Windows and doors : Any experience ?

[wizzler]

DM and DF have decided they need new windows and external doors. They live in a 3 bed detached.. 2 external doors, and one set of french windows. 17 windows in total. Have had " a very nice man" round who quoted them just under £11k all in , including scaffolding, and a long warranty. Company reviews on the intranet are good.

I have absolutely no experience of this. Does that seem reasonable ?

I have told DM she should get another quote for comparison but she says that the new quote wouldnt necessarily be for the same high quality.

I wasnt at the house when the man came to quote as DM didnt tell me he was coming until 20 mins before the appointment.

Its obviously their money, but I dont want them to be ripped off.Nor do I want to make them feel they shouldn't be making their own decisions.

Am struggling to be honest, that I now appear to have become the voice of common sense, when for so long it was DM and DF that used to talk me out of rash financial decisions!

Any views or comparative figures welcomed

We paid £15k for 14 (some of which were very big) windows, French doors, two back doors and a front door - all double glazed. Got the usual FENSA guarantee and also had a different colour casing outside to inside which added cost.
(We are in the South East so I also assume we pay a premium for everything 🙄)

I should add that the quote was comparative to an other we had and based on personal recommendations which we held in high regard.

I'd definitely encourage them to get more quotes anyway.

Thanks... we are in the north midlands so probably wont have the premiums the south east people have .

I dont think their quote is outrageous, but am struggling that my DM is happy to sign away all this money without even checking comparisons

We had a quote for a 3 bed detached from Anglian with back sliding doors, windows and door 6 downstairs windows 5 upstairs windows and a new front door for just over 9k so seems about right.

How did she come across this company? I'd feel the same as you. And as I understand, unless she's going for something really different or fancy, windows are windows! She can get another company to give a like-for-like quote.

I got 2 quotes for 3 windows, first company is a well known brand and insisted i would need scaffolding, second company was a local company who offered precisely the same grade A windows as company one and smirked when i said about scaffolding as it wasnt needed and their quote was cheaper by 50%. Your mum and dad do need to get at least one more quote!

When spending that much, def get 3 quotes.
We had ours done without scaffolding by a reputable local company.

Yes.. I am going round for lunch today and will try to make them see sense.

Their windows and doors are old... and I am sure they would benefit from new ones. They are comfortably off, so can afford to make the purchase, and from all my research the quote isnt miles off what it should be.

Oneday... they made an appointment after being visited by a door to door canvasser. Its classic.. as is the promise that the price is low as they can take photos to use in the area!

I work for a manufacturing company. Depending on the style of door they ordered, they can easily br £500 each, french door similar and say £300 per window on average again depending on size and type of glass supplied,. So supply only would be in the region of £7k. Then you have the fitters to pay and the scaffolding hire on top. So I’d say that is quite reasonable.
We offer a high quality product with a ten year guarantee. Lots of manufacturing companies do. Its the fitter who is important 90% of complaints we deal with are fitting faults not manufacturing faults.
A recommended fitter is important, as is a second quote for comparison.

These guys are Certass certificatted.. but not Fensa... should that ring big alarm bells ?

Hmmm. Door-to-door sales always turns me off of a company.

And I echo what PP said about scaffolding - we didn't need it for our house.
(Got me thinking to when I got quotes to replace our boiler - British Gas was very expensive and included scaffolding but the local company we went with didn't need any).

Local firms are a good shout. And new windows make such a huge difference to the warmth of the house (and our heating bill!).

My understanding (from having a number of window quotes and discussions with various companies as I am very indecisive) is that you rarely need scaffolding. Most windows can be fitted from inside. Might be worth querying.

Avoid the door to doors and def try a local company.

We used what has a reputation to be the most expensive one in our area because they only had the colour windows we wanted.

Advice and aftercare service was fab and price turned out to be more reasonable than we'd thought!

For a previous house we got 3 quotes

If you have local to the area fb group, ask for recommendations on there. We've had success with this for lots of recent renovations as you get the same names coming up if people are happy with them, but also ones to avoid.

In in Lancashire and paid £5.5k for new fro the and back composite doors, 6 normal but very high windows with very low sills (iyswim) and a large bay windows (also non standard measurements). I paid extra for thicker safety glass due to children/low upstairs windowsills not being a good combo.

Direct Window Company did mine - yes, the ones who out fliers through the door almost daily and supplement in every local paper. Think they're fairly local to here though. Fast, done well, no mess left. Four years on my doors/windows are still brilliant and my heating bill halved compared to my draughty old frames and front door with an inch gap at the bottom!

Sorry I don't normally leave recommendations but they were excellent for us.

Try and persuade them to go with a local company - point out that if there are any problems in the near future will be much easier to get sorted by a local company. Anyone doing door to door will be a National company and use hard sell/low price if you sign now tactics. If they have signed anything already there should be a cooling off period during which time they can cancel. Point out that a reputable company doesnt need to do hard sell door to door selling.