Specifying aluminium windows and doors South Africa wide for a whole project of aluminium windows and doors is a different job to buying one replacement window. You are making the same four decisions over and over — system, size, glass and finish — and getting them consistent is what separates a project that arrives ready to fit from one that arrives with three different handle heights.

This aluminium windows and doors guide walks the decisions in the order they actually matter, using the range we build and the prices we publish. It assumes you are ordering for a house, a development or a commercial job rather than a single opening.

Choosing the system for each opening

When you specify aluminium windows and doors, start opening by opening rather than picking a favourite system and forcing it everywhere. Each configuration solves a different problem:

Opening	Usual answer	Why
Bedrooms and living rooms	Top hung	Ventilation without anything projecting into the room at head height; the most popular window we build
Bathrooms and small openings	Side hung or a fixed pane with a vent	Controlled ventilation in a small area
Wide openings where view matters	Sliding or fixed	Maximum glass, nothing swinging into the space
Kitchens and serveries	Folding	Opens the full width and folds clear
Patio and garden access	Sliding or folding doors	Sliding for everyday use, folding when you want the whole opening clear
Front entrances	Hinged or pivot doors	A pivot reads more architectural; a hinge is simpler and cheaper
Alongside a door	Sidelights and toplights	Daylight into an entrance without widening the doorway

For aluminium windows and doors South Africa buyers most often get this wrong on wide openings — specifying folding where sliding would do. Folding costs more and needs somewhere for the panels to stack; sliding needs side space for the leaf to travel into. Neither works if the wall alongside is full of cupboards.

Our system lines cover the range: Premier and Horizon for sliding doors, Vistafold and Vista Duo for folding, Genius for casement windows. Full comparisons sit in our comparison centre.

Aluminium windows and doors: standard sizes versus custom

For aluminium windows and doors this is the decision with the biggest effect on price and lead time, and the one most people skip. We build to a range of standard catalogue sizes, and we also build custom.

Standard sizes are cheaper and faster. If a catalogue size fits your opening, use it.
Custom is available and worth it when the opening is fixed — a heritage reveal, a structural opening you cannot alter, or a design that depends on a particular proportion. See Coetz™ Custom.
Every unit is made 10 mm under the catalogue size on each dimension. A 1500 × 900 mm window has an actual frame of 1490 × 890 mm. That is the fitting tolerance, and it is deliberate.
Design to standard sizes if the building is not built yet. On a new development, setting the openings to catalogue sizes is the single cheapest decision available to you.

Browse what is available on the standard sizes page or straight in the shop, where every size and configuration carries its own price.

Glass on aluminium windows and doors: what is standard

Standard glazing across every unit we build is 6.38 mm clear laminated safety glass. That is not a budget default — laminated safety glass holds together when broken, which is why it is the sensible specification for a door, a low-level panel or anything alongside a stair.

Change it deliberately, not by habit:

Tinted or reflective where solar gain or privacy matters, typically west-facing living areas.
Thicker laminated on large panes, where span and wind load make it sensible.
Obscure in bathrooms, though a well-placed top hung above eye level often solves privacy without changing the glass.

Where glass sits in a critical location the requirement is not a preference. Our glazing compliance centre sets out where safety glass is required in South Africa and who signs it off — worth reading before a specifier asks.

Finishes and colours for aluminium windows and doors

Powder coating is what makes aluminium windows and doors a long-life product in this climate. Aluminium does not rust, and a properly coated frame handles inland sun and coastal air far better than the alternatives.

Five finishes run across the range: Black, White, Bronze, Charcoal and Natural Anodised. Two things worth knowing before you specify:

Black and Natural Anodised carry a supplier premium, already reflected in the price shown for that colour. There is no surprise later.
Pick one finish for the whole project. Mixing across a house rarely looks deliberate, and it complicates reordering if a unit is damaged on site.

What your region changes

The aluminium windows and doors South Africa needs are not identical everywhere, and the difference is mostly about air and sun rather than the frames themselves.

Coastal — Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha, East London. Salt is the enemy of any coating. Rinse frames more often; it is the single biggest thing you can do for the finish.
Inland and high-altitude — Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein. Strong UV and big daily temperature swings. Frames cope well; the glass specification matters more for comfort.
Hot regions — Polokwane, Mbombela, the Lowveld. Solar gain drives the glass choice more than the frame choice.

Our windows buying guide goes region by region in far more depth if you want it.

What aluminium windows and doors cost, and why prices are published

Every aluminium windows and doors size and configuration we build carries a price online. You do not submit a form and wait. That is unusual in this trade and it is deliberate — it lets you price a whole project in an afternoon rather than chasing three quotes.

What moves the number:

Size — the largest single factor.
Configuration — more opening panels, more hardware, more cost. A fixed pane is always the cheapest way to buy glass.
Glass specification beyond the 6.38 mm laminated standard.
Finish — Black and Natural Anodised carry the supplier premium noted above.

Buying regularly? A trade account is the sensible route for builders and contractors.

Ordering aluminium windows and doors: delivery and who fits them

We are supply only on aluminium windows and doors. We build the product and get it to you; your builder or fitter installs it. There is no installation arm on this side of the business and no exception for larger orders.

That model is why the prices are published rather than quoted. You are buying a product, not a product plus a fitting team you may already have on site.

Lead time is short because units are built to order rather than pulled from stock.
Free collection from our Laser Park premises in Johannesburg is the fastest route, and the one most trade customers take.
Delivery runs nationwide. Oversized units are handled separately — see delivery.
Automatic entrance doors are the exception. Those are supplied and installed through MC Automations, with installation across Gauteng and supply nationwide. The boundary is set out on our service areas page.

