What a well cover costs in 2026

What makes the price move

Diameter first: material and rolling time grow with size — going from 80 to 120 cm adds roughly 50 %. Then the shape: a dome needs twice the rolling of a flat cover, and its ribs cross at the apex under a forged ornament. Finally the mechanism: the hatch, forged hinges, hasp and stainless padlock are the €440 of the lockable option — that is a smith’s hardware, not catalogue parts.

Two things change nothing in our prices: an irregular coping (the paper template is included — every old well is irregular) and the colour (black, bronze green, walnut or any RAL, at no extra cost).

Made in Europe: what it does to the invoice

It is worth saying plainly, because it is the first question an €850 quote raises when a marketplace lists a "wrought iron well cover" at €260: these are not the same objects, and they are not made under the same conditions. A piece forged in a European workshop costs two to three times an Asian import, and the gap shows up line by line.

Material first: the 14 mm solid bar and 40 × 8 mm flat we use weigh three to four times the 20 × 20 mm hollow tube in 1.5 mm wall that makes up most imported covers — and European steel costs more per kilo. Labour next: rolling a frame to the real dimensions of an oval coping, welding solid then grinding every joint, fitting forged hinges, is eight to twenty workshop hours at European rates. Treatment last: hot-dip galvanising to NF EN ISO 1461 happens in a European industrial bath and accounts for 12 to 15 % of the price on its own. It is what underwrites the twenty-year guarantee, and it is precisely the line an import replaces with black paint over bare steel.

Indicative breakdown of a supply price, well cover range, August 2026. Source: Grille de Puits.

Our earlier price list no longer reflected any of this: it sat at the level of Asian production while the pieces are made in Europe, in solid iron, and hot-dip galvanised. The tables above have been reset accordingly — a deliberate choice. We would rather show a price that tells the truth about what it pays for than an entry price that later forces cuts to iron thickness, bar spacing or treatment.

Compulsory delivery follows the same logic. A galvanised cover weighing 25 to 60 kg does not travel as a parcel: it goes strapped to a pallet, with an insured carrier and a delivery appointment. Invoicing that transport separately and at cost, rather than burying it in the headline price, is the only honest way to treat a destination 900 km further away than another.

And against a salvaged antique?

An antique well cover from a salvage yard changes hands at €200 to €800 — but it was forged for a different well: it almost always has to be cut down, straightened and treated, and the total often exceeds a new bespoke piece. If you are set on a genuine antique, at least have it inspected before buying; if it is the period drawing you love, reproducing it to your own dimensions is the short route.