I Need Help. . . How Much Do I Charge To Install Windows

My neighbor just had 3 windows replaced by Lowe's for 3000 bucks. One window was a large bay window but the other 2 were small double hung. I'm guessing he paid about 1500 for the windows, and another 1500 for install. I'm sure the installer got peanuts, but the install price seems about right. It included making the outside nice and pertty w/ custom aluminum work and caulking. Building is brick, so there was no messing w/ siding. I don't think he touched the interior.

By the way, my area is EXTREMELY competitive area for construction. Good skilled carpenters w/ all their own tools make as little as 17 bucks an hour here.

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Is that with capping? I can do 12 or 14 a day including delivery disposal and clean up no problem without capping.. Thats on a woodco with aluminum sash balances though not sash pockets and their required insulation.

IBuildDreamHomes, To put all these guys into comments into a single statement.

Your question describes the problem to us. You are in over your head. You've positioned yourself as being an expert at something about which you lack competence.

Your asking for a standard price indicates a lack of understanding of the industry and your job. Your description of the work needing done seems adequate to you but a competent professional would know it gives far to little information to answer in the way you hope. There is certainly enough information for sarcastic answers, so that's what you get.

Good luck to you, better luck to your employer. You're both depending on it. The guys on this board tend to rely on competence rather than luck.

Here the window replacement companies charge TOP DOLLAR. Some companies won't charge LESS than $500 for a vinyl insert window complete installed and trimed out with aluminum. Marvin wood full frame replacement starting at $1,500.

Why do I say top dollar? If I pay my sub $150 for a marvin window complete with insulation, int. & ext. trim (labor only), about $550 for a custom marvin ultimate, that leaves about $800 for aluminum material, interior trim material, caulk and profit per window. This would not include paint, drywall, wall paper etc.

These are the going rates in my area, but windows sales is VERY high pressure around here. It's where all the used car salesmen graduate into.

Wow...I should close down and make the hour trek to Illinois if you are paying subs over $100 per window. Around here subs get anywhere from $40 to $90 per opening including install and capping. Personally I pay $50 an opening but I supply coil, caulk, wood, etc....Are you making you guys responsible for the coil etc? If so, that makes more sense.

Tin men...

Yep and it's a hard industry to work in unless you can fight fire with fire. We don't do much windows only because our sales system is different. We prefer to cross sell and have a much much higher closing rate on windows. For example if we did their roof, we remind them we also do windows. If they call us asking about siding we encourage them to do windows first.


BTW it's $85 labor per vinyl insert window for labor with subs own caulk and aluminum and fasteners. $150 for wood full frame including labor and subs fasteners. Subs must have own vehicles, tools, insurance etc... That ALSO includes THEIR MEASREMENTS. If they made a mistake measuring they eat it, not me. We measure, we sell, and after we sell the estimator meets the sub to do the final measurement. The sub provides us with the measurements and we order the windows.


BTW don't bother applying I have too many people calling me already. Also you can get the same just about anywhere around here.

Here in NJ, I charge a minimum of 550 bucks per window for a single unit, then a small charge for disposal of the old trim and window unit. That includes new insulation around the new frame and trimmed inside and outside.
If they want it wrapped in alum outside it's more. For double triple and bay windows the price just keeps going up. I pretty much only install marvins, sometimes integrity. If they want vinyl replacements, I try to talk them into new units, if not. I will charge 125 per single vinyl window, 20 bucks disposal fee for the old sashes. I'm doing the work myself with one helper. I don't have a crew or a salesman out there to pay money too. I don't think I could afford to have a salesman out there getting me work unless I had several crews to run, not the way I want my business to operate. I work on quality, not quantity. People hire me, and want me on the job for the most part.
Window replacement or door replacement is good money for the time you spend doing it. heck even the HD here near me charges 580 bucks to install an exterior door, which does not include insulation, cost of trim, or disposal of old door. I'm sure they are on the lower scale of install prices. That's why I charge a lot more to do french door and slider door installs.

HogWash! Increasing your price 10 or 15% to cover a salesman's commission and added expenses should matter much at all. Get that salesman 3 window leads a day and he will keep you and your helper busy every day, assuming the average job takes you guys only 1 day.

I don't do the volume right now for just windows alone to pay a saleman, He wouldn't be able to make a living off the amount of windows we could do with just two guys in a day. Plus having to supply the saleman with a car or reimbursement for using his vehicle. my company is not big enough to support a full time salesman. I am not ready to focus my company purely on windows and doors. I like doing larger additions and renovation jobs.
Bigger doesn't always mean you make more money, just means you look more impressive to other people having lots of trucks and employees that you have to babysit all the time and hope they dont' screw things up for you to fix.

What Type Of Window.

My "labour" charge is the cost of the window: this includes tearout, installation, capping labour & material, caulking, waste disposal, foam insulation in cavity, etc. - everything but the inside trim, minimum $300.

Therefore, $400 window = $800 installed; $200 window = $500 installed.

2 guys should be able to install 12-20 replacement windows in a day. If your average day is 15 and you pay a salesperson $50 per window then he would make $750 a day. You just need to find a sales person that will generate his/her own leads Maybe place an ad for a canvassing expert/salesperson and let them prove that they can canvass for their own leads. If my suggestion helps let me know and I will try it myself.

my business is not replacement windows. I rarely do them. and if we do, the are marvin tiltpacs, not the simpler vinyl ones that are all once piece.
the tilt pacs are easy, but not as easy and fast as the vinyl.
i make better money on doing whole units with trim, int/ext. but i'm not marketing myself as a window/door installer only. work is slow around here now. i just can't support paying a salesman. not a big enough company. and i wouldn''t be paying paying a salesman 750 bucks a day. if you are talking white vinyl replacement windows, 50 bucks a window out of that install cost is a lot. imo

That guy has no idea what he's getting into. He should start with maybe one or two windows and see how long it takes to do it right. Then figure out what to charge. But that makes too much sense probably.

There is no going rate. Every job is different. Give us the address, the HO's name and phone number and a time when you won't be there, someone will go there, look at the job, speak to the HO, and get back to you.

Again $300 labor + $400 window=?????????

We get $20 per opening 1st floor, if you bid like that, you will get mire work than you can handle.

We don't make much, but we do a lot of volume.

I'm gonna lay myself open to criticism here, but it might be worth it...

DreamHome started out by asking for a "going rate." As a relative newcomer to this site and the industry, I've wanted to ask the same question many times. But I haven't because I've seen the responses others get when they ask. The general consensus among experienced contractors seems to be that we're asking the wrong question when we ask for a going rate. This seems based on good logic -- everyone has different skill levels, overhead, etc.

But I still think that the question of going rate is legitimate. Regardless of my particulars, if I can't come up with a price that's in the ballpark of the median in the industry or the price suggested by the efficient market (to the extent that there is one), I'm not going to get the job and I need to revisit my variables. The customer has the opportunity to compare bids, so if my bids aren't realistic I'm not going to get work. By asking you what you charge I'm not necessarily trying to establish my price, I may be simply trying to determine if the price I'm likely to "win" with is enough to support my current business model.

I think we need to give the "going rate" seekers a bit of a break. We might all benefit from knowing how cometetive we really are.

Bring it on...

John