Quote check
Check a window replacement quote
- 2Lines the job needs
- 4Measurements
- QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read
Each line of a window replacement quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Window replacement takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, or anything else.
The job’s own figures come from 4 measurements — window width, window height, windows, rough opening over the window — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.
Reading a window replacement quote
Window quotes list the units by size and style; the lines here are the ones around each window — the flashing membrane and the casing.
The rough opening is a set-out figure rather than a quantity, but a unit made for an opening it does not fit is the most expensive slip on the job. Worth asking whether the price includes making good the plaster and the outside finish round each opening.
Three steps
- Give your measurements. The page opens on a typical job so it has something to show.
- Paste the quote's lines as they came, or add them one at a time. Leave the prices in — they are taken out, never read.
- Read the report: what is left out, what is added, what sits outside the range, and one list of questions to send.
Your quote
The window replacement quote you were given
Paste from an email, or open or drop a PDF, Excel, CSV or text file, or a photo of the quote. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read — this page compares quantities, never prices.
Nothing you paste or open leaves this device.
The reading
What the quote says, against the job
Window replacement · Window width 4 ft · Window height 4 ft · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 1 inWindow width 1.2 m · Window height 1.2 m · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 0.03 m
What it leaves out
Every line the job needs that nothing on the quote reads as, with the quantity your measurements produce.
What it adds
Lines this job's takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, anything else — each named for what it is.
What sits outside the range
Quantities above or below the computed range, by how much, in the quote's unit or converted and shown.
What to ask
One list of questions, in the quote's order, ready to copy and send. Questions, never a verdict.
Paste the quote above, or add its lines one at a time. The reading appears here as each line is read.
Outside what this takeoff measures
5Nothing in the reading measures these. Whether the quote covers each is worth asking in its own right: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started. Why each is left out is on the takeoff.
- The window itself, its glazing specification and its hardware
- Structural change
- Interior finishes beyond the casing
- Repair to whatever the old window was hiding, which is the item most likely to change the price
- The air leakage the old frame was responsible for, which the savings row does not include
The reference
Every line the reading looks for
For Window width 4 ft · Window height 4 ft · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 1 inWindow width 1.2 m · Window height 1.2 m · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 0.03 m. Each is the calculator linked under it, run with those measurements; a range is that calculator at both ends of one choice, not a margin for error.
Window Opening Flashing Membrane
93.8–103 ft
93.8 at 5% waste allowance, 103 at 15%.
Open the Window Opening Flashing Membrane CalculatorDoor & Window Casing
67.2–73.6 linear ft
67.2 at 5% mitre waste, 73.6 at 15%.
Open the Door & Window Casing CalculatorFenestration Rough Opening
49 in
Worked out, not compared with a quote
The opening the frame is set into, not something bought.
Open the Fenestration Rough Opening CalculatorWindow Heat Loss Savings
2,240 BTU/hr reduction
Worked out, not compared with a quote
What the new glazing saves in heat loss, which no quote lists as a quantity.
Open the Window Heat Loss Savings Calculator
Window Opening Flashing Membrane
28.1–30.8 m
28.1 at 5% waste allowance, 30.8 at 15%.
Open the Window Opening Flashing Membrane CalculatorDoor & Window Casing
20.2–22.1 m
20.2 at 5% mitre waste, 22.1 at 15%.
Open the Door & Window Casing CalculatorFenestration Rough Opening
1,225 mm
Worked out, not compared with a quote
The opening the frame is set into, not something bought.
Open the Fenestration Rough Opening CalculatorWindow Heat Loss Savings
0.64 kW reduction
Worked out, not compared with a quote
What the new glazing saves in heat loss, which no quote lists as a quantity.
Open the Window Heat Loss Savings Calculator
How the ranges are taken
Where the choice is cutting waste, the ends are the site’s own allowances: 5%, the tight buffer of a crew with a planned set-out, and 15%, the wider one a first-timer orders. Where the calculator decides between patterns or materials, the ends are the options it offers. Where it adds nothing for loss, the range runs from the net quantity to 15% over it.
A minimum — the fewest hangers a spacing allows, the least airflow a room needs — has no upper end. A single figure carries an allowance the material itself needs, such as a lap, and names it.
What a reading like this cannot see
- It does not know your prices, your market, or what the work ought to cost.
- It does not know the building — the access, the condition of what is there, or what has to happen first.
- It cannot check a lump sum, because there is no quantity in one.
- A line it reads as missing may be priced under another name. A quantity outside the range is not evidence of anything. Each is a reason to ask a question.
- Two quotes are not comparable until their scopes are.
- It is not advice, and it is no substitute for a second quote.
The full takeoff
Every quantity for this job, with its working
The Window replacement takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.
Base, allowance, order
Each line's quantity before and after its allowance, and what to buy.
Every allowance editable
Change a waste figure and the order follows, with its source named.
Into a project
Add the whole job to a workspace with your own prices.
Frequently asked questions
- What quantities does a window replacement job need?
- It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Window width 1.2 m · Window height 1.2 m · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 0.03 m — the lines come to: Window Opening Flashing Membrane, 28.1–30.8 m; Door & Window Casing, 20.2–22.1 m. In imperial units — Window width 4 ft · Window height 4 ft · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 1 in — they come to: Window Opening Flashing Membrane, 93.8–103 ft; Door & Window Casing, 67.2–73.6 linear ft.
- Which line on a window replacement quote varies the most?
- The Window Opening Flashing Membrane: 28.1–30.8 m for a job measured Window width 1.2 m · Window height 1.2 m · Windows 4 · Rough opening over the window 0.03 m, depending on the waste allowance allowed, from 5% to 15%.
- What does a window replacement quote often leave out?
- The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — any of the 2 lines the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 5 things it does not measure, shown under the reading, and each is worth asking about: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started.
- Can I paste the quote exactly as it came?
- Yes — from an email, a PDF or a spreadsheet, one item to a line. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read, headings and totals are skipped, and each line is shown with what it was read as, so a misreading is one correction. Quantities in the other unit system are converted and the conversion is shown; a count of boxes is never compared with a count of tiles.
- Does this check the price as well?
- No. It reads quantities, never prices, and this site publishes none: an installed price moves with the market, the season, the access and the specification, so a figure for what the work ought to cost would give you confidence in a number nobody can defend. A quantity against your own measurements is checkable, and every figure here links to the calculator that produced it.