How Much Does It Cost To Replace a Window?
Cost to Replace a Window
| job | Description | Labour |
| 1 | You want to replace a rotten wooden window in the kitchen with PVCu one. It’s about 5’ long x 3’6” high (1500mm x 1050 high), has an opening casement and it has to be specially made (which costs more). With full making good inside and out, that’s 2 men 1 day | £300 |
| Plus materials etc. for the above | £450 | |
| 2 | The same asJob 1 with a fully-painted softwood window. | £435 |
| Plus materials etc. for the above | £550 | |
| 3 | This time for a treated hardwood window………Same total price as Job 2 because there’s less painting | £985 |
| 4 | You want to replace a ground floor, Victorian style, multiple glazed, fully painted sliding sash softwood window utilising the existing (adapted) counterweights This will need making good inside and out, including pointing, plastering, cill and architrave fitting. It will take 2 men, 2.5 days. | £700 |
| 5 | Plus materials etc. for the above | £850 |
| 6 | Having multiple PVCu windows fitted by a double-glazing company can be anyone’s guess! Be careful, with some companies, the salesman knows how much his company will require to do the job. His commission is what he feels he can stick on top of this amount. This is based on how gullible and/or wealthy he thinks you are. By the time you’ve had the shiny suited lothario with all his brochures on your sofa for seven hours, you will have lost the will to live. He still won’t have given you a price AND you will have missed Eastenders. |
Information Sheet on Window Replacement
Since 2002, the government has imposed new rules regarding complete window replacement. There is now a controlling body called FENSA which is in charge of the process. Basically, if a builder replaces a window for you he must be FENSA registered or he must subcontract the work to someone who is. Alternatively, he must have the job overseen by a building regulations surveyor.
You are still allowed to decide what the frames will be made of though, wood, PVCu, aluminium etc. BUT the window must be at least double glazed and made from special K glass which reflects heat radiation back into the room. If the window is to be fitted downstairs, it must incorporate either trickle ventilators or have a lock which allows the window to be left slightly open while not allowing bad lads to get in. We don’t know much about burglary by the way but we suspect that in the slightly uneven struggle between a brass effect window security lock fastened on with 25mm (1 inch) screws and a bloomin’ great steel crowbar, wielded by some drug crazed, tattooed Viking, the latter might just have the advantage!
Reasons for considering multi-glazed units
There are of course several reasons why you may want new multiple glazed windows. Those reasons will now be outlined in descending order relevant to cost effectiveness:
1. The existing wooden ones are rotten or, if they’re metal, they’re rusting and warped.
2. You are sick and tired of paying people to paint them every 5 years. By the fourth time of painting, you could have paid for new ones instead.
3. You are an avid carbon emission reducer. I can’t argue with that, but low energy bulbs, more loft insulation, solar panels, a new condensing boiler and better heating controls are better value. Don’t kid yourself you are going to benefit from massively reduced heating bills. It takes nearly the 20 YEARS to recover the cost of double glazing in the average home.
4. You don’t want to be the last in the street to get double-glazing. What price personal pride?
SO……..
Whatever your reasons, you are determined to go ahead.
Questions to ask the salesman/fitter during his Quotation Visit
We assume you have decided what the windows will be made from before he arrives.
Is your company FENSA registered? Will you provide a compliance certificate stating that the windows were fitted relevant to the latest building regulations?
If you’re not registered, who will be doing the job? And is he FENSA registered?
If it’s just the windows being replaced, you might as well get a quote from the FENSA chap direct, and cut out the middle man.
The windows may of course be part of a larger job, a new extension for instance, overseen by the local authority buildings regulations department.
If this is the case they will issue a completion certificate when the job is finished, including the windows.
Will at least one window on each floor be compliant with the latest (fire) escape regulations? PVCu windows don’t hinge like wooden ones. Very often this doesn’t allow for the minimum 450mm vertical and horizontal measurement required by the regulations, to allow you to escape if there’s a fire! Also the escape opening has to be a minimum of .33m². So just a 450 x 450mm opening isn’t enough! These rules apply to all windows by the way, not just PVCu ones.
Will all relevant areas of glazing be fitted with safety glass?
If any pane of glass is lower than 800mm from the floor (other than sloping roof windows), that particular pane or panes, needs to be of safety glass. Any pane of glass in a window within 300mm of the outside edge of a door needs to be safety glass, unless all of the pane is higher than 1500mm from the floor.
Any pane of door glass less than 1500mm from the floor needs to be safety glass.
You can check if he has done this by looking for the little “kite mark” symbol etched into a corner of the relevant pane. (You might think all this information is a bit over the top, but when your child has put his hand through a pane of glass, or heaven forbid, you’re running round like headless chickens at 2.30 a.m. in an inferno, looking for a way out…….)
On a sort of lighter note:
How will you allow for ventilation? Trickle vents, or those special locks?
Making good after the windows are fitted?
Will he sort out any repairs needed around the window opening, such as gaps or damaged pebbledash? If so, will it be an extra charge?
If the windows are of wood, will they be painted or just primed?
What sort of wood – hard or soft wood? It’s more expensive but if it comes from a sustainable source, then consider hard wood.
Can you treat softwood windows against rot before priming?
How will I be able to tell that they are treated?
Having multiple PVCu windows fitted by a double-glazing company
FAQs 'traffic light' guide
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What's easy about this job…
Open or CloseA nice little earner for a window fitter.
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