How to Ask Us for a Quote – What We Need to Know and Why

Even though every product we sell is carefully chosen, and only offered when we know we would be happy to have it in our own home, we understand price is almost always going to be a key factor.

Many companies will happily price within a couple of hours with the bare minimum of information. Whilst this initially seems efficient, this will never result in the customer receiving a fair price or the product that they are really looking for. You will most likely find out that many items that you assumed would be standard were not considered. This will either mean your initial quote has been over-priced to allow for errors, or you’ll suddenly be presented with a far more expensive cost further down the line.

So, we do not work like this. From day one, we will aim to provide the most accurate quote possible, include all the equipment necessary and itemise the quote out so that you will see exactly where your money is being spent. This requires much more time and effort on our part, but we believe this is a much more customer-focused way of working. For your own free quotation, please contact us.

To help us provide this service to the best of our ability, we will usually ask for a little more information to begin with.

What We Need to Know About Your Windows

• First and foremost, an initial chat on the phone to gain a good understanding of your requirements, and to find out what you wish to gain or avoid from your new windows is the best way to start. If calling us is simply not convenient for you, we can always chat via email, we just find this to be a little less personal. No matter how small, any thoughts about what you would really like or dislike are very important to us.
• Knowing your rough location and whether you have already organised an installer or builder to fit the windows is arguably the next most important: we can either supply and fit (depending on your distance from us), or simply supply-only.
• Next, the product you are interested in. We have a vast range of options that we hope suit almost every type of person and project so, for example, asking for “timber windows” doesn’t narrow things down very much for us. If you have already looked through our website and found a couple of options you like, fantastic! Equally, we are more than happy to ask you a few questions and talk you through a few products that we think you will like. We specialise in timber and aluminium-clad timber, and do not offer uPVC.

• For newbuild projects and some more in-depth renovations, window schedules with full plans and elevations are often available in pdf form. If you have these, please do send them across. Our estimators are well-practised in extracting the necessary information for windows and doors from full architectural drawings. Even if it seems all the details are shown on these drawings, we still would welcome an initial chat, as it’s rare that all of a customer’s thoughts are expressed on their plans

If plans are not available, this is no problem. In most cases, we can provide a ballpark price for replacement windows by using rough overall widths and heights obtained by a customer, giving us a rough location and some photos of the home.

We understand that people may think sending us photos to be a little strange and unnecessary at first, but this is very important for us to gain an understanding of many aspects. Not just to see the style and layout of the windows, but also to understand how they have been initially installed and the building materials surrounding them.

• Some building materials require much more work than others, and we recommend that certain products are not installed within some building finishes.
• Seeing the area we would be working in in terms of what type of access and lifting equipment we would need to use to reach openings is also very important – scaffolding and mechanical offloads will be significantly more expensive than some ladders and moving units by hand.
• In some cases, such as old timber sliding sashes, existing windows are sometimes installed behind the brickwork itself. In this case, a professional builder will be needed to safely extract the old unit and prepare the openings ready for the new items. This is also a noticeable cost that we feel the customer should be aware of as early as possible in the process.

Window and Door Quotations Made Easy

You may have noticed the elephant in the room – we do aim to create and organise as much as possible on paper and over the phone before we arrange a visit.

Visiting in-person is a very important part of the ordering process for most projects. Not just so we can survey where required, but also to show you the product.

Initially, we find it’s a much more streamlined process to visit after the quotation paperwork is already in the most helpful form. We can then talk through the work we’ve done and show you various parts of the windows you’re interested in.

Ultimately, our product range is far too large to transport around, and even narrowing down to one single product has so many options.

As a result, we believe that our visits to you, and perhaps your visits to us, should always be the best and most effective use of time for everyone involved.

Being very proud of our minimal environmental impact, fuel-usage and travel in-general are always important considerations.

What Will be Included in My Quote?

As we briefly mention above, from day one, we aim to provide the most accurate quote possible, include all the equipment necessary and itemise the quote out so that you will see exactly where your money is being spent. If this all sounds too much and too confusing – feel free to ask us to strip things back to basics. We still need to do the legwork to be accurate on our end, but can produce something more direct if you’re really just looking for an idea of overall cost.

In our most detailed format:

• You will see detailed notes for every window and door and (in almost all products) a diagram showing how each unit will look. And there will be a table on the first page with items such as supply, delivery, cills and installation costs all laid out separately.
• We will send the manufacturer’s brochure, which will show some example photos, colours, glass styles and much more.
• Please do ask if you would like any photos or information on anything specific – we’re happy to source even the smallest of details.
• We will call 3 working days later to double check you have received everything you need at this stage, answer any queries and provide any further information you need.

Now that you have asked for your quote and given us all of the relevant information to make it as accurate as possible, here is how to understand it.

Wood Stains for Windows

Cornerless Windows and Doors

Structurally Bonded Glass in Sliding Doors

New Windows in Stone Mullions