Window repair cost dataset
This is the complete dataset behind the window repair calculator, at national wage rates. It is organised by fault rather than by window, because the fault decides both the price and how long the fix lasts — and the second of those is what makes a comparison against a new window mean anything. Last reviewed 2026-08-25.
Seven faults, and what each buys
| Fault | Parts, each | Cost | Per year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Misted or fogged double glazing1.4 h · 15–25 yr | $95–$310 | $992 | $50/yr | repair |
| Cracked or broken pane1.1 h · 20–40 yr · disturbs paint | $55–$190 | $702 | $23/yr | repair |
| Will not stay up, or is hard to lift0.8 h · 15–20 yr | $28–$78 | $444 | $25/yr | repair |
| Broken crank, lock, hinge or roller0.7 h · 12–20 yr | $34–$110 | $485 | $30/yr | repair |
| Draughty or rattling0.9 h · 8–12 yr | $18–$62 | $422 | $42/yr | repair |
| ⚠️ Rotted sill, jamb or sash4.2 h · 10–25 yr · disturbs paint | $110–$380 | $1,584 | $91/yr | ⚠️ no verdict |
| Torn or missing screen0.4 h · 8–15 yr | $22–$68 | $354 | $31/yr | repair |
| Replace instead25–40 yr, from our replacement model | — | $4,160 | $128/yr | — |
⚠️ The rot row deliberately carries no verdict. It is not a window fault — it is a water fault that shows up at the window — so the years a repair buys depend on whether anybody finds the leak, and a tidy figure with “repair” beside it would be a cell that gets quoted alone and read as advice. The replacement figure comes from our window replacement dataset. One job, one model, one number.
Where repairing stops winning
Every row above says repair, which is true and decides nothing. Faults stacked on one window, cheapest first, sharing a single call-out. ⚠️ The life of the bundle is the life of the shortest fix in it — a stated assumption, and without it adding up fixes with different lives would mean nothing.
| Faults on one window | Running | Shortest fix | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. torn or missing screen | $220 | 11.5 yr | $19/yr |
| 2. draughty or rattling | $309 | 10 yr | $31/yr |
| 3. will not stay up, or is hard to lift | $406 | 10 yr | $41/yr |
| 4. broken crank, lock, hinge or roller | $516 | 10 yr | $52/yr |
| 5. misted or fogged double glazing | $795 | 10 yr | $80/yr⚠️ replace |
| 6. cracked or broken pane | $978 | 10 yr | $98/yr⚠️ replace |
| One new window | $1,918 | — | $59/yr |
It takes 5 separate faults on the same window before replacing wins — $795 of repairs against $1,918 for a new unit. ⚠️ And cost per year is not the whole decision, which is what the next table is for.
What the repair does not buy
| Repairing | Replacing | |
|---|---|---|
| The air leakage of the frame | unchanged | new weatherseals and a frame set square in the opening |
| The U-factor of the frame itself | unchanged — only the glass improves | the whole assembly is rated together |
| How it operates | unchanged unless the fault was the hardware | new balances, new hardware, new everything |
| A warranty on the assembly | on the part fitted, and usually short | on the unit, and usually long |
| The federal renovation rule in a pre-1978 house | often stays under the threshold | ⚠️ never minor repair and maintenance, whatever the size |
The call-out is paid once
| 1 window | $432 | $432 each |
|---|---|---|
| 2 windows | $712 | $356 each |
| 3 windows | $992 | $331 each |
| 6 windows | $1,832 | $305 each |
| 10 windows | $2,951 | $295 each |
Size moves the glass, not the crank
| Standard, about 15 sq ft×1 on glass and hours | $992 |
|---|---|
| Large, about 22 sq ft×1.42 on glass and hours | $1,345 |
| Oversize or picture, about 32 sq ft×1.95 on glass and hours | $1,790 |
⚠️ The bottom-left table is the one to act on before phoning anybody: $432 a window if a glazier comes for one and $295 if they come for ten. Walk the house and list everything first.
