Cost to replace wooden window?

SameOldRoundabout

One or two of our upstairs windows are rotten and letting in water. They are quite large at about 1350mm wide and 1650mm tall, but otherwise standard casement windows. 

I had a local joinery company quote for a softwood window, supply only, primed - so not even actually finished - and they came back at £750 plus vat. I was quite surprised at that, but I’m not sure if that’s actually very expensive or whether I was being unrealistic thinking it’d be less?!

TELLIT01

Looking at Wickes and B&Q the window cost alone is around £400 for a slightly smaller window.  On that basis £750 fitted doesn't seem excessive. They will require scaffolding to do the work.

phoebe1989seb

It doesn't seem excessive to me either. We're having three timber casement windows made (albeit DG and fully painted) by a local joiner. They are wider but not as tall as yours - £4500 not including fitting for the three.

We obtained several quotes and the cheapest was about £300 less, the most expensive approx £6k.

Someone we know recently had a quote for 30 timber windows from a different joiner (a mix of casement and sash, none particularly huge, some actually fairly small) and it came in at £90k!!!

Jackmydad

The prices seen here show that it really is hopeless asking "what's reasonable for doing this work" on a forum.
Far too many variables.
Having said that, and FWIW, I'd say the £750 quote is reasonable.

FreeBear

£750 doesn't sound too bad. See if they will quote for hardwood (oak) frames.

Do bear in mind that replacing windows requires building control to sign off the work - Fitters that are registered with FENSA or similar can self certify the work and submit the necessary papers to the council. Unless you are in a conservation area or have a listed building, building regs pretty much mandate double glazing to meet current thermal efficiency targets. Well worth fitting DG anyway.

SameOldRoundabout

Wow I hadn’t realised it was that expensive. Luckily my husband is a cabinet maker so I think he’ll end up making it now, although he hasn’t made a window since college over 20 years ago hence trying to get quotes before resorting to that 😂

Thanks for the pointer about building regs Freebear, we are getting new french doors put in and knocking some windows one downstairs so I’ll put that on the form for approval when the time comes.