New windows quote £42,000

[User19886]

Hello, I have got quotes for new windows (5 windows, 2 rear doors), sash accoya (conservation area). The quote is £42,000. Is this similar to other people's experiences? I was hoping for less than half of that being a 2 bed midterrace.

That's shocking! As PP says maybe look at local joiners. Or change career, train and open your own window company, probably cheaper in the long run 😲

We are Lewes too! Hubbie is a joiner, (doesn't make Windows unfortunately- but I'll ask him when he's home - I'm pretty sure there's someone local at Laughton who makes them. Yiu may want to review the Accoya option though - it's astronomical material to buy.

I do some work for a sash window company - it looks like you've been quoted for new boxes as well as sashes. Most people don't need the box replacing, just the actual sashes - that would save you a fortune (probably costs about 1/3 to just replace the sashes.) Are your boxes all shot too? If they are then your quote is probably realistic. But you don't need to use accoya - it's great but very expensive. Softwood, if well maintained (painted regularly) will still last for years.

Were yours casement windows though @Baconand ? Sash windows are much much more expensive.

Yes, obviously!

Eight years ago we paid £10k for seven accoya sash windows for the lower two storeys (front elevation) of our non-listed, thatched house in Wiltshire. That was a local joinery company (since gone bust) and the quality was excellent.

More recently (2019) we ordered three large accoya casement windows from a joiner local to our new location in SW Wales. I'd naively expected these to be roughly £1000 each but the first quote we had was for £3k each. We found an alternative local guy who charged £4500 for the three. The quality is great, but his original lead time of three months turned into 32 months!!!!

Even with all the labour and materials increases, £42k sounds crazy, imho.

I have sent the OP the company details so she can get a quote for herself. The saving in using Polish manufacture is significant so worth investigating. I'm not suggesting she will get sash for £14k.

We found that they were most expensive of the 3 quotes we had , even in the December /January sale. We bought our front door from them, it was OK .

We had a bespoke wooden sash window fitted in our bay in January, it was around £7000 for the one window!

We paid a that for our HOUSE in 1997!
I know - no point in me saying that, but it does make you think.

I got 5 windows and 2 doors for £3k 3 years ago. Just a normal terrace but still, you must have some fancy windows!

We had 5 sash, 3 casement windows (including some brickwork to change a casement window back to sash) for about 18k by a local, have their own factory on site, company about 3-4 years ago. Another quote came in at £32k but they were a flashy salesman type national company.

I completely agree, our council won't allow anything but wood so very few people around here have replaced them. My NDN had a quote for 30k a few years ago and whilst this is a nice area it is not particularly affluent and the houses are not worth spending that much on them. Lots of rotten wood windows and putty jobs that looks far worse than any PVC sash.

Wow. Our bifolds and lantern light only cost 7k with fitting. The windows were done 10 years ago for 3K but my guess, looking at the neighbours who recently had there's done, would now be £5k. Are the frames pure gold?

Try Surrey and Sussex windows and doors, they've just done several of ours for less than that.

Try Thames valley windows! Half the price 😀

They are based in Wokingham but cover London too

I'm in the NE but we've had quotes this week for our front sash windows (9 sash panes altogether), both PVC, wooden replacement and refurbishment. Range is £9500-36k. Thought PVC would be cheapest but it's actually the most expensive. Looks like we'll be going for the restoration as we just won't ever have the budget for complete replacement.

We have just paid £27k for accoya windows and doors (grade 2 listed within a conservation area - planning allowed us to have heritage double glazing)
9 casement windows, 2 doors and 1 set of double patio doors
They are beautiful - made by local joiner

Can you message me the details please?

Ooh, get in touch with theflinthouse on Instagram – Worthing and had her sash windows done by a local joiner, she’s good for sharing trade contacts and recommendations.

Also I’m jealous you live in lovely Lewes even if living there rinses you for window money.

Faversham joinery - we are in kent - I don’t know if they cover your area but it may be worth asking as it’s not too far

Ooh thank you so much!

We got a few quotes when we got ours and the cheapest was a local joinery firm who made them from scratch themselves, they were also the most beautiful as they matched all the quirky mouldings with the originals. Ours are Sapele Mahogany (hardwood).
Accoya is an engineered/treated SW.
I won't talk about costs as we had a lot more sashes and it was 8yrs ago.
I am an architect so I've done lots of other peoples windows since and costs have gone up a lot, timber prices soared in the pandemic and although they have dropped a bit they are still high.
PVC sashes actually worked out more expensive for ours than the hardwood, due to the size and mechanism that would be required.

Fab Co in West Sussex do heritage windows. landing.fabcosanctuary.com/fabco-windows-v3/?campaign=6783764046&keyword=fabco%20windows&matchtype=e&adposition=&device=m&gclid=CjwKCAiAyfybBhBKEiwAgtB7fg99wgS7l6dOxGAUdEoAIUaPADMMSJm2Z9c9_munU51KNndtz9xephoCQPwQAvD_BwE

You’d think so, right?!

My listed house in a conservation area has been refused planning to change the windows.

The two houses that mine is attached to are now commercial buildings - they look grotty as fuck, one is a takeaway so gaudy as possible, both have UPVC, are not inkeeping with fucking anything.

But as mine is still a home (and quite why/how the council allowed a change of use on a row of four listed houses is fucking beyond me anyway), I’m beholden to their bullshit.

The quote for mine was 50K, I bought the house for 165K 4 years ago… around 1/3 of the total price of the house to replace the windows.