We have been pricing out replacing our 2 bay windows in the front of our house. Holy cow! Windows and installation are crazy expensive (like $25,000)?!?!?! Has anyone replaced windows in a more economic way? Can anyone give tips on how to get a better price or perhaps another way to go about this?
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I have no advice but wow I had no idea replacing windows was so expensive! We had major foundation repair done on our house for less than that. We have two sets of bay windows in our house so I hope we never need to replace them now...
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The big bay windows are definitely the most expensive! We had most of our windows replaced and the giant bay window was almost as much as the other 13.
One window guy had suggested replacing the big picture window with two side by side double hung windows, which would be cheaper and they would also open. We didn’t opt to do that because I preferred the picture style though. Another had wanted to a slider Instead. The biggest thing was getting quotes from a few different people/ brands. The plea quite was waaayyyy more than the one from Harvey windows, which is who we ended up using, but I understand Harvey is mostly in new England. Our windows do look so much nicer now and the room with the big bay window is noticeably warmer in the winter!
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@Alba4: also- our bay window is huge- like not all the factories make glass that big- and total cost for it, with safety glass, was under $5000 total. But I remember the first quotes we got for it were in the ballpark you said. I think window type can make a big difference (wood va vinyl) and brand.
ETA: I spent a loooooonnnggg time researching window stuff last year!
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Our power company had a program where you could get cash back for doing upgrades to make your home more energy efficient. We were able to take advantage of this when we got new windows a couple of years ago. We just had basic windows to replace all over the house, but it was expensive!
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We’re considering replacing our windows, too, and will probably do it in stages over the next couple years because $$$. We have some very large picture windows and want to stay with aluminum frames, which is what we currently have, but the new ones have thermal breaks whereas our current ones don’t. Vinyl would be a lot cheaper but would look awful in our house. Still, I think we’re looking at about $25-30K for our whole house, so apparently I should be really glad we don’t have bay windows!
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I understand that we got a quote from a name brand window company, but still!! Bay windows require special installation (roofing and carpentry) but still that quote was just plain silly. I’ll keep researching!
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@Alba4: are you replacing the entire frames or just the window itself? That made a big difference too. Since our window frames were fine we didn’t have to do that much extra carpentry stuff. They just put the new one in the old frame. But if the frames need replacing that adds up too.
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Bay windows and large picture windows are super expensive! We had all the windows in our house replaced except for a large half moon window above our front picture window because it was so expensive for just the one.
Make sure you get quotes from lots of companies, both the large national chains and the small local guys. Ask about your options for different types of windows and really evaluate if spending $$$$ on super insulated triple panes is going to equal that much energy savings based on your climate. Decide if you can split one large window up into multiple smaller windows to save money. Ask for price matches and definitely let companies compete against one another. We had one large national chain that swore they quoted us the lowest they could go... twice... and then came back with a third quote that was $6000 less than where we started.
Ultimately we went with a small, local company and chose double pane windows over triple pane. They still came with an excellent warranty and we saved a ton of money.
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Make you sure you get a legit long full warranty. Document the manufacturer, contractor and any and all subs. Keep that info for 10 years plus. .
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@Alba4: We replaced our back one for 5K - can't believe they want 25K for 2!
Definitely shop around!
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Don't move to Florida or another hurricane zone... we just got full impact windows and you don't even want to know what they cost...
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Ugh, I feel you. Definitely agree with others to shop around and have multiple places come in and bid.
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Windows are really, really expensive. What type of window are you looking at? Wood clad? Vinyl? Brand? How many windows? Are some salvageable? Do you have to do all at once? You can get a great window from Marvin’s other lines like integrity etc
I use Houzz for questions like this. But be warned...windows are simply really expensive.
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We just replaced our windows. We live in a 1300 square ft 2 bedroom apartment and it cost us about 6800. We had two different companies come for a quote and there were a lot of choices for “grades” of windows. We got the second cheapest out of 4 grades—highest grade being triple glazed noise reduction windows, and I think we picked the right ones. Our old windows were leaky and just sucked and there’s already a huge difference. I don’t feel a draft anymore and our heating bill dropped $75. And I don’t hear any noise through them anyway. We had 12 windows to replace.
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We replaced ours on our own. Spent $1,000 on 8 windows (6 being part of bay windows) and $500 on additional trim/paint/supplies. It took the entirety of Memorial Weekend last year and 3 men to get it done. But worth it.
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Definitely ask around.
We had to replace three sliding glass doors. The first company that came out (name brand, advertises on the radio) quoted us something like $18K
We ended up finding a friend who'd had his condo windows redone who'd already done the shopping work, and got them done WAY less expensive.
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