The price of our goods and services has been a hot topic over the last month or so. Companies going bust like Uniglaze has brought into question the cost of raw materials and that prices need to become sensible if companies are going to survive through this topsy turvey economy. But I think the general discussion also raises the question of what us as installers should be selling our wares at.

Let me set my stall out first. This is a rough guide to what I think we should be selling our wares at, and what our current averages prices are:

Single door: roughly £1000-£1200. More like £1200 for colours and wood grains.

Single white windows: £480-£500 per window. More for wood grains/colours.

French doors: £1400-£1500

Sliding patios: £1300-£1400

Verticle sliders: £900-£1000 per window.

That’s my rough guide. A door, depending on specification, sold for £1000-£1200 should provide enough for a fitter to get a decent wage, the company to make a decent profit, the sales guy to make a decent wage too. Obviously some doors may cost slightly more depending on what options are chosen, these are just averages.

There is no reason why we cant sell a house full of windows and doors, say 10 windows and 2 doors for about £7000, quite likely even more when you add in things like bevels, new internal window boards and so on. Everyone should be able to make decent money out of that. There is also an argument that these costs, depending on location in the UK, should actually be more.

We’ve been hit quarter after quarter with price increases in all areas of our industry. Glass, PVC, trims, steel, aluminium, lead etc have all seen price increases, yet rather than pass these costs on to maintain a healthy profit margin so we can all stay in business, we let it eat into our margin because we’re scared of actually putting some realistic prices in front of our customers.

These are just our prices, on average and based where we are in the UK. It would be great to know if you agree or disagree with these prices and what you think the average window and door should be costing the customer. I see no reason why any company cannot make a good 15%-20% margin, if not a little bit more. So, what do you guys think we should be selling at?