The most common question we get from first-time buyers: why is an arched door £2,500 when a rectangular one of the same size is £1,600? Here's the honest answer from inside the workshop.
Rectangular doors get measured. Arched doors get templated. A templating visit means someone physically visits the property, produces a hardboard or paper template of the arch geometry, and returns to the workshop with something the joiners can build from. It's typically half a day plus travel.
The frame is the hard part. A rectangular frame is straight cuts and simple joints. An arched frame requires laminating multiple curved segments to build up the arch, or steaming and bending solid timber to shape. Either approach takes hours of specialised work that a rectangular frame doesn't require.
Similar issue for the door itself. If the door has a curved head (following the arch), that head rail needs to be laminated or bent to shape. The vertical stiles then join the curved head at angled joints, not right angles. Rebate cuts for glass become curved cuts. All hand-worked.
If the door has arched-head glass panels, each pane must be cut precisely to the curve. Bevelled arched glass is particularly slow — it's cut, then bevelled on a specialist machine that has to be set up for the specific curve. Leaded lights need to be leaded around a curved edge. Even modern sealed units need bespoke fabrication to fit a curved head.
Not every joiner can build arched doors well. It's a distinct skill set — geometry, jointing, curved-frame work, template reading — and it takes years to develop. Workshops that can build arched doors properly are relatively rare, which affects labour cost.
Take a bespoke hardwood front door, engineered core, hardwood lippings, factory finish, three-point locking. Same specification, rectangular = £1,600-£2,000. Arched = £2,400-£3,200. The difference is roughly £800-£1,200, split between templating, frame work and glass.
People sometimes assume the price is 'because it's a fancy shape'. It isn't really — it's because every stage of the manufacturing process takes longer, from templating through frame construction through glass fitting. Rectangular doors are what workshops are set up to build efficiently. Arched doors are one-offs, priced accordingly.
Ironmongery, finish quality, timber species, security specification — these cost the same on an arched door as on a rectangular one. The premium is specifically for the arched geometry, not the door's other attributes.
