SE London sash window quotes seem high, are there more affordable firms?

[Nickyneedsadvice]

Hiya!
We’re looking to get sash windows installed as our house currently only has single glazing.
we live in SE London and have been quoted upwards of £25k for 2 bay windows and 1 standard window.
from my research, I think this is a bit steep (but please correct me if this is the market rate in your experience!)
could someone suggest some companies please that will be a bit more affordable?
thank you in advance!

That does seem high. Are you keeping the existing box frames, or getting new ones?

We had our wooden single glazed sash windows replaced with double glazed for about £12,600. That covered one bay, five ordinary windows and one small casement. Mind you, that was in 2019 so it will have gone up since then. That was sash carpentry. They did a really good job.

You could also try Core, they gave a reasonable quote iirc

25k for 3 windows?? That’s a lot of money, even for London! We had 2 large upstairs windows done in 2024 (Home Counties so not too far away) and it was about 4k if I recall correctly- large sash replaced with upvc ones but the nice ones which look very close to the originals. We didn’t get the large bay done as that was 3k for the one window and we couldn’t afford that too.
Get another quote, that seems a lot.

We used Stroud Green windows for double glazed window only (keeping the original box) and it was much less than your quote.

It’s possible that the firm who quoted don’t really want this “small” job so they have quoted high.

ive recently got a wooden sash installed. I wanted a reasonably priced one off the peg, which was a lot more difficult to find than I anticipated. I got it from
Ranesbrook windows who I think are in south London. They do bespoke too. The one I bought off the shelf was significantly cheaper than getting one elsewhere bespoke - I didn’t look at bespoke from them. Im happy with it and the builder also
commented that it was nice, but my sister who is in high end interiors said there was something that made it clear why it was cheaper - I can’t remember the detail or see it myself, but sharing for transparency. Im very happy with it hence the recommend.

If they are old wooden sashes you don’t need to replace them. They almost certainly can be repaired. And if essential heritage thin double glazing added. Find a joiner that has experience in this.

I would also suggest magnetic secondary glazing. It’s very cheap and conservation approved and proven more effective than double glazing.

if you are insistent on new windows the quote will be dependant upon the size of them and access. Could be anything between 5-12k a sash if you do them in acoya. They will have a 70ish year guarantee for the timber and actually last well over 100.

Thanks so much everyone for your advice!
We currently don’t have sash windows (but the rest of our road does so we want to get them to match). We’d like uPVC sash windows as don’t want the upkeep of timber ones.