new vinyl windows in an old brick house
i will be installing 27 new vinyl windows in an old brick house soon and have some questions.
the old windows are steel casements and the last house that i removed similar windows from was a pain! we ended up cutting them into about 5 or 6 pcs with a saws-all and just beat them out. the house got new stucco and drywall, so we did not need to be all that clean. this house however i need to save the plaster, marble sill & brick. any advise?
with the brick exterior i will need coil stock… thus i am going buy myself a a bending brake. i have been wanting one and this would be a good job to get it for but have no idea what brand and quality to get. i like good tools but do not want to go overboard…
the client is a family friend… they spent 15k on the windows and i want to give them as good a deal as posable but still make some cash. i was thinking $75-$100 per window…
Replies
get a pro III brake -- about a $1000 get the legs too an extra 40 or so = figure 3 hours to remove an repalce and an hour each window to haul away -- 4 hours times your hourly rate --- recntly I did 34 so familar with set up and removal
yeah, your time is just about what i was guessing. did the windows you installed have a vinyl flange for the interior? just wondering about the process of putting the new ones back in...
thanks
used Andersen -- they have the flange but becaseu it was brick to brick removed the flange and used stinless steel teim head screws between the sash runners
Hi dude.
"$75 to $100 per window...."
I think you better "up" your price a little bit. Here's why. There really is no easy way to remove the type of windows you mentioned...sawzall work will come into play again. Nomatter how careful, a marble sill can easily be cracked....and you would have to foot the bill.
Bending brakes are not cheap. The Pro MarkIII as mentioned is a very good choice. In my area, that one sells for $1200 - $1400. I seriously doubt you can find it for a grand, but if you do, let me know where, I'm looking for a new one too. My current brake is just an 8'-6inch Tapco. It has served me very well. I set it up on portable (folding ) saw horses. If you buy the bigger sized brakes, you will have a hard time transporting it without a helper...the big ones are nice, but extremely heavy. In addition to the bending brake, a hand seamer ( approx $30) is a very usefull hand tool to have. With 27 windows to trim, it also may be time for a new pair of snips? ( approx $18 per)
Anyway...$1200 to $1400 for the brake...you will wind up buying at least 2 rolls of 24 inch alum coil stock for your project...they currently run around $60 per, so theres another $120 you dropped. If I read you right, the interior walls have plaster returns. A lot of times, when dealing with plaster wall returns, I install glass bead molding around interior side of vinyl window casing...this trim hides any gaps between window and plaster. Should you go this route, add approx. $10 per window.
Sooo, adding up these incidentals ( $1200 + $120 + $270), you have a minimum expense of $58.89 per window. Adding in the cost of the new hand tools would further increase your expenses to $60.66 per window. If you charged $100 per window, and did not account for these "out-of pocket" expenses, you would only realize a profit of approx $39.34 per window....hardly worth all the trouble and anxiety. ( If you break a marble sill you might not realize a cent for that window!)
Perhaps you don't intend to recapture the full cost of the bending brake from just this job, that would lower your expense some...but you will average at least 1-1/2 hours for removal and installation of new, plus at least another hour per window for trimming with coil stock...maybe longer if work involves ladders/scaffolding.
One way to keep costs down, would be to rent a bending brake for a day or 2. Rental cost should be around $75 to $80 total for the 2 days.
Just my 2 cents, good luck with the windows.
Davo
yes, you are spot on!
the only reason i can afford to do this is because it is for a family member. they will be footing the bill for all material and the time is not a factor. so i guess the only real expense will be the brake and my time away from other jobs. but by the time it is done i hope to be ready to take on more jobs like this one when they pop up. in the past i have just passed them on to guys who have the tools.
thanks for the good tips!
now i just need to get some pointers on the brake... ;-)
ian
Dumb question...What is the coil stock for? I am sitting here looking at some steel casements in a solid masonry house. Its brick veneer,4"block, and furred out plaster veneer. About 9 1/2" thick.I have been trying to figure out how to get a modern window in the hole and still maintain the 6"sill, and not have the window flush with the outside face of the brick. Havent figured it out yet! Any comments, and sorry if I'm derailing the thread....