Nobody in this trade likes talking straight about lead times on a made-to-measure roller shutter. A round number gets quoted, fingers get crossed, and the customer gets a call when it slips. We would rather explain the real mechanics: what happens in the workshop, what sends a job off the rails, and what you can lock down before you even send us the order.
From order form to delivery, step by step
Nothing here comes off a shelf.
Reading the order
Before a single profile is cut, your order is read line by line: dimensions surveyed, type of fitting, roll direction, control side, slat section, colours of box and rails, motor, type of operation. When it is all there, this step takes a few minutes. When something is missing, the job stops, and that is where the calendar really starts to suffer. What costs us the most time is not the complicated orders, it is the ones where the clear opening is not stated and someone has to ring back to find out what was measured.
Getting the profile and the colour
We hold in stock what turns over.
Common profiles, slats from the most-requested ranges, standard colours. As soon as an order steps outside that, it depends on an outside supply or a trip to the coating line, and we are no longer the ones holding the watch. A particular shade, a wood-effect finish, a less common slat section: that is the variable that moves a lead time most, more than the assembly time itself. The same goes for a job needing a reinforced surface treatment for a shutter by the sea: the part goes to coating, and the calendar follows.
Cutting, machining, assembly
Then comes the workshop. Box and rails cut to the dimensions of the job, the barrel run through, the operation exit, the drilling, the override access reserved, slats assembled into a curtain with clips and end caps. A legible order runs straight through.
Motor, checking, packing
The motor goes in, then gets wired or paired according to the technology chosen.
Every shutter is then operated, the limits are set, the curtain is watched for how it holds its line and the coating for how it looks. Packing counts as much as the rest: a box marked by a pallet strap is a product refused on delivery and a unit to make again.
Why the lead time changes from one order to the next
Two jobs handed in the same morning do not follow the same road. Here is what weighs.
What lengthens it
- A colour outside the common palette, or a specific coating. The part has to be treated, so it travels and it waits.
- A wood-effect finish, which is not handled in the same run as a plain coating.
- A large size: reinforcement, a matched barrel, handling by more than one person, longer checking.
- An uncommon motor or an unusual home-automation configuration, whose availability cannot be assumed.
- A doubtful dimension. The round trip to verify it is the single biggest thief of time, and it is entirely avoidable.
- The peak of the season, when demand for shutters, insect screens and garage doors concentrates into a short period.
What shortens it
- A configuration that is ordinary within our usual roller shutter ranges.
- A complete survey, with the values found and the type of fitting written down in black and white.
- A standard colour, with no detour through coating.
- A common motor.
- Collection from the workshop, which removes the transport step altogether.
| Order parameter | Likely effect on the lead time |
|---|---|
| Standard colour / specific or wood-effect colour | Neutral / lengthens |
| Ordinary size / large size | Neutral / lengthens |
| Common motor / particular reference | Neutral / lengthens |
| Complete file / a dimension to confirm | Shortens / lengthens sharply |
| Workshop collection / delivery to site | Shortens / depends on the round |
| Out of season / peak season | Shortens / lengthens |
The six most frequent causes of delay, and how to avoid them
- The dimension taken off the existing curtain instead of the real opening. A classic in renovation. Checking catches it, the job stops, and you lose the whole benefit of having ordered early. Measure in several places and send the raw values.
- The type of fitting left unstated. Traditional inside a box, monobloc, face-fixed renovation: those are not the same machining operations. Without that line, nothing goes into production.
- Motor side or roll direction forgotten. A detail in appearance, a full stop in reality.
- The colour given by its everyday name. “Anthracite grey” covers several shades. We have seen an installer order from memory to match a customer’s gate, then discover the gap at fitting. Give a reference.
- The motor chosen without looking at what is there. Supply present or not, wired, radio, solar: that choice governs procurement. Our comparison of radio motors exists precisely to settle it before ordering.
- The order placed after the fitting date is booked. Once the date is fixed with the customer there is no margin left, and the smallest hitch becomes a postponement.
Your part of the work
A file prepared once, but completely
The real time saving happens at your end, not ours. A file that arrives with dimensions taken in several places, the type of fitting, the nature of the substrate, the roll direction, the control side, a referenced colour and the motor chosen goes through validation without stopping once. We have never seen a complete file stick at that stage. An incomplete one waits its turn twice: once for the question to leave the workshop, once for the answer to come back, and in between your job does not move a millimetre on the schedule. Our method for surveying a shutter in renovation lists line by line what a complete file has to contain.
Clear the doubt beforehand
A hesitation about feasibility, about the room available in an existing box, about which motor to pick: one call is enough. When a joiner sends us a photograph of the open box with two annotated dimensions, the question is settled in two minutes. The same question asked after production has started becomes rework.
Plan for what is predictable
On a villa with several openings, one coherent grouped order avoids multiplying files and deliveries. And on seasonal products, ordering ahead of the peak is the only lever that genuinely works.
What does a nearby workshop actually change?
Transport is a risk item before it is a logistics item. A product made far away is in transit, waits for a round, and gets handled several times.
When something gets damaged, everything starts again from zero.
Our workshop is at La Gaude, above the Var plain. You pass it coming up from Saint-Laurent or coming down from Carros, which makes collection realistic rather than theoretical.
The clearest effect shows up on the unexpected. A dimension to revise on a job in Nice, a rail to adapt because the scaffold came down earlier than planned, an accessory to pick up before tomorrow’s fitting: those get handled by a visit to the workshop instead of going back into a logistics circuit. It is also what lets you talk directly to the people who make the thing, without going through a sales desk that then has to ring production, as our introduction to the workshop describes.
What installers ask us
Why not publish a standard lead time on the site?
Because it would be wrong half the time. The lead time that applies to your order is given to you with your quotation.
Does a renovation unit leave faster than a traditional one?
Not necessarily. A renovation model in a specific colour and a large size can take longer than an ordinary traditional one in white. Look at the parameters, not the product family.
Does the choice of motor affect the calendar?
Yes, through availability. A common motor changes nothing. A particular reference may need procuring, and that is the kind of point to settle at the quotation stage, drawing on what we set out about the Somfy io motor if it helps.
Can an order be collected from the workshop?
To be confirmed with us according to the product and the period. In practice it is often the shortest route for a fitter who passes through the area regularly.
Ask for the current lead time when you get the quotation
Try it on your next job: survey properly, reference the colour, settle the motor, and watch the difference in how your order moves. A lead time on a made-to-measure roller shutter is steered upstream, never on the phone the day before fitting.
The lead time that applies to your configuration comes with the quotation. Send your file through, or pick up the phone before ordering if a technical point is holding you back.
Working in Villeneuve-Loubet? See our page on roller shutters in Villeneuve-Loubet.
