There is nothing wrong with wanting a cheap window repair. Most people who ring us have just been quoted for a whole new window they do not need, and cheap is exactly the right instinct at that point.
The problem is that cheap and low priced are not the same thing. A repair that costs half as much and lasts a fifth as long is not cheap, it is just deferred. So here is how to tell the difference, from people who fix these for a living and who lose work to underpriced quotes regularly enough to have opinions about it.
Cheap usually just means repair instead of replace
The single biggest saving available to you is not haggling. It is finding out that the window does not need replaced.
A misted or blown double glazed window is the clearest example. The glass unit has failed, the frame is fine, and the unit comes out and a new one goes in with the frame staying exactly where it is. Sealed unit replacements start from £75 at our end for a small pane. A replacement window is a different order of money entirely, and a lot of people are quoted for one when the unit was all that had gone.
The same applies to doors. A door that will not lock is nearly always a cylinder, a handle, a hinge or a mechanism, and every one of those is a fraction of a new door. We go through that in what it costs to fix a uPVC door.
So the first question is not who is cheapest, it is whether this actually needs replaced at all. Get that answer right and you have saved more than any amount of shopping around will save you.
What a genuinely low price looks like
A fair, low quote usually has these things in common. It comes from someone local with low overheads, often a small family firm rather than a company with a showroom, a sales team and a marketing budget to cover. It is quoted after somebody has seen the job or at least seen a photo of it. It is one number for the work, with no separate call out charge bolted on. And the person quoting is happy to tell you exactly what part they are fitting.
What a suspiciously low price usually hides
- A call out fee that appears later. A very low headline price with a separate charge for turning up is not a low price. Ask whether there is a call out charge before anything else. Ours is nothing, and plenty of others charge one.
- A thinner unit than the one that came out. Sealed units come in different overall thicknesses and different glass thicknesses, and a cheaper unit can be made by dropping the spec. If the original was toughened, the replacement should be toughened. If it was Low E energy glass, a plain clear replacement will cost less and cost you more on heating for the next fifteen years.
- A quote that changes on the day. If nobody asked you the size of the pane, what the glass is or what the window is actually doing, the number you were given is a guess and it will move.
- No guarantee, or a guarantee from someone with no fixed address. A sealed unit that fogs again after two years is only a problem if you cannot get the person back. Our guide to double glazing guarantees covers what to look for.
- Cash only and no paperwork. You want to be able to prove the work was done, especially if you ever sell the house.
The questions worth asking anybody
Ask these five and you will learn more than a price comparison will tell you.
- Is there a call out charge, and is the quote free?
- Is the price you have given me the price I will pay, or is it from a range?
- What exactly are you fitting, and is it the same specification as what is coming out?
- What is guaranteed and for how long?
- Have you seen a photo of the actual window, or is this a general figure?
Cheap now against cheap over ten years
The honest way to compare two quotes is not the number at the bottom. It is the number at the bottom divided by how long the repair will last.
A sealed unit fitted properly, with the right spec of glass and drained and packed correctly in the frame, should give you many years of service. A unit fitted badly into a frame with blocked drainage can fail again quickly, and then you are paying twice. The gap between a good price and a bad price on the day is usually small. The gap between a repair that lasts and one that does not is not small at all.
Where we sit on price
We are not always the cheapest quote you will get, and we are not going to claim otherwise.
We are two people, family run, more than thirty years at it in North Lanarkshire, with no showroom and no salesmen, which keeps our prices genuinely low without cutting the work. Sealed units start from £75 for a small pane. There is no call out fee. You pay for the work done. Our prices page explains the whole of it.
The thing we will not do is quote low to get through the door and then find more work once we are stood in your living room. If we think the job is smaller than you expected, we will tell you. If we think a repair is not going to hold and you would be better replacing, we will tell you that too, even when the repair is the job we would have been paid for.
Ready when you are
Send a photo of the window on WhatsApp, call us on 01698 604 278 between eight and five Monday to Friday, or use the contact form. The quote is free, there is no call out charge, and we cover Wishaw and the surrounding towns.