double glazing-prices?

[Jim Walsh]

Hello all. Just wondering if anyone could advise me as to what would be a reasonable price to pay for UPVC double glazing. The job requires two external doors and seven windows. Two of the windows are bays and one of these is rather large: about 6 square metres of glass required. The remaining five windows probably average about 1-1.5 square metres each. I've had a couple of quotes and the best so far is Safestyle at £5000 (brought down from the ludicrously high starting figure of about £16K!). I'm aware that Safestyle are considered by many to be a company to avoid. However, lots of the complaints I have read seem to be associated with their finance deals, which I do not require. Furthermore, if the windows or fitting work fall below the expected standard, I'm just as capable as the next man of withholding payment, so this shouldn't be an issue.

Any advice much appreciated.

Regards, Jim.

[The Natural Philosopher]

5 grand

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

AVOID!

Try getting a quote off a couple of local building firms. They may well be cheaper.

s

[Jim Walsh]

Are they really *that* bad, or is the volume of complaints against them simply a reflection of the volume of trade that they do? (bearing in mind that most businesses will have a proportion of dissatisfied customers and they will be the ones who shout the loudest)

I read that Safestyle have a 100% pass rate on radom FENSA inspections, which suggests that the work can't typically be that shoddy.....or can it? Hmmm

Regards, Jim

[Lobster]

Never heard of Safestyle, but spose it depends on what the customer complaints are about? If they overcharge; turn up late; trash the customer's premises, run over the cat, whatever, but still manage to install windows which comply with Part L of the Building Regs...

[Lobster]

Check out this lot (this is from Google's cache: the original site has vanished - I wonder why??

[[news]]

£500 (what I paid, fitted)

c£250ea (I bought 1 fitted, tarted the rest up)

8 window, standard 45 degree bay, c£1k ( I didn't bother)

all +VAT so £3800 - £4000 for UPVC guestimated on what I have paid or would have if I'd gone ahead. FWIW Kömmerling (german, aluminium) came in at £5000 fitted but it's not my house (selling it on) and I obviously wanted to save as much as possible.

HtH

RT

[s--p--o--n--i--x]

Don't know.

[Andrew Gabriel]

The final price doesn't sound way off the mark, but I just wouldn't touch any company that tries to pull a fast one like this.

I went and asked for a recommendation from a local glass shop. They gave me the name of a former employee who had since gone off and setup a window fitting business. He took me to see several installations he had done (he is also a keyholder for several student landlords, so he was able to show me several unoccupied student houses which he had done up). He also took me round the factory where he gets them made, where he was on first name terms with all the staff. We looked through the area of completed frames, where he identified various of the options (as a result of which I actually upped the spec of the windows having seen an optional feature I liked). His price (£3.5k for 7 windows + 1 bay + one door, just before Part L came in) was way below the well known firms, and I've been very pleased with the windows. He came back very promptly to deal with the one snagging issue which came up.

[Mark S.]

Try and go with a local firm.

I picked 3 out of the phone book, one wouldn't answer the phone, the other 2 turned up and measured and priced the job up.

Took the cheaper quote and apart from the guy fitting them being a miserable bugger I couldn't fault the service. ;-)

They suggested a couple of things I'd not thought about like having the window at the top of the stairs frosted rather than clear to give a bit more privacy when trapsing about etc.

Was under 3K for two doors and 6 windows.

Mark S.

[Dave]

Seconded. I wouldn't give them a second chance after they quoted 4.5K for my

11 windows and 1 door - but the guy explained this was their 'cheaper' range that didn't have all the security features that their best stuff has. The guy started at 18K for the good stuff! Cowboys.

Get a local firm to quote. I got the job done to my satisfaction for just over 4K in the end.