[NA]House window price check[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 23, 2005
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west Texas
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Dave Taylor
I was quoted $1500. per window regardless of size, to replace ~12 standard size windows in which we know the wood is fine - with middle of the road Pellas. This is a rural area with few window shops nearby.
 
What kind of replacement windows? Wood? Any exterior cladding? What kind of exterior wall finish? Brick? Stone? Hardy Board? What kind of interior trim? Wood casing? Drywall returns?
 
Any construction or contractor auctions around your areas? I've seen nice Anderson 800s go for hardly anything, worth checking out.
 
Here you are Stewartb, I knew there would be more info needed - just didn't know what.
This is an engineered log home with drywall next to only one window . To take a window out you pry off the 4 pieces of wood trim which are held in with nailgun nails. Then scrape some foam off the edges of the metal frame windows in there now. Unscrew about 16 drywall screws with your electric screwdriver.
Unseat the window from the silicone seal. Toss in pickup. I am no expert and did one in about 20-30 minutes.
Reinstalling can be deduced from the above. Maybe there will be some trimming or shimming to get the new ones in although these are pretty straightforward sizes - 4x4, 5x5, 3x2 etc.
I could be wrong but I don't foresee any interior work needed on the wooden casements.
 
I've been in the window manufacturing business all my life. Good quality wood windows could easily average a thousand each, especially made to fit your openings. If they require modifying your wall openings expect the installation cost to reflect that. On the flip side you can find vinyl windows for a third of that since there's no custom size premium for vinyl. It should be like most things in life, you get what you pay for. If your quote seems high? Get a couple more. Price the windows from a window dealer and get a separate installation quote. Or do it yourself. I had my best installation contractor do my windows last year. I got the buddy deal at $500 each for install but mine weren't easy.
 
Middle of the road Pellas? Way too high for that. Top of the line, still too high.
 
Wood windows are quite a bit more expensive to replace because you have to replace the trim on the inside, stain and varnish the new wood windows. Actually takes finish carpentry skills. Windows trimmed by sheetrock that come with finished surfaces are considerably easier. When things cost more than you think, the answer is to get more bids. Construction always seems to cost more than it "should". (until you are a contractor trying to do it for that much, then it seem like you didn't bid it high enough). Carry on....
 
Thanks, looks like more info is needed. I figured it would be known that the described new windows are fiberglass, my error sorry. I have metal now and like a lot of things about them. The darned things have lost their retraction mechanism and won't stay up or one side stays up and the other doesnt = asymetric thrust of the fenestration kind.
So I am a little shy of metal now; probably silly as that problem is likely fixed or not only a metal-window problem.
I have vinyl in my business and they warp with weather and time, resulting in unfortunate gaps.
You all know I like wood but not in windows; the Texas weather will be too harsh on them and I have enough wooden building parts to protect right now.
Fibreglass sounds appealing, anyone know their functionality or survivability?
Thanks.
 
I have 15 years on vinyl windows (hey, they are better than the aluminum they replaced). No problems so far. I won't say they are wonderful but they are functional. Twenty-one windows were about 10k installed. All work by the window manufacturer. Yes, metal clad wood would be much nicer. Had those on my house up in the foothills. Oh well.
 
Looking into replacing a single window -- Andersen double-hung midlevel with a rotted sill. It's a big window, about 3' x 6'. The price quote I was given was not too far off of yours. I'm going to get that verified next week. That was installed: remove interior/exterior trim, cut back siding if necessary, and remove entire window all the way to the studs. Replace window, replace weatherseals, replace interior/exterior trim. Looks like I'll get stuck with the painting, though.
 
I had 11 windows installed for about $14,000 four years ago. They are some sort of composite by Renewal by Andersen. I love my windows. They are excellent at keeping the heat out in the summer. Of course the drawback is that they keep the heat of the sun out in the winter too...

My old windows had to be cut out with a hacksaw. Not sure how they attached the new ones but haven't had any leakage problems.
 