Before your fitter starts, point them at our installation guide — it covers checking the opening is square, the fixing order and the sealing detail that most callbacks trace back to.

Five mistakes that cost real money

Measuring the old frame instead of the structural opening. The most common and most expensive error on any aluminium windows and doors South Africa order, because a made-to-order unit cannot be trimmed on site. Our measuring guide covers it properly.
Designing openings to no particular size. On a new build, setting openings to catalogue sizes costs nothing at drawing stage and saves a great deal at ordering stage.
Specifying folding doors everywhere. They cost more than sliding and need stacking space. Use them where the whole opening genuinely needs to clear.
Leaving glass to the end. Glass in a critical location is a requirement, not a preference, and finding that out late means reordering.
Ordering before the opening is ready. Glazed units should not sit in the weather on site waiting for a lintel.

Aluminium windows and doors: which to order first

If you are phasing aluminium windows and doors across a project, order the doors first. Door openings are larger, more likely to involve structural work, and more disruptive to get wrong. Windows are more forgiving to sequence later, and a delayed window is an inconvenience where a delayed door can hold up occupation.

Hardware on aluminium windows and doors: the details people forget

Hardware on aluminium windows and doors is where a project starts to look considered or thrown together. Three things are worth deciding once and applying everywhere:

Handle height. Set it once across the project. Nothing announces a piecemeal job faster than handles at three different heights down one elevation.
Opening direction. On hinged and swing doors, decide inward or outward per opening before ordering — it affects furniture, traffic flow and, on an escape route, compliance.
Locking. Decide early whether openers need keyed locking. Retrofitting is possible but rarely as neat as specifying it up front.

Security, ventilation and the trade-off between them

These two pull against each other and the resolution is usually geometry rather than hardware. A high-level top hung vent lets a room breathe overnight without leaving a reachable opening — which is why it is the most common window on South African homes and why we build more of them than anything else.

On aluminium windows and doors, where an opening must be both secure and generous, a fixed pane paired with a smaller opener beats one large opening sash: more glass, less to secure, and usually cheaper.

Comfort and running costs

On aluminium windows and doors, frames matter less for comfort than orientation and glass. Sun coming through the glass is what overheats a room, not conduction through the frame. Get the orientation and shading right first, then use the glass specification to fine-tune. On a west-facing living room in Gauteng, tinted glass does more for comfort than any frame decision available to you.

This is also where standard sizes help: a smaller, well-placed opening on a hot elevation often outperforms a larger one, and costs less.

Specifying for a development or multi-unit project

Ordering aluminium windows and doors South Africa wide for a development rewards standardisation of those aluminium windows and doors more than anything else:

Reduce the number of distinct units. Twelve variants across forty units is a procurement problem; four variants is an order.
Design openings to catalogue sizes before the drawings are frozen. It is free at that stage.
Order a small buffer on the most common unit. Site damage happens, and a spare on the ground beats a reorder on the critical path.
Standardise the finish and hardware across the whole scheme.
Open a trade account if you are buying repeatedly.

Where a scheme genuinely needs something outside the range, Coetz™ Custom handles it — but use it for the openings that need it rather than the whole project.

Keeping aluminium windows and doors right after installation

Aluminium windows and doors are low maintenance, not no maintenance, and almost all of it is washing:

Wash frames down with mild soapy water. More often at the coast, where salt is the main threat to a powder-coated finish.
Keep the drainage slots clear. Blocked drainage at the bottom of a frame is behind most “leaking window” complaints.
Lubricate rollers and hinges at handover and annually after that.
Deal with site damage early. A chipped coating left through a rainy season is a bigger job than a chip attended to at handover.

Aluminium windows and doors against the alternatives

Briefly, because our aluminium windows and doors comparison centre covers it properly: aluminium does not rust, holds slim sightlines that timber and uPVC cannot match at the same span, and needs washing rather than refinishing. Timber looks warmer and needs maintenance to stay that way. Steel offers the slimmest heritage sightlines but must be protected against corrosion. uPVC is cheaper up front and bulkier in section.

For most South African projects the decision comes down to sightlines, maintenance and the coastal question — and aluminium wins on all three often enough to be the default.

Frequently asked questions

Do you supply aluminium windows and doors South Africa wide?

Yes. We supply nationwide across South Africa. On aluminium we are supply only — your builder or fitter installs. Automatic entrance doors are supplied and installed through MC Automations, with installation across Gauteng.

What glass comes as standard?

6.38 mm clear laminated safety glass on every aluminium windows and doors unit we build, with tinted, reflective and thicker options available where the application calls for it.

Are the sizes on the site the actual frame sizes?

No, and this catches people out. The catalogue size is the nominal size; every unit is made 10 mm under it on each dimension as a fitting tolerance. A 1500 by 900 mm window has an actual frame of 1490 by 890 mm.

Can I order a custom size?

Yes. Standard catalogue aluminium windows and doors sizes are cheaper and faster, so use one if it fits your opening. Where the opening is fixed and a standard size will not work, we build custom.

Do you install the windows and doors you supply?

Not on the aluminium windows and doors side. We are supply only, which is why our prices are published rather than quoted. Automatic entrance doors are the exception and are installed through MC Automations across Gauteng.

Which colours are available?

Our aluminium windows and doors come in Black, White, Bronze, Charcoal and Natural Anodised. Black and Natural Anodised carry a supplier premium, which is already reflected in the price shown for that colour.

Pricing a project. Browse the full range with live prices, or start with the guides hub if you are still deciding. For the supply model in detail, see supply-only nationwide.

Aluminium Windows and Doors South Africa: How to Specify a Whole Project

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