New Front Door - Need Help!!

Pain · 18 Feb 2006 at 03:40

I have been hunting around and getting some quotes for a new front door with half panel on the side with a window above it. I have tried 2 companies so far and had indifferent results.

Anglian quoted me £1650
Everest quoted me £2450 :eek:

I was just wondering if anybody that has a new front door or windows fitted could recommend me a company and what your thoughts on them were. I don't want to get conned and really have no idea on the price I should be paying. If you could provide a some rough guide on what you paid for yours would be a great help.

Raikiri · 18 Feb 2006 at 03:41

Erm... B&Q and fit it yourself tbh

cheets64 · 18 Feb 2006 at 03:48

With them it should last a long time, but if you fit it yourself it will save you £100s and last as long.

Dont you know a joiner.

clockworks · 18 Feb 2006 at 08:40

Try an independant double glazing supplier, the type of small business that does repairs, as well as installations. You should be able to reduce the price by at least 30%.

Alternatively, order the units from a builder's merchant. DIY, or get a local builder to fit.

My new front door and a couple of windows were fitted by a local firm. £650 for the door, £200 for each window.

Some months later, I needed 2 more windows. £170 for the pair from a builder's merchant. My builder took half a day to fit them, which cost me less than £50.

Treefrog · 18 Feb 2006 at 09:23

cheets64 said:
Don't you know a joiner?

I'll second this option. My folks needed a new double garage door, quotes for supply and fit were ~£1350-1500. Local joiner made a tri-fold one to measure and fitted it for £680 inc.

Velocity219e · 18 Feb 2006 at 09:32

clockworks said:
Try an independant double glazing supplier, the type of small business that does repairs, as well as installations. You should be able to reduce the price by at least 30%.

Alternatively, order the units from a builder's merchant. DIY, or get a local builder to fit.

My new front door and a couple of windows were fitted by a local firm. £650 for the door, £200 for each window.

Some months later, I needed 2 more windows. £170 for the pair from a builder's merchant. My builder took half a day to fit them, which cost me less than £50.

My father is a Joiner (with a captial J) and he haggled Anglian windows down on a whole set of custom UPVC windows a few months back from 12k to just under 4.

He's old and quite ill, otherwise he would have made them himself.

UPVC materials are very very cheap really, they companies just have massive margins, either haggle or buy your own stuff from B&Q and then get a pro in to install, shouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred quid and half a day's work just for a door.

I mean Anglian did his entire house (including a really really big bay window) in two and a half.

233 · 18 Feb 2006 at 09:38

farking hell thats dear, my entire house was double glazed for less than that,

find a joiner/builder in the local paper phone a couple for a quote then trip to the local diy place/builders merchant and choose your door. think you'll be anything up to 80% cheaper then you can put the rest of the dosh to good use, you can buy me a new rig

ps where are you in the uk?????? i can reccomend a superb carpenter in east scotland

Pain · 18 Feb 2006 at 20:54

Some good points there. I think I'll try and haggle them 1st and if that fails just get someone local to sort it for me.

I am based in East London, so if anyone can recommend a joiner to me in the area, I would be very grateful. I'd rather use someone recommended that taking a chance on a cowboy from the yellow pages.

matthew_o50 · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:06

My sister just got her whole house double glazed + new front door with 2 side pannels and a new back door for £2500. Try a few more companies as that is very expensive or else do it yourself.

PeterNem · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:10

My aprents just had new double glazing fitted including got knows how many windows (5 of which are bay windows, and i think about another 18 or so windows, most of which were 2 or 3 panels), 3 external doors, 2 french doors etc. Came to about £24k with Anglian but they went with them thinking they'd not have as much hassel as they might get with a smaller local company (loads of double glazing companies near us have gone bust).

The quality of the product from Anglian is fantastic, as was the workman ship - top notch.

However the order was messed up and the wrong doors were supplied and one window didnt have the openings on it we had agreed. It took about a month to sort this, with one of the replacement doors also arriving wrong.

We figured they've had to redo the doors and whatever and send people back out so much now there can't be much profit left in it for them!!

They also got a quote from Everest but it was substantially more, although if they were similar would probably have gone for Everest over Anglian.

Oh, and trying to get hold of one of the Anlgian regional bosses to try and sort the messed up order out was a pain. After sever weeks of trying we finally got a couple of guys from the regional office out on a Saturday mornign to see what needed changing in person.