Fiberglass windows are great. You can get them all fiberglass or fiberglass exterior/wood interior. Neither is cheap. Not on par with aluminum clad Marvins or Andersen PermaShields but well above vinyl pricing. I assume your aluminum windows are single hung (vertical sliders)? Replacing the balances in those would take very little effort, time, or money and they should be readily available. FWIW I have vinyl windows in Texas. Not my first choice but not causing problems so not worth the trouble and expense to replace.
 
We went higher end fiberglass on the front of our house and mid-tier vinyl on the back. It was $13-14k for 23 windows, with 11 fiberglass and 12 vinyl.

I think we made the upgrade 2 years ago.
 
My grandfather's house was built in 1905 and has wood windows. They are still there and function and look fine. But they have to be kept painted (they must have 10 coats of paint on them on the outside and 3 coasts of varnish on the inside). They are made out of solid Cuban Mahogany BTW.

I always liked wood on the inside, metal clad wood on the outside. Doesn't need painting.

I have had good luck with all aluminum windows trimmed with wood inside (or sheetrock with cement stone sills on the bottom). Less expensive than aluminum clad wood.

I don't have any experience with fiberglass windows. When fiberglass fails, how does it fail and why? Does it have to be kept painted?

If I had to replace my wood windows, I think I would get wood on the inside (pine) with aluminum clad wood on the outside. I don't like having to paint every 5 to 10 years. (I have to paint the ones I have)

Whatever you do, make it the best it can be. My next door neighbor did a cheap job and 5 years later they are doing them again. They didnt do it right. She got what she paid for though, it was a cut rate job. She regrets it.
 
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Sounds high. I just replaced 22 windows of varying sizes for $18.5k. They were top-of-the-line PPG, Hurricane/Impact glass in a single story house. They would have been more but we got the white vinyl.
 
I'm absolutely not a window expert, but with the thermal expansion/contraction of Aluminum, I have a hard time believing that movement won't fail seals faster than in other types of windows.
 
I've got two 5'x10' single-pane windows (dual sliders on each) that desperately need to be replaced but I'm scared to even look into that. I priced Anderson casement windows at $1K/ea from the orange big box store, but that didn't include installation into a double-mortar wall (read: no mounting flange). I bet I'd be out $3K+ just to get those done, much less the 13 other windows that need replacement in this house!


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I probably asked this before but why do they need to know if it is a new installation or a replacement project?
 
Because a new structure is built for installing windows early in the project and interior and exterior trim are done by others, along with insulation and sealing out weather. Retrofitting puts all the work and responsibilty on the retrofit installer. Plus the demo component. New installs don't have removal and wall finishes to deal with. Log structures are the most difficult instllations, by the way, because logs move.
 
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Let'sgoflying! said:
I probably asked this before but why do they need to know if it is a new installation or a replacement project?
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A lot of time in new construction,the windows are installed into the studwall, before any siding or anything else is attached. Basically, nail them in and go home. For replacement, everything that's been attached to that studwall, siding, drywall, trim inside and out, has to be either removed or modified so the old window can be removed, and the new one installed. Then any flashing and other weathersealing tape or whatever has to be re-applied and everything else had to be put back together. There is a fair amount of labor involved.
 
No,no - I understand that the installation is obviously different.

But when I go to choose windows on these sites, they offer windows that are either for new installation or replacement as in they are somehow constructed differently. Is there something about the frame which is made differently?
Thanks.
 
Yup, slapping a window into new construction is easy when there's nothing in the way and someone else is doing the finishing work. All you have to do then is throw some caulk and nails into a window flange and make sure it's level. Maybe throw some aluminum tape on the outside as an extra moisture barrier. Should be able to do more than a dozen windows in a day for a two-man team.

When it's existing construction, you have to carefully remove trim/window sills, cut out old paint/caulking, pry out old windows, repair rotten wood and then you get to the install portion. Doubles the amount of time to do a single window.


