VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door

VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door in San Francisco, CA | Lightwell Windows San Francisco

An arched entry door changes how a home meets the street. It’s the difference between walking up to a doorway and walking up to a statement. The VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door is CNC-bent from aluminum into a true curve: no segmented facsimiles, no faux-arch trim hiding a square slab. It’s a curved architectural element built with structural precision, and it’s available to San Francisco homeowners through Lightwell Windows San Francisco, an authorized ViewLux installation partner. We measure, order, and install this door across San Francisco, CA, from the Marina to Noe Valley to the Outer Sunset. Call (831) 480-4124 to schedule a free measurement.

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Product Overview – VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door

Arched doors have always read as a mark of intentional design. You see them in the Spanish Revival homes of the Mission, the Mediterranean villas of Pacific Heights, the Tudor piles in Forest Hill. What most people don’t see is how often those original wood arches have failed: warped stiles, failed joints, rot at the base where fog and rain sit against the threshold. San Francisco is not kind to wood entry doors. The VLX 100 exists because aluminum is.

This door is fabricated around a CNC-bent aluminum arch, meaning the curve is cut and formed by machine, not hand-bent on site. The result is a radius that holds true across the full span, with consistent reveal margins and a clean, continuous sightline from header to threshold. It’s the kind of precision you notice when you step back and look at the doorway as a whole: the arch feels effortless, not forced.

Buyers choose the VLX 100 for one of two reasons. Either they’re restoring a period home and want an arched entry that matches the original proportion without inheriting the maintenance of wood, or they’re building new and want a door that becomes the first thing anyone remembers about the facade. In both cases, the aluminum frame gives them something wood can’t: dimensional stability in salt air, resistance to rot and insect damage, and a finish that won’t peel after three fog seasons.

The profile is substantial: 2.56 inches wide, with a wall thickness of 0.098 inches. That’s not a flimsy storefront extrusion. It’s a structural frame engineered to carry an oversized glass lite and hold its geometry through decades of open-close cycles and coastal wind. And because every VLX 100 is custom fabricated to order, there’s no stock radius to compromise on. The arch is built to your opening, not the other way around.

Lightwell Windows San Francisco has installed these doors in San Francisco, CA homes from St. Francis Wood to Bernal Heights. Each one starts with a precise field measurement, because an arch that’s off by half an inch looks wrong and a rough opening that’s out of square will transmit that error to the door for its entire service life. We’ve seen it happen with doors ordered off a contractor’s sketch instead of a real site measure. We don’t let it happen on our jobs. Call (831) 480-4124 to talk through your entry.

Technical Specifications

Here’s what the VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door is built with, in plain terms:

• Wall thickness: 0.098-inch extruded aluminum, stiff enough to resist racking but not so heavy that the frame fights the hardware.
• Profile width: 2.56 inches, a dominant sightline that reads as deliberate and substantial from the sidewalk.
• Maximum span: Custom fabricated to order. There’s no off-the-shelf size. Your opening dictates the radius, height, and width.
• Glass options: Clear, Frosted, Obscure, Low-E, Tempered, and Laminated. Mix and match depending on privacy needs and code requirements.
• Finish options: Premium Black, Pure White, Anodized Silver, Bronze, Champagne, and Teak Wood (a textured powder coat that reads as wood grain at a distance without the upkeep).
• Performance certification: Thermal break technology carries NFRC-rated energy performance. Installation follows AAMA 2400/2410 standards, with AAMA 812 low-expansion foam at every perimeter joint.

For San Francisco, CA homes, the thermal break matters more than most buyers assume. A metal door without a thermal break conducts cold right through the frame, and that cold shows up as condensation on the interior face all winter. The VLX 100 breaks that thermal path. It’s rated through NFRC, so the numbers are real, not marketing.

Performance Features

Thermal Efficiency

The VLX 100’s frame is engineered with a thermal break that separates interior and exterior aluminum faces. In San Francisco’s microclimates, where an Outer Richmond home can sit ten degrees colder than one in Potrero Hill, that break keeps interior frame surfaces warmer and cuts heat loss at the door. NFRC-rated performance means the numbers are independently verified.

Acoustic Performance

Entry doors on busy streets leak sound. This door’s gasketed perimeter and laminated glass option reduce mid and high frequency noise far better than a wood slab with a loose sweep. We’ve installed VLX units on Guerrero Street and in the Lower Haight where the difference between the old door and the new one was immediate and obvious to the homeowners.

Airtightness & Weather Seal

Every perimeter joint is sealed with AAMA 812 low-expansion foam, then the frame is finished with compression gaskets at the slab. The result is a door that doesn’t whistle in a west wind or leak conditioned air through the rough opening. For homes in the Sunset and Richmond Districts of San Francisco, where fog-wet wind is a constant, this seal is the difference between a drafty entry and a quiet one.

