— Mostly Business

Home Repairs – How to fix stuff and save a lot doing it yourself

I recently had a broken window in my house that needed repair. It wasn’t a big deal – it was just a crack – so I wasn’t exposed to the elements and had time to weigh some options. I did want to get it repaired though so I started working out some options.

First, I checked with my homeowners insurance. I pay a little every month for glass coverage and they were able to cover it without question. I didn’t even have a deductible but the limit was $100 for repairs so they cut me a check for $100. This was great because I don’t yet have a home repair savings account – just a small emergency fund.

Next, how to repair it? The obvious solution would be to repair the glass pane. I called around to about four or five home repair companies and handyman individuals (I recommend at least calling three of them). I have old single-pane aluminum windows. They’re “easy” to repair in that they aren’t low-e, double pane or gas filled but they are terribly inefficient. This window is also right above my head when I sleep so it’s very very cold (or hot). Average estimate for replacing glass-only: $150-200.

My next thought was to replace the window entirely. I have received quotes for replacing ALL the windows in my house before of about $5,000. Doing some simple math that worked out to about $500/window and I confirmed this by also calling a few places and asking (and asking the folks doing glass-only replacement, they do both). Most of them told me that they ‘didn’t make any money’ doing one window and would likely be doing it ‘at cost’ to gain my future business. You’ll see with my final option that this was a sales tactic and was not true. So, average estimate was $500.

I consider my self a bit of a DIY’er around the house so my last thought was to do it all myself. I first turned to YouTube for help on how to remove an old window and how to install a new one. I found tons of great videos on it and it seemed fairly straightforward (I’ll leave the searching up to you – every home has a different type of siding and internal finishings so my videos probably wouldn’t help you). At this point, I felt pretty confident in my ability to replace the window myself.

I still needed the window itself so I started to check out some options. First, I Google’d and found a couple of online stores that sell replacement windows. Their prices were good (around $140) for a window but the shipping was astronomical ($125!). The shipping was normally free if you spent enough money so this was likely a good option for those doing a whole house of windows and not just replacing a single window. My other option was a local home improvement store. I drove to the nearest one (Lowes) and chatted up the guy (Jim) in the window section. This proved to be an extremely good use of my time. He was able to describe all the window options, took the time to give me a quote for every brand and even some advice on installing the window.

The most interesting part of my experience at Lowes was how he described each window. Most of the companies I called had a ‘typical brand’ that they installed ‘for most of their customers’. This, also, was a sales tactic. What they don’t tell you is that aside from fancy options all windows are measured on Solar Heat Gain Coefficient and U-factor. I won’t go into what those mean (you can read the linked Wikipedia articles) but it all boils down to those two numbers. You can compare all the windows by those two numbers. If you don’t go with special options (special tint, double-hung, etc, etc) a window is a window is a window. When you sell your home no one is going to ask you what brand of window you installed – they might want to know how efficient they are though.

So after getting a good description and lesson on window U-factor and SHGC values the prices for windows ranged from $135-225. The $135 builder-grade window was no worse than the other options performance-wise. Window price (with DIY labor) $150 with tax.

At this point the decision was a no brainer.

Costs:

So for less than half the cost of replacing just the glass I have a new gas-filled low-e window over my head when I sleep and the skills to replace all of my windows in my house for 1/3 the cost of having someone else do it. I’ll be using this knowledge to replace my windows gradually over the course of the next year.

How do you save money around the house? Please share in the comments!