Sticker Shock

Every hurricane season I swear I’m going to replace my windows and sliding glass doors before the next one. Yesterday we actually had a guy out to measure and give us a quote.

The company this guy is from only does high-impact work, which is the way I’d like to go. I don’t want to have to worry about putting up shutters and stuff every time a storm gets near. I’ve already learned that by the time you wish you had something on your windows it’s too late to do anything about.

I have six windows, seven sliding glass doors (3 openings, 28 linear feet), and another patio door that I think warrant high-impact. The other six windows are on the sides of the house and relatively well-protected. I’m planning to replace those myself using a wind-rated product, but I’ll skip the impact-resistance.

Now I knew this was going to be expensive. I’ve heard that folks generally spend $10K to have their windows replaced. Assuming much of this to be labor, I’ve been planning to do a lot of the work myself. I bought a hammer drill, (which has become one of my favorite tools) and I watched carefully when our contractor replaced a window during a recent bathroom remodel. Looks easy enough.

But I was really clueless about how much these doors would cost. We’re probably going to replace the sliders with French doors. We wanted to put two sets of doors in the 12-foot space, but I couldn’t convince the sales guy that it would be just as strong as having large glass sidelights on either side of a single set. Code shmode.

So he took his measurements and then sat down with his calculator. He made some grunting sounds and mumbled a little while my wife and I glanced at each other expectantly. When he finished he hemmed and hawed a bit, which I took to be a bad sign, before turning his notebook around to show us... $24,000 for the whole job; 7 for the windows, 17 for the doors. Holy crap.

They manufacture locally, which is primarily why I chose to have them out first. Supporting the local economy and all that. I also mistakenly thought it might also help with delivery time. Not. They set customer expectations for 6-7 months. The sales guy says they custom build everything and don’t have an inventory of standard sizes. I have a hard time believing this.

He also says they are less expensive than Simonton and Stanek (both of whom do manufacture standard sizes). We’ll see about that. Home Depot sells Simonton. My previously-mentioned-contractor also said he would get me Simonton stuff at his cost.

Assuming quotes from HD are even in the same Zip Code, I’m going to have a tough time justifying dropping that much coin on some stupid doors. My guesstimates for the windows were pretty much on target, but I was off on the doors by over $10k.

I’m not under any illusions that spending that much money on windows will make my house hurricane-proof. I don’t think mine has the straps that tie the roof down to the block walls like they’re requiring on new homes. I also have two large oak liabilities that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I may not have a roof, but dammit I’ll have nice windows.

While new windows improve the value of the house, I doubt the quality of the windows make much difference. If you’re gonna upgrade before you sell your house you should use medium-quality stuff. The new buyer isn’t going to appreciate your bulletproof windows any more than your new $10K air-conditioner with humidity control, variable speed fan, and two-stage furnace. The corollary of course is never to buy a house that has been recently upgraded. Live and learn.

That said, I tend not to do stuff half-assed and am usually very considerate of the next owners. That’s why all my crown moulding has high-grade speaker wire running behind it even though I don’t have any speakers and don’t even have a TV.

If I don’t do this it is guaranteed that in about 6-9 months when the next storm is headed this way and I’m trying to decide if I need to get out the plywood, I’ll be cussing myself for being cheap and indecisive and swearing that this year I’m going to replace those windows.