Waterproofing

Arched doors are prone to water intrusion at the crown if the sill pan and flashing aren’t detailed correctly. The VLX 100 install at Lightwell Windows San Francisco follows AAMA 2400/2410, and we pay particular attention to the arch spring point where the curve meets the jambs. That’s a classic failure zone on arched installations. We flash it, seal it, and test it.

Wind Resistance

San Francisco Building Code has specific wind-load requirements that vary by exposure, and a tall arched entry catches more wind than a standard door. The VLX 100’s frame and hardware are rated for local wind-load conditions. The 0.098-inch wall thickness and 2.56-inch profile give the frame the stiffness needed under gust pressure without flexing the latch out of alignment.

Security & Hardware

This door carries a real multi-point lock, not a standard residential latch. Combined with the structural aluminum frame and optional laminated impact-resistant glass, the VLX 100 resists forced entry better than a typical wood or vinyl door. For San Francisco homeowners, that’s a meaningful upgrade, whether the concern is street-facing exposure or a door that sits below the sidewalk level.

Color & Glass Options

Color choice sets the personality of an arched entry. Premium Black is the most popular finish we order for San Francisco modern builds: it’s sharp against a lighter facade and hides the marine grime better than lighter tones. Pure White reads clean and classic on Victorians and Edwardians, especially paired with white trim. Anodized Silver has a raw, machined look that suits industrial loft and warehouse conversions. Bronze works beautifully on Mediterranean and Spanish Revival homes where the arch is already part of the architectural language. Champagne is a softer metallic for homes with warm stone or stucco. Teak Wood is a textured powder coat with wood-grain patterning, ideal for homeowners who want the warmth of wood grain without the maintenance cycle of a wood door.

On the glass side, Clear Low-E is the workhorse: light, view, and thermal performance. Frosted is the choice for street-facing doors where you don’t want the whole neighborhood seeing into your entry hall. Obscure glass offers a lighter diffused effect, common on traditional homes. Tempered glass is a safety requirement for large lites, and we spec it standard on anything near the size limits of the door. Laminated glass adds two layers of benefit: sound damping and impact resistance. For San Francisco, CA homes near the water or on steep hillsides with wind exposure, laminated glass is the upgrade we recommend most often. Call (831) 480-4124 to see finish and glass samples in person.

Installation by Lightwell Windows San Francisco in San Francisco

The VLX 100 is only as good as the day it’s installed. That’s not a slogan. An arched aluminum door with a custom radius depends entirely on a true, square rough opening. If the framing is out of plane by even a quarter inch, the door binds, the arch reveals look inconsistent, and the gaskets can’t seat evenly.

Our installation process in San Francisco, CA starts with a pre-install inspection of the rough opening. We check for level, plumb, and square on every face. We verify the structural header and confirm the opening dimensions match our field measure from ordering. If something moved or was framed differently during construction or remodel, we correct it before the door ever comes off the truck.

Then we set the frame. The VLX 100 goes in level and plumb, anchored through prescribed points, and shimmed so the slab hangs equally on all four sides. We pack the rough opening perimeter with AAMA 812 low-expansion foam, which seals without warping the frame. Flashing continues down to the sill pan, where we detail the transition to the threshold so water can’t find a path behind the jamb legs. The whole installation follows AAMA 2400/2410, the recognized standard for window and door installation in the U.S.

After the door is set and sealed, we run a water test around the perimeter and inspect the slab’s operation through a full open-close cycle. Then we clean up: debris removed, interior dust swept, the doorway left ready to use. This is the part that doesn’t show up in manufacturer brochures, but it’s what keeps a door working for decades.

One thing we tell every San Francisco homeowner considering this door: improper installation voids the manufacturer warranty. An arched aluminum door is not a casual DIY install, and a general contractor who hangs doors occasionally won’t have the specific experience with this frame system. Lightwell Windows San Francisco is an authorized ViewLux installation partner. We install these doors to the manufacturer’s spec, which keeps the warranty intact. If you’re spending money on a custom arched entry, that matters.

Frequently Asked Questions – VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door

Get a Quote – VLX 100 Arched / Custom Door in San Francisco

An arched entry is the kind of investment that changes how a home feels from the inside and reads from the street. It starts with a precise measurement and an honest conversation about your opening, your architecture, and your budget. Lightwell Windows San Francisco serves San Francisco, CA with free on-site measurements and written quotes. Call (831) 480-4124 to start your project.

Written by the team at Lightwell Windows San Francisco, serving San Francisco, CA as an authorized ViewLux installation partner.