French door the cost of a new car??

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pjs755
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French door the cost of a new car??

#1 Post by pjs755 »

You guys were quite helpful years ago when we re[placed all the windows(Okna EnviroStar) so lets try again...

Our home has a 30 yr old builder's grade french door. The french door design is handy to get larger things in and out of the house. Many of the first floor doorways are narrow. We had Pella and Renewal by Andersen out for estimates. No lie, there are at least 10 new cars I could buy for the price Andersen gave!!

Pella was still 8K installed. By my math, as the rep didn't break it down, it was 5300 for the door and 2700 to install. Does it HAVE to cost that much?

If we want to keep the french door style instead of a slider where else can I look?

Paul in CT

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Windows on Washington
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#2 Post by Windows on Washington »

Paul,

HMI, Provia, and Waudena all make French doors as well depending on what you were looking for.

Keep in mind that you can probably do a slider and for those handful of occasions where you need to move something big, pop out the inactive panel pretty simply. If you like the Okna window already, the sliding glass door is a nice unit as well.

Delaware Mike
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#3 Post by Delaware Mike »

It goes without saying that the "off the shelf" full-view/French door builder's grade level units found at Depot and Lowes shouldn't be any kind of price benchmark. If Pella and RBA are getting that kind of install money for a 1-day job, I totally need to change my labor fees to my homeowners lol......

I cringe when folks call me for French door pricing, especially if I'm the first guy that they have contacted. It's simply not a budget oriented endeavor.

pjs755
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#4 Post by pjs755 »

Delaware Mike wrote:It goes without saying that the "off the shelf" full-view/French door builder's grade level units found at Depot and Lowes shouldn't be any kind of price benchmark. If Pella and RBA are getting that kind of install money for a 1-day job, I totally need to change my labor fees to my homeowners lol......

I cringe when folks call me for French door pricing, especially if I'm the first guy that they have contacted. It's simply not a budget oriented endeavor.
Now that I've started the process,, I get all that. Pella came first and I thought "Ouch!". Then the Andersen guy left me nearly speechless.

I will call today, but I swear Windowrama gave me a ballpark of 3k for the Andersen 400, just the door. I don't know how he spec'd it, but Renewal was 12,234 installed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, that was the 30 day price vs the 1 yr price vs the tonight only price.

Isn't it the same door?

Andersen also quoted a slider, Still 8K. What should be my target range for a good quality product? If I have to spend 8K to even do a slider it'll have to wait until our son is out of college

Delaware Mike
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#5 Post by Delaware Mike »

RBA is a program. Their platform isn't designed for any kind or typical brick and mortar resale. In my area the TV, radio, and newspaper ads are everywhere. That kind of advertising is crazy expensive and their customers ultimately pay for all of that.

Andersen French doors are pretty neat and I would be very careful as you don't want the product installed by regular contractors that haven't successfully installed a bunch of them. Also, I wouldn't want that active door to be a "main" door that I use constantly.

pjs755
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#6 Post by pjs755 »

Delaware Mike wrote:RBA is a program. Their platform isn't designed for any kind or typical brick and mortar resale. In my area the TV, radio, and newspaper ads are everywhere. That kind of advertising is crazy expensive and their customers ultimately pay for all of that.

Andersen French doors are pretty neat and I would be very careful as you don't want the product installed by regular contractors that haven't successfully installed a bunch of them. Also, I wouldn't want that active door to be a "main" door that I use constantly.
I did see the Andersen door in person, and Windowrama offers install services, but I'd have to ask more questions of them. I don't know if the installers are Windowrama employees or subs.

I'll have to get a few quotes on sliders as well I guess

petras52
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#7 Post by petras52 »

pjs..I replaced my original builder grade french doors with Provia french doors about 6 years ago. The originals were steel, were airtight due to magnetic weatherstripping and lasted 25 years with 2 easy paint jobs. The provia doors are holding up well but I had some installation quality issues initially (provia dealer installers btw), that allowed excessive air infiltration. If I had to do it again I'd probably be more careful in choosing an expert with plenty of french door installation experience. I'd also go with a cheaper brand as my good experience with the builder grade doors I had makes me think that the provias are really not worth the huge price premium.

Delaware Mike
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#8 Post by Delaware Mike »

Magnetic weatherstripping only works on steel skinned door slabs and while it seems like a superior seal to modern Q-lon (vinyl/foam compression weatherstripping), the performance testing data clearly shows otherwise. Many dealers questioned this like myself back in 2005 or 06 when ProVia made the conversion after many, many years of utilizing magnetic weatherstripping on their steel doors. Part of that may factor in the way magnetic weatherstripping fits as a butt/box joint verses a coped joint when joining vertical and horizontal joining?

The ProVia door units will typically feature tighter tolerances than most lower priced builder's grade units. I've installed hundreds of both over the years and do still install them both to this day. If one were comparing true wholesale cost one must first make sure that it's an apples to apples comparison. Typically, that builder's grade unit is completely stripped down with quite a bit of finish work to make comparable to that of the ProVia. The ProVia steel unit will be most likely 20-gauge galvanized steel verses much thinner and lighter 24-26-gauge steel. Some homeowners like to paint, most likely with a brush. I find them as rare as unicorns these days. When we install a budget oriented unit from Depot or Lowes that is primed only I can drive by 10-years later and find it still not painted.

The ProVia units that I install have be optioned for a "turn key" type of ownership (no pun intended). We include all hardware, pre-finished interior trim casings. custom jamb and exterior brickmold/trim board cladding, and matching metal finish on all metal appointments on the door unit.

Just so it doesn't seem like I'm pushing a ProVia agenda, I have one of those builder grade 1/2 lite "off the shelf" 32" x 80" primed steel rear entry doors on my own house that I put in back in 2007 along with a matching ProVia storm door. I upgraded to the weatherstripping to ProVia's oversized Q-lon weatherstripping with matching corner seals and never feel any air penetration to it since I know the unit is installed 100% level correct. I like on the Delaware River and the wind gets brutal in the winter. And yes, just the shoe cobbler, I still haven't gotten around to painting it either.........

pjs755
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Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 11:29 am

Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#9 Post by pjs755 »

Back with more questions...

The Pella guy specified a top of the line door, said it's the only french door available in that size.

Other vendor selling Andersens (not RBA) said it's 5'6"

Been trying to talk to an OKNA guy in case we want a slider, but it looks to me like the unique size makes that a non-starter. Is that correct?

Paul

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Windows on Washington
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Re: French door the cost of a new car??

#10 Post by Windows on Washington »

Sliders are available in any range of sizes. If you are wanting blinds in between the glass, that will narrow your choices to standard 5' and 6' increments in the case of Okna.

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