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Each situation is different. One thing about replacement windows, they have to be custom sized. So they cant build lot of them and stock them. With new construction, you pick from a standard window size list. So they make lots of one size and stock them. They are available immediately in many cases.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
No,no - I understand that the installation is obviously different.

But when I go to choose windows on these sites, they offer windows that are either for new installation or replacement as in they are somehow constructed differently. Is there something about the frame which is made differently?
Thanks.
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Ahh.. Yeah, sometimes the nailing flange around the perimeter of the window is a different style. One may be wider for new installs and narrower for replacement.
 
It depends on what's there. Replacement windows in some old construction with old double hungs has the old windows removed leaving part of the perimeter frame in place so new windows fit into the old frames. That's common when replacing with new double hungs in old brick buildings in the east. Not common in the west. You may have seen east coast window replacements on This Old House or other rehab shows. In my business there's no difference between new and replacement windows other than replacements rarely are standard sizes.
 
I feel lucky after reading this. I only have two windows I need to replace.
 
Ok thanks, that helps.
These ones have a flange - I need to measure it - probably 1.5-2" wide flange through which screw holes allow it to be attached to the wood frame.
Very simple attachment.
Thanks for the explanation.
 
Stewartb said:
It depends on what's there. Replacement windows in some old construction with old double hungs has the old windows removed leaving part of the perimeter frame in place so new windows fit into the old frames. That's common when replacing with new double hungs in old brick buildings in the east. Not common in the west. You may have seen east coast window replacements on This Old House or other rehab shows. In my business there's no difference between new and replacement windows other than replacements rarely are standard sizes.
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Yeah, that's another thing...the old window components can be removed and a new window can be slid into the old frame. In my case the quote was to remove the entire old window all the way to the studs and then replace. Different solutions for different situations.
 
We used to charge $500 labor per window for installation of a new wood window, stain, trim and varnish. And that was back in the 1980's. Then whatever the window cost plus 15%. Its not easy work. There are a lot of potential problems. Matching stain, filling nail holes, letting varnish dry, getting the old window out was the scariest part. Have to measure correctly too. Measure wrong and it doesn't FIT! I never really liked doing it. Too risky. Tracking in and out of the house. Hard work. Hard to do right. Im into having mine fixed now (I don't do carpentry work anymore). I found a guy that can rebuild wood casement windows from scratch. Just the part that opens and closes, which is all I need. He reuses the glass. Then put in new hardware. WOW what a craftsman. And it all matches up pretty well looks wise. Stain and finish is always a bit different. Has a table saw, jointer and router and such. Quite the setup.
 
coloradobluesky said:
We used to charge $500 labor per window for installation of a new wood window, stain, trim and varnish. And that was back in the 1980's. Then whatever the window cost plus 15%. Its not easy work. There are a lot of potential problems. Matching stain, filling nail holes, letting varnish dry, getting the old window out was the scariest part. Have to measure correctly too. Measure wrong and it doesn't FIT! I never really liked doing it. Too risky. Tracking in and out of the house. Hard work. Hard to do right. Im into having mine fixed now (I don't do carpentry work anymore). I found a guy that can rebuild wood casement windows from scratch. Just the part that opens and closes, which is all I need. He reuses the glass. Then put in new hardware. WOW what a craftsman. And it all matches up pretty well looks wise. Stain and finish is always a bit different. Has a table saw, jointer and router and such. Quite the setup.
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That sounds reasonable. As I wrote above, mine are going to be a lot easier - I have done one and it was three levels below rocket science.
 
I cannot tell you what it is costing to put in new Marvins but we have a meeting today for final measurements. I cannot bear to think about it. But ours will be customized with leaded 'Y' design to help boost curb appeal. My wife's airplane is this damn house. Replacement windows consumed a large amount of my discretionary flying budget this year and next year's and the year after that. :-(
 
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