UPVC sash windows - insane seeming prices!

[Ilikecakes]

Planning full house refurb and extension in 2024 and trying to sort some of the big ticket items in the next few weeks. The biggest ‘thing’ to buy will be new windows throughout the house, along with four sets of French doors and three sets of bifolds. I’ve had three quotes through and would really appreciate sanity checking from some of the experienced renovation bods on here.

I know these can generate a bit of controversy on here but after MUCH research, we’ve decided on timber-look upvc sash windows for the bulk of the house. We have a really lovely, distinctive heritage property that currently has timber, single glazed sashes throughout (it’s BALTIC in the winter) and restoring, double-glazing and draught proofing them all would be prohibitively expensive and require ongoing expensive maintenance going forward - this from a timber window specialist locally. Back of the house is south facing and, as we’re near the sea, gets a lot of battering over the course of the year with extreme sunlight mixed in with extreme sea gales too. For those reasons, we’d like low maintenance upvc but obviously want to retain the look of the existing sashes as closely as possible, and have accepted basically that we’ll have to pay through the nose for it.

However, I’m still bloody shocked at the three different quotes we’ve had back!! All the quotes seem much higher than expected, but there’s one that’s significantly higher again and I’m struggling to work out if these are fair or if - ultimate first world problem - we’re getting the ‘nice road/house’ tax applied as we’ve annoyingly seemed to find since moving here a few years back.

Three quotes below are for:
27 upvc sash windows (Rose View brand - Ultimate rose collection)
4 timber French doors (across the board we’ve been advised that timber works best for the doors as the upvc frames are too thick for our door dimensions)
Three sets of aluminium bifold (2x3 pane, 1x4 pane)

Quote 1: £99100
Quote 2: £97200
Quote 3: £138000 😱😱 - come to think of it, this last one didn’t even include the French doors as he couldn’t make the timber ones!

For context, the bifolds are roughly £25k out of these figures so windows and French doors are starting at around £75k. Am I going mad that these seem insanely high?! I had an average of £1k per window in mind (none of them are particularly large), but understand that these are high end windows and knew this would creep up, but around £75k?!

I’m going to ring the manufacturers directly tomorrow and try to understand whether I can just order them directly and pay a fitter locally but maybe I’m wrong and this is just what windows like these cost these days?! Would really appreciate any guidance on whether these prices sound out of whack, or whether I’ve just been unrealistic to now?

Gosh that was long, thanks for reading 💐

Hahaha, here we go again. Too funny!! 😆

I had PVC sashes fitted in my last house (conservation and the originals had been removed). I also came on here looking for opinions and it was like I was planning to murder my own Granny with the mere mention of.......PVC. In reality they look great and my neighbours who have to filling their rotten ones with pieces of filler are planning the same.

And don’t get me started on the romanticisation of the ‘small craftsman company.’ The ones I met were like Don Draper - really slick, accomplished businesspeople. Nowt wrong with that of course, delighted they were all doing well, but this notion that there’s a bearded, long haired, wood-loving aul fella doffing his cap and waiting for the bountiful locals to bestow work upon him is funny at best and downright offensive at worst 🧐

I'm loving your sense of humour on here OP! I had upvc wash windows installed (not premium) and they cost me £10900 for two big arse square bay windows down and upstairs and another to the side. I think they look bloody fabulous. The wood equivalents would have been £23800. I've just had matching upvc windows installed at the back too. No regrets. I'm all about being a custodian to period properties and maintaining what they have but I'm also a realist on an average income who has to keep warm and survive. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Well said @mightymam 👏👏👏

I've just had a flashback to walking my phone up to my other half last year and cursing like a sailor at the prices you listed.

At least it's entertaining a bunch of us.

@Yulisees interested to know if your quote for Quickslide came in and whether it was much lower than Roseview in the end?

@Ilikecakes I literally just got both quotes back so I can compare. Roseview was slightly cheaper actually!

13 windows (3 x 3-light bays, 2 x double windows and 8 x single windows – total of 25 windows) was £44,000 for Ultimate Rose and £48,000 for Quickslide. This is for their period look window with the slim midrail, thick bottom part and woodgrain. So quite close to the Ultimate Rose.

Garden doors are extra as we are looking for hardwood probably...🙄

Interesting that quickslide ended up being slightly more expensive. Any idea which you’ll go for?

Yes we have gone wood for French doors etc too, they really don’t look right in upvc - our installer (who’s evangelical about Roseview) said so himself. Good luck 👍🏻

@Ilikecakes Waiting to hear back from some other suppliers and manufacturers. I'll update here when we have made our decision and add any new info! Roseview is on the lead at the moment. ✌In the meantime, maybe a good idea to play some lottery as well...

I too am facing this dilemma - to renovate 24 original sash windows from 2012 or replace with quality uPVC at an estimated cost of circa £50k.
About 10 years ago I aquired several old sash windows from somebody replacing them with new wooden sashes. I have used some wood from these sashes over the years to make repairs to my windows. The wood is pitch pine and has the most incredibly close growth rings - probably grown in the Baltic area over many, many decades. I have recently passed the house where I got the old sashes from and I was very surprised to see that the replacement windows were being refurbished, covered in grey primer. They have been this way for some months now. I think the important thing with original sash windows is to keep on top of the maintenance so that they do not deteriorate. I could say that I've been lazy over the years but bringing up 3 children takes up time and when given the choice of spending a great day out in the sunshine with my kids or renovating sash windows there's been no competition (I tend like to do as much work on the house as I can (as I generally have found I do a much better job even though it might take longer). Finding tradespeople is not so easy.
I'm not sure renovating is more environmentally friendly than replacement uPVC. Every 5 years a lorry has to transport scaffolding to the house and then some time later has to collect it. What about the environmental impact of the paint? I understand the old oil based leaded paints used when my house was built protected the wood for long periods of time, i.e was far superior to the modern paints. Do water based paints really last? I have used Dulux Weathershield (oil based) on previous occasions and it lasts about 5 years. With using such paint I use up quite a lot of white spirits cleaning up - not so good for the environment, etc, etc.
Thank you to Ilikecakes for starting this thread which I have found most useful and to others that have contributed.
BTW I still haven't made my mind up and I went through this mental anguish 5 years ago!

