Are new windows worth the money?

Question

Our home is 26 years old and still has the original double hung double pain windows. We had a sales person come by and want to use our home for their advertising portfolio and offered to do our entire two story home for $10990. Ouch right. When we first got the quote I wanted to throw up but then I started looking into it and the windows are a high quality triple pain double hung custom window. 25 windows to be exact... ONe of the reasons we bought our home was because of all the windows and natural light but we have noticed that we lose a lot of our heat and air through the windows and the frames of the original windows are starting to show lots of damage. THese people are going to come out put in the new windows replace the frame and the trim and cover it with some kind of aluminum cover then we will have a life time warranty on the windows and frames for as long as we own the home. Is this a good investment? Some of the windows we have are not in as bad a shape as others but we didn't want to replace some and not all for the future value of the home. Does this price sound high? Is replacing your windows a good investment or should we save our money and just replace the windows that are damaged?

Answer 1

In today's inflated pricing, who knows what is too high.  It is plenty, $440 per window.  I just finished replacing all the windows in our home myself.  It was quite a task, but the cost of the windows was 1,114.00, and another $200 for misc. items to finish the job.  Mine are double pane vinyl, probably not as good as what you are pricing.  

Does it pay out?  Well, we went through one winter, and compared the heat savings.  The heat bill was $465 less than the year before for the entire winter.  That means my windows will pay for themselves in three years if I figure nothing for my own labor.  If I hired it done it would have been about $7,00.00, which means it would take 15 years to recover the cost.

Answer 2

Who does the sales person work for?  Perhaps a call to the Better Business Bureau is a good place to start, insofar as seeing if the company is a reputable one.  Have you asked them for references?

What type of replacement windows do your neighbors have?  Triple pane windows are more expensive than double pane.  Will the company replace what you have with something less 'high end' for less money?

Something to think about, besides recovering a savings with heat/electric: depending upon your neighborhood, you may or may not be able to recover the cost of the upgrade if you were to sell.  For example, I once priced triple pane replacement windows for a home I owned 15 years ago.  It was in a middle class neighborhood; nothing extravagant.  If I had put that much money into upgrading the home, I would never have recovered it when reselling.  If I had lived in a 'higher end' neighborhood, it would've been more sensible.  (I wound up replacing with double  paned windows for less).

I just replaced windows (12 total) and a sliding door in my townhouse (double hung again) and paid about 6k.  I don't think what you're looking at is a BAD deal ... it's just something you need to weigh the pro's and con's out for your own situation.

Good luck ~

Answer 3

Sounds like you are being scammed.  If you want your windows replaced, seek out a reputable window installer.

Answer 4

sounds fair under 500 a window installed . they should be more  efficent , i know the old wood frame  windows lose alot of heat /cooling  something like 70 cents of every dollar so newer must be better  

Answer 5

It is hard to tell if that is a good price. A lot depends on what type of windows are being replaced. Larger windows cost more money. It would also depend on how long you plan on owning your home. If you are planning to move in a few years it is going to be hard to re coop your investment in just energy savings. If you plan on living there awhile and you can really see you are loosing a lot of energy through the old windows then it may be a good investment. With the home market the way it is and you may not get your money back out of them.  

Answer 6

i don't know the quality of the windows but i do know that 40% of heat loss is thru the windows

Answer 7

If you figure in the savings on energy cost....it will take you a very long time to recover that much invested. I would call another window company and see what they say on the estimate. Those companies will ALWAYS tell you they are using your house for advertising and you will be getting a good deal...so don't believe all they tell you.

Get more estimates....and you can even check with a realtor to see if replacing those windows would increase the value of your home...if not...then just fix the windows that need fixing. If your old windows leak air around them...install some foam weather stripping.