far more commonly, a team of people on site to take it off by hand. Most customers do not have lifting plant and arrange bodies instead, which works perfectly well provided they are actually there on the day.
Tell us the delivery point and the access when you order and we will tell you straight which side of that line your unit falls on.
How staircases are supplied and delivered
Every staircase we make is supplied in kit form. Nothing leaves here as one assembled flight that has to be craned over a wall or threaded through a doorway in one piece.
What the kit consists of depends on the stair:
- Spine staircase. The spine itself is fully fabricated and travels as one piece. The treads come separately, and so do the glass and the balustrade
- Traditional stringer flight. The stringers travel separately from the treads, which bolt into them on site
- Spiral staircase. The centre column, the treads individually, then the balustrade and handrail
- Anything with a turn, a landing or a longer run. Made in sections designed to bolt together, with the posts supplied separately
That is a design decision rather than a convenience. A kit will go down a passageway, round a landing and up a narrow stairwell opening that an assembled flight could never be carried through, and it means nobody is hiring a crane to get a staircase into a hallway.
It is still heavy, and transport is still a real cost. A spine, or a pair of stringers for a full storey, is a long piece of steel and goes on a dedicated vehicle, so you need room for the wagon and people to take it off. The difference is that you are handling pieces one at a time rather than one lump you have no sensible way of moving.
How balconies are delivered
Balconies follow the staircase principle: a bolt together kit rather than one welded unit. The frame sections, the posts, the decking, the balustrade, and the glass crated separately.
The glass is the part to plan for. Structural floor glass and balustrade panels are heavy, they are crated flat, and they need either mechanical handling or enough people to receive them safely. A large walk-on glass floor panel is not something to catch between two of you.
Juliet balconies are the exception and go out on a pallet like any other panel, because there is no platform and no posts to carry.
If we are installing it, delivery is our problem
Where you take an installed price, we bring the goods with the fitting team and offloading is on us. You do not need to arrange plant, people or a delivery slot, and there is nothing sat on your drive waiting for a fitter.
On a large cellar door, a glass floor balcony or any first floor installation, that is usually the deciding factor rather than the labour cost.
Before the wagon arrives
- Check the access honestly. A tight turn, a low bridge, a parked street or a soft verge is better raised with us beforehand than discovered by a driver
- Be there on the booked day. Parcels may be left by the courier, but a pallet or a dedicated delivery is booked with you and needs receiving. If you cannot be there, tell us in advance rather than on the day
- Have the people or the plant there. Where offloading needs your end to provide it, that has to be arranged before the day, not found on it
- Inspect before you sign. Damage in transit is far easier to deal with on the day than a week later
Full delivery terms, including lead times and failed deliveries, are on our delivery information page.
Shipping worldwide
Our hinged glass floors go all over the world, and they are by a distance the thing we export most. A hinged wine cellar door or glass floor hatch is a self contained unit that crates well and ships on a pallet, and there is very little made like it anywhere, so they leave here for overseas customers regularly rather than occasionally.
What we export is essentially what fits on a pallet. Hinged glass floors and cellar doors, floor glass, well covers, balustrade components, Juliet balconies and smaller fabrications all travel economically.
Staircases, balconies and large fabrications generally do not. The freight on something long or oversized usually costs more than makes sense against the value of the goods, and we would rather tell you that than quietly take the order. Ask us by all means and we will price it, but expect the carriage to be the deciding factor.
An export quote is built from four things, shown separately so you can see what you are paying for:
- The goods, zero rated to UK VAT
- Export palletisation, because the unit travels crated on a heavy export pallet, non-stackable
- Export customs clearance
- DAP shipping, door to door, tail-lift service, fully insured
Import duties, taxes and clearance fees at your end are yours to pay. We do not know what they will be in your country and we would rather say so than guess. Check with your local customs authority or your forwarder before you order.
You are very welcome to arrange your own freight forwarder instead. Once the order is confirmed we will give you packed crate dimensions and gross weight, and you should tell your forwarder the consignment is non-stackable, fragile and contains glass.
Transit is typically 7 to 10 working days once the goods are dispatched, subject to customs clearance at the destination. Production lead time is separate and depends on the product.
The offloading point applies abroad as much as at home. A cellar door arrives assembled and glazed, so on a large unit make sure your delivery point can receive it before you commit.
Installation across the UK
We install nationwide with our own site teams, not subcontractors. The people who fit it work for the firm that made it, which matters when something on site is not quite as the drawing assumed.
Installation is always quoted separately from the steelwork, so you can see both figures and decide. Ask for an installed price when you enquire and we will give you one alongside the supply price.
Some things are worth taking the installed price for even if you normally fit your own. Structural glass at first floor level, a balcony coming off a wall, and anything that needs lifting into position are all jobs where the labour is the smaller half of the problem.
Installation is a UK service. Overseas orders are supplied for your own installer to fit.
Site surveys
A site survey is a chargeable visit in its own right. It is not a free sales call, and we price it as the piece of work it is.
On most things it is optional. On balconies it is usually necessary rather than optional, because the wall, the inside floor level and the door threshold all have to be measured before anything can be drawn. The same goes for a staircase fitting between two existing levels, or a balustrade following a line that is not straight or not level.
If you are confident taking your own measurements, send them with photographs and we will work from those. The photographs settle more questions than the measurements do.
Supply only, for you or your builder to fit
Everything we make can be bought supply only, and every fixing needed to bolt the kit together is supplied with it.
Wall and floor fixings are not supplied on a supply only order. The right anchor depends on what your building is made of and what condition it is in, and that is not a call we can make from here. Fixing points come drilled ready and your installer selects anchors to suit the substrate. Where we install, we take that decision on site and provide them.
Nothing is made before you approve the drawing
Ordering does not put steel on a saw. Anything made to your own sizes is drawn up on AutoCAD and sent to you to approve first, and nothing is cut until you have signed it off. The drawing is a formal part of our order process rather than a courtesy, and changes at drawing stage cost nothing.
How we contract
We supply and install on our own order and terms, with payment by proforma before delivery. We are not set up for JCT contract work and do not take it on, so if your project runs under a main contract with retention and payment notices, we are probably not the right fit and we would rather tell you that at enquiry stage than at order stage.
For everything else, commercial and domestic alike, we quote, draw, make, deliver and fit. Our terms and conditions set out the detail.
Ask us
Tell us what you want making, where it is going and whether you want it fitted, and we will price the lot. Call 0114 243 9009 or email sales@diomet.co.uk.