Original windows from 1912 of course.

@CuteRodney some of the environmental harms of uPVC windows:
▪One day they will end up on landfill where they ▪will never biodegrade, unlike wood;
▪The use of aluminium, which is harmful;
▪The use of a lot of energy and petrochemicals to make them in the first place; and
▪Unlike wood, uPVC cannot be repaired.

I went through something similar when I did a renovation a couple of years ago. We were looking at windows for a heritage property, and I thought I'd be looking at around £1k per window too. But when we got the quotes, I was in for a surprise! Some of the high-end options, especially for timber-look UPVC, really pushed the price up. One of the companies we looked at was Hadleigh Glass (they do a lot of work with aluminium but have a great reputation), and their quality and advice helped guide us through the decision. Definitely worth calling manufacturers directly like you’re planning – that can sometimes save a lot!

@Yulisees what did you go for? I'm interested to hear how it turned out. we're considering buying a property which needs new sash windows and I've been looking at some of the companies you've mentioned.

We decided to go for Roseview Ultimate Rose. Two of our new windows will be in the same room with some original French doors so how they look is very important. These were by far the best looking ones that we found and their price was comparable. Our budget isn't as big as we'd like though - everything is so bloody expensive - so we'll have to leave some windows to be replaced further down the line. Wishing you the best of luck with your new home. ❤

UVPC sash windows are much cheaper from a manufacturer, have you tried looking in Selco or aluminum might look nicer. It's the fitting that tends to be the expensive bit

@Justsaywhatyoumean123 I know there are cheaper options out there, but maintaining the heritage look is very important to us, so we decided to pay a bit more and replace fewer windows for now.

OP here and hi @Yulisees!

We did Ultimate Rose throughout and they look bloody amazing. We’ve had ongoing problems with the supplier (the type of small, fluffy local company that according to many on MN is supposed to give exceptional service 🤬) but the windows themselves are magnificent so we’ve gritted our teeth and got through it. End result is just gorgeous, really happy! Really expensive overall, but still significantly less than timber would’ve been, without any ongoing costs. I’d post a picture but would be likely to get a pile on of ‘I can tell they’re plastic from a mile off’ judging from the way the thread went 😂

interesting you both went for ultimate rose. we are only in the process of deciding whether to offer on this house or not. But its not Listed and the georgian windows are very rotten and collapsing. They have replaced some with modern wood, id guess about 10 to poss 20 years ago, but they don't look in v good nick either. The house clearly has some damp.

but im researching windows to put together a rough price. Im hoping £50k would cover them. Problem there is a large rotten veranda which i suspect would be a lot more too (and needs to be double glazed because in one of the rooms its like a conservatory because its enclosed.

@Ilikecakes Hi Ilikecakes! Very glad to hear you love your windows. I'm sure we made the right decision and that I'll love mine too. We had some delays with our build so they haven't been installed yet but not too long now! 😍

@StrawberryThief1930 How many windows to you have roughly? Worth getting a few up to date free quotes from suppliers. Prices change constantly and you'd want to avoid surprises!

we think about 9 full size sash windows, then a lot of small cottage style windows. plus a large canopy/glazed roof - porch thingy.

We had 15 upvc wood effect sash windows done - all in cost of windows and installation was about 14k. That was a just a few years ago. In the NW.

Reading through this thread has been like reading a transcript of my thoughts, going back and forth between whether even considering UPVC is sacrilege! Thanks for posting the update @Ilikecakes. I found reading through your journey from thoughts and quotes to being happy with the end result (if not the company!) so helpful!

We live in an Edwardian house with sash and bay windows. Some have been painted shut so we cant easily ventilate. For half the year, I go round with my Karcher to try and keep on top of the condensation each morning but with a 1 and 3 year old its far from ideal. I worry about getting mold on my curtains and on the bars and feel like its a constant battle to try and stay on top of it. They bays in particular mean that the living room is cold.

We had a quote for repairs that just blew our minds. Repairs were approx £1,500 for each 6 x 6 sash window with the company saying that they could go up or down by 20% depending on what they find when they start. CozyGlazing was a further £2,000 per window. The bay window repairs were approximately £7,500 each plus about £5,000 for CozyGlazing.... Then we would need to be on a 5 year maintenance schedule, sanding down and repainting.

I went to a show room and was so impressed by the look of the Ultimate Rose window. We're getting quotes this week.

We have one window in our toilet that faces our garage that urgently needs to be repaired as its in a terrible state. As my husband said, UPVC cant look worse than what it does at the moment! When we bought the house, the surveyor said it had been badly repaired and that fixing it would cost around £600 but that isn't what we're finding.

I was just wondering whether anyone had any advice about cost of doing 1-2 a a time vs discount for doing windows as a "job lot"?

Thank you x

Any person who works with masonry can most likely fit your windows perfectly well - ie a general builder. See if you can get a recommendation. You definitely don't need to be paying £2000 per window. https://www.selcobw.com/products/doors-windows-stairs/upvc-windows/double-glazed/shop-by/?colour=matt_white_white