Be on Your Guard if You See a Window Replacement Quote that Just Seems Too Good to Be True

Posted: Feb 04, 2013
Author: G&S Contracting, Inc.

In many cases these “special offers” not only sound too good to be true – they are actually too good to be true. When the cost of materials and labor are worked out, the prices quoted are unrealistic and any company sticking to these deals would go out of business very soon.

One of the key things to understand when it comes to quoting replacement costs on replacement windows is that many contractors use “unified inches” to determine pricing. Basically unified inches (sometimes called united inches) are determined by adding the height and width together i.e. a window measuring 20 inches by 30 would constitute 50 unified inches, as opposed to using square inches e.g. 20” x 30” = 600 square inches.

A lot of home windows have unified measurement of about 90 – 100 inches, so be careful of really cheap specials that either do not specify the size range that the price covers or are limited to a maximum unified dimension that is quite a bit lower than the average for household windows. Obviously this type of pricing estimate is impractical, as it will almost never apply to an actual window in your home.

Often these really cheap quotes are part of a bait and switch scheme – once a salesman is in your home, he/she will try to convince you to spend more money on a bigger, more expensive type of window.

Ironically the final cost of windows that are replaced by companies that use pushy sales techniques will not only usually be much higher than the advertised “budget special,” they may even be higher than the cost of having a professional window replacement company come out and do the job.