How much should new windows cost? (house, contractors, costs)

[SlyFrog]

We've got some windows from a fungible, generic Mc-80s suburban house that are going bad. Sills are soft, windows need to be replaced.

What would be a reasonable price for window, or to do 3-4 together? These are ordinary casement windows about 53" square or so, not large bay windows or anything.

Much like many things with handymen, I'm having a very hard time getting a series of quotes that seems to bear any semblance to what is reasonable. It's not just that I am cheap (I am), it's that I'm getting bids that are so all over the place, it makes me wonder if any of them are sane. We're talking bids that from low to high are 250% or more apart, and the low ones don't seem that cheap!

It does not help that I am terrible with doing anything like this myself, don't know what this stuff should cost, and am basically reliant on trying to price check the windows myself and figure out what labor should cost to have any idea.

So I'm looking here for help.

[golfgal]

I was pretty much going to tell you what you already found out, they can really vary in price. The biggest thing it to make sure they are all quoting the exact same thing. Make a list of what you want quoted, step by step almost and the exact type of window you want so at least you can compare the same thing. Some contractors will give you a quote just on the windows, then throw in labor fees after the fact, others will quote every step of the process. You also might want to wait a while to do this, maybe next summer?? Reason being is that there has been a lot of storm damage in the metro already this summer and the building costs and labor costs are responding to that meaning you will probably pay more NOW to get them done. Even doing the windows in the winter will be less expensive.

We had a handyman friend replace the storm windows on our double hung windows-1950's house, last summer, the storm windows (combination screen/windows aluminum deal) were about $100 each installed (he doesn't charge much for labor!!).