← Egress window bid calculator
Foundation and basement contractors get shopped on a published $1,800 egress window installed Facebook special. Those numbers cannot see the cut or the well. A vinyl hopper into an existing hole with a plastic well is a different job from a casement in a new poured-wall cut with a stone well, a drain, a cover, a ladder, and a dirt haul.
Open the free egress window bid calculatorAn egress window is an opening, then a cut, then a well. Retrofit swaps the sash and the well on a hole that already exists. A wood cut is a header and flashing. Masonry is a saw and a lintel. Poured concrete is a saw, a core, and a lintel. Matching an installed special on a poured-wall new-cut is how a sold legal bedroom becomes a loss when the saw and the haul eat the margin.
Homeowners usually start from the hopper special, then ask whether a slider or a casement is “a little more.” On the same opening and the same cut it is not a little more. A slider is the common legal-bedroom sash. A casement is a clearer opening. Fiberglass is weight. The calculator prices all four sashes on the opening you already counted so you can quote the upgrade instead of matching the hopper number on a casement job.
The cheap special is almost always a hopper into an existing hole, a plastic well, no cover, no drain, no haul. A poured-wall stone-well job is a different crew day. Matching a published installed number on that job is how a sold legal bedroom becomes a loss.
Window replacement is wall openings, united inches, and a nailing flange — no excavation. Basement finishing is framing a rec room. A skylight is a roof cut. Basement waterproofing is an interior drain, wells as a waterproofing add-on, and a sump pit. Foundation repair is piers. This prices an egress window: the opening, the cut, the well, and the extras.
Owners also shop a second special: “I already bought the window — just cut and set it for $1,800.” Zeroing the sash and well invoices drops the bid. The cut and the set stay. A hopper that will not pass is a second trip. See should I install a customer-supplied egress window for the three-way comparison on the same opening. On a typical masonry legal bedroom the owner-supplied walk-away is still above $1,800 even when they bought the kit.
Owners also call with a weekday number and ask you to start Saturday so the basement can be a legal bedroom before a listing or a school year. After-hours is time-and-a-half plus a second trip — you cannot leave an open foundation hole overnight. On the sample rates a typical masonry legal bedroom prices about $3,976.62 when they leave and $4,990.68 after hours. A $3,500 Saturday number covers the weekday and loses $492.54. See should I cut an egress window on Saturday.
Load the wage with payroll burden. Add overhead as a share of direct cost. Then take margin as a share of the customer’s price, not a markup on cost. The walk-away number is total cost. A proposed price under that number loses money before you take anything out of it.
This page is a walkthrough of the arithmetic in the egress window bid calculator. It is not a building-code determination, an egress-size approval, a foundation design, a waterproofing design, or a price you should copy onto a contract.
Charge from window count, sash, cut, well, and extras — not a published $1,800 installed special. A vinyl hopper into an existing hole with a plastic well is a different job from a casement in a new poured-wall cut with a stone well, a drain, a cover, a ladder, and a dirt haul.
No. Retrofit swaps the sash and the well on a hole that already exists. A wood cut is a header and flashing. Masonry is a saw and a lintel. Poured concrete is a saw, a core, and a lintel. Matching an installed special on a poured-wall new-cut is how a sold legal bedroom becomes a loss when the saw and the haul eat the margin.
A vinyl hopper is the cheap-special sash. A slider is the common legal-bedroom sash. A casement is a clearer opening. Fiberglass is weight. Plastic is the cheap well. Steel is projection. Stone is built in place. Cover, ladder, drain, dirt haul, and interior finish do not live in a published installed dump.
No. Window replacement is wall openings, united inches, and a nailing flange — no excavation. Basement finishing is framing a rec room. A skylight is a roof cut. Basement waterproofing is an interior drain, wells as a waterproofing add-on, and a sump pit. Foundation repair is piers. This prices an egress window: the opening, the cut, the well, and the extras.