Window replacement cost, itemized
Ten stock 36 × 60 in vinyl single-hung windows with low-E glass cost $2,490 at today’s store price, $249 each. Each day one installer works adds about $559 to the price, overhead and profit included (U.S. median wage). Enter your window count, the price you were quoted for the windows, your city and the installer’s time, or type a quote to see how many hours of work it pays for.
Your windows at today’s prices
Each figure says where it comes from: the window at a store’s posted price, the installer’s time at what a carpenter costs an employer where you live, and the share of the price finish carpentry contractors spend on overhead and keep as profit. The window price, the time and the overhead share are yours to change.
Filled in as an example: 10 windows, each a 36 × 60 in Croft Savannah Series 20 vinyl single-hung with low-E glass, at Stine Home + Yard’s price; the installer’s time is not yet typed. Type over any of it with your own count and figures.
The materials priced here, at today’s prices: $2,490. Each day one window installer works adds about $559.
| Part | Cost | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Windows: 10 windows | $2,490 | Croft Savannah Series 20 vinyl single-hung window, 36 × 60 in, white, low-E glass at $249 each, Stine Home + Yard in Sulphur, LA, . A stock size with a nail fin, set in after the old window comes out down to the framing. |
| Sealing and insulating: caulk, flashing and insulation | Not priced | Croft’s instructions ask for silicone caulk behind the nail fin, shims under the sill, fasteners no more than 12 in apart, batt insulation in the gaps and flashing and caulk around the window. They warn that expanding foam voids the window’s warranty. |
| Hauling the old windows | Not priced | Ask whether the quote includes taking them away. |
| Labor | Not added | Type the window installer’s time above. Each worker-day adds about $559 to the price, overhead and profit included. |
| Materials at today’s prices | $2,490 | $249 a window. Not yet the job’s price: the labor and the window installer’s overhead and profit come in when you type the window installer’s time. Not priced, so not in this total: sealing and insulating and hauling the old windows. Not counted: new exterior trim, siding or stucco repairs and the inside casing around each opening, lead-safe work in a house built before 1978, a permit where your city requires one, sales tax and delivery. |
What an hour costs: no window maker or public body publishes how long a window takes to replace, so the estimate counts the time you type and no other. Carpenters in the U.S. earn a median $29.12 an hour (BLS, May 2025). Benefits make up 30.5% of what construction employers spend an hour on pay and benefits (all trades, BLS, June 2026), so an hour of a window installer at that wage costs an employer about $42, and an 8-hour day about $335.
Got a quote? Type its total above: the estimate shows how many hours of work it pays for.
What moves the price
- Whether the old frame stays. A replacement window made to fit inside the old frame keeps the trim and the wall around it. A full-frame replacement takes the old window out down to the framing, like the example here, and needs new trim inside and out and often siding or stucco repairs.
- Stock or made to size. A stock size from a store fits only an opening built for it. Windows made to fit your openings are ordered from a dealer and priced by size, style, frame and glass.
- The glass. Croft’s own ratings for this window run from a U-factor of 0.49 with clear glass to 0.30 with its best low-E glass and argon; the lower the U-factor, the less heat the window lets through. Ask each installer for the window’s NFRC label so you compare the same glass.
- Height and access. Upper-floor windows need ladders or scaffolding, which the installer prices on top.
- What the old window hides. A rotten sill or framing found when the old window comes out is repaired before the new one goes in, a line of its own.
Replacing a bedroom window
A bedroom window is also the way out in a fire. The 2021 International Residential Code asks a new escape window for a net clear opening of at least 5.7 sq ft, at least 24 in high and 20 in wide (R310.2.1 and R310.2.2). A replacement window is exempt from those two minimums only when it is the maker’s largest standard size that fits the existing frame or rough opening, in the same style or one that opens wider (R310.2.5). A window set inside the old frame is smaller than the one it replaces, so ask the installer what the new opening will be. Cities adopt the code on their own schedule, so your building department has the final word; Spearfish, South Dakota’s handout sets out these sections.
Houses built before 1978
About three in four homes built before 1978 still have some lead paint, the EPA says, and painted surfaces that rub, like window sills, make dangerous dust. Under the EPA’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 must be certified and trained in lead-safe work practices; the rule does not cover owners working on their own home, unless they rent out all or part of it. Lead-safe work adds time and cleanup this estimate does not count: the EPA’s page explains the rule and finds certified contractors.
Whose wage this is
The installer’s wage is the one BLS publishes for carpenters, the trade that, in O*NET’s list of its tasks, installs structures and fixtures such as windows, frames and trim. The overhead share is finish carpentry contractors’, the industry the Census Bureau’s NAICS index files window installation under.
What owners paid
When owners hired someone for windows or doors in about 2021–2023, the middle half paid $1,600 to $9,800 and the typical job cost $4,200 (Census Bureau). That survey counts windows and doors together, one door or every window in the house, so use it as a check on a whole project, not as the price of your windows: window and door costs by metro. San Francisco’s permits show what owners declared for three window jobs.
Before you compare quotes
Ask every installer to price the same openings, in writing: each window’s size, style, frame and glass, insert or full frame, the trim inside and out, the sealing and insulation, repairs, the permit and hauling. Then put the quotes side by side in the window quote worksheet, or keep every price for the project in a budget worksheet.