The openings
One row per distinct size and condition. Width + height in inches is United Inches — the unit the glass shop prices. Quantity groups identical units. Story, frame, install method, and tear-out decide the hours a per-window special hides.
The job
Unit prices and hours follow common ballpark figures as a time-and-material budget you can edit — not a manufacturer size chart, an Energy Star list, or a finding that any opening is permitted, structurally sound, or lead-safe. Scaffolding is charged only when a priced opening sits on the second story or higher.
Your costs
Payroll burden covers employer taxes, workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and paid time off. An installer paid $38 often costs more than $50 on the wall. Underestimating that is how a $550-a-window special loses money.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the homeowner — your details, their details, the openings, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Your quote
- Openings
- Install hours
- 2nd+ story share of labor
- On-site hours
- Travel hours (round trip)
- Total labor hours
- Loaded labor cost
- Unit material
- Add-on parts
- Disposal
- Scaffolding + trip + permit
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit
- Average per opening
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
Where the labor goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. The starting unit prices and hours are common ballpark numbers, not a manufacturer size chart, an Energy Star list, or a guarantee — time your own crews and replace them. This is not a finding that any opening is permitted, structurally sound, or lead-safe.
Common questions
Why price by United Inches instead of per window?
Because United Inches (width + height, in inches) is the unit the glass shop actually prices, and a flat per-window number cannot see it. Each opening's material starts from its type's base cost and adds a per-inch rate for every United Inch past a 70 UI baseline — roughly a stock 3040 double-hung. Labor gets a size step too: nothing extra up to 90 UI, about 0.45 h more past that, and about 1.1 h more past 120 UI. A 6048 picture window at 108 UI is not the same job as the 3040 the "$550 a window" postcard was written around.
What's the difference between an insert and a full-frame replacement?
An insert (pocket) leaves the existing frame in place and is the baseline here — no extra hours, no extra parts. Full-frame tears out to the studs, which adds about 1.4 h and $55 of material per opening. New-construction nail-fin sits between them at about 0.35 h and $28. The installation method is chosen per opening, so a house where three openings need full-frame and nine take inserts prices as the mixed job it is.
How do rot, masonry, and pre-1978 lead work change the bid?
They are opening-level conditions, each with their own hours and parts on top of the unit: sill or jamb rot repair adds about 1.8 h and $65, a masonry or brickmold cut-in about 1.6 h and $40, and lead-safe work practices on a pre-1978 house about 0.9 h and $48. These are ballpark starting figures for your own estimate, not a code requirement, an RRP compliance determination, or a finding that any particular opening contains lead — that is your inspection and your certification, not this page's.
Why does the second story cost more when the window is the same?
The unit is the same; the carry, the ladder, and the setup are not. A second-storey opening adds about 0.75 h and a third storey or higher about 2.1 h, per opening. Scaffolding or a lift is a separate flat cost, because it is a job-level rental decision rather than something that scales per window. Frame material scales the hours too — wood and clad-wood run about 20% slower than vinyl, fiberglass about 5%, aluminum slightly faster.
Why does a small job still come out at a few hundred dollars?
Because a one-window stop is mostly not the window. Round-trip drive time is priced from the miles and speed you enter, setup is its own line, there is a per-opening disposal figure for the old unit, and a minimum on-site hours floor applies when the real work comes in under it — a crew that shows up has a half-day gone whatever the takeoff says. Add the flat trip or truck fee and permits, and the floor for showing up is visible instead of buried.
Why isn't a 20% margin the same as adding 20% to my cost?
Margin here is a share of the final price — price = job cost ÷ (1 − margin) — which is how the quote reads to the customer and how your books read it. Overhead is a separate markup on the job's direct cost, applied before margin and never to itself or to profit. A $8,000 cost marked up 20% is $9,600 and only a 16.7% margin; a 20% target margin is $10,000. Nothing here or in the shareable link leaves your browser — the link carries your inputs in the URL, there is no account, and the optional usage counter records only which features were used and the day.