Line items
77% of the reference total comes from estimated rather than official figures. The reference job is 3 standard-size windows with misted glass on one visit: 4.2 trade hours, $331 a window. Faults that are not selected sit at zero quantity, so the table below is every path rather than one job. ⚠️ In a pre-1978 house the lead lines fire only where the repair disturbs painted surface: this model assumes 4 square feet disturbed per window on those faults, against the federal threshold of 6 per room from 40 CFR 745 subpart E, Residential Property Renovation.
| Line item | Unit | Material | Equipment / hr | Trade | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call-out: getting a glazier to the house (conditional)1 visit | each | — | $85 – $220 | — | estimated±44% |
| Misted or fogged double glazing — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $95 – $310 | — | — | estimated±53% |
| Misted or fogged double glazing — labour (conditional)1.4 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Cracked or broken pane — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $55 – $190 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Cracked or broken pane — labour (conditional)1.1 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Will not stay up, or is hard to lift — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $28 – $78 | — | — | estimated±47% |
| Will not stay up, or is hard to lift — labour (conditional)0.8 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Broken crank, lock, hinge or roller — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $34 – $110 | — | — | estimated±53% |
| Broken crank, lock, hinge or roller — labour (conditional)0.7 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Draughty or rattling — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $18 – $62 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Draughty or rattling — labour (conditional)0.9 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Rotted sill, jamb or sash — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $110 – $380 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Rotted sill, jamb or sash — labour (conditional)4.2 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Torn or missing screen — parts and glass (conditional)windows with this fault × size factor | each | $22 – $68 | — | — | estimated±51% |
| Torn or missing screen — labour (conditional)0.4 h per window × size factor | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
| Taking the sash out, working on it off site and rehanging it (conditional)1.25 h per window when the sash goes off site | each | — | — | Carpenters | sourced |
| Lead-safe work materials: sheeting, tack pads, HEPA filters and bags (conditional)windows, when the repair disturbs paint over the federal threshold | each | $46 – $135 | — | — | estimated±49% |
| Certified renovator: containment, working wet and cleaning verification (conditional)1 h + 1 h per window, over the federal threshold | hour | — | — | Glaziers | sourced |
The reasoning behind each figure
- Call-out: getting a glazier to the houseestimated, ±44%
- ⚠️ The line that decides whether a small window repair is worth doing on its own. Somebody has to arrive with a van, and that cost is the same for one sash lock as for six sealed units.
- It is the practical argument for going round the house first and listing every window that needs something, rather than calling about the one that annoys you most. Six repairs on one visit share one call-out.
- Misted or fogged double glazing — parts and glassestimated, ±53%
- ⚠️ The answer to the question Google shows on this search, and it is yes. The seal around the sealed unit has failed and moisture is condensing between the panes. What gets replaced is the glass unit inside the sash — not the window, not the frame. It is the commonest repair, the one that saves the most money, and the one the industry selling replacement windows has no reason to mention.
- Priced for a standard opening of about 15 square feet and multiplied by the size factor, because glass is sold by area — ×1.42 for a large opening and ×1.95 for an oversize one.
- Modelled to last 15 to 25 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Misted or fogged double glazing — labour
- Modelled at 1.4 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Cracked or broken pane — parts and glassestimated, ±55%
- A single pane in a single-glazed sash, re-puttied or re-beaded. On a sealed unit the whole unit goes, which is the same job as the misting case. ⚠️ If the opening is a bedroom escape window or within a certain distance of a door or floor, the replacement glass has to be tempered, and tempered costs more and takes days to arrive rather than hours.
- Priced for a standard opening of about 15 square feet and multiplied by the size factor, because glass is sold by area — ×1.42 for a large opening and ×1.95 for an oversize one.
- Modelled to last 20 to 40 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Cracked or broken pane — labour
- Modelled at 1.1 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Will not stay up, or is hard to lift — parts and glassestimated, ±47%
- Broken spiral or block-and-tackle balances on a double-hung. It is a part that costs less than a takeaway and a job that takes under an hour, and it is one of the commonest reasons somebody decides the whole window "needs replacing". Worth ruling out before anybody measures for a new one.
- Not scaled by the size of the window: a crank, a lock or a set of balances costs the same on a small opening as on a large one.
- Modelled to last 15 to 20 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Will not stay up, or is hard to lift — labour
- Modelled at 0.8 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Broken crank, lock, hinge or roller — parts and glassestimated, ±53%
- Casement operators, sash locks, hinges and slider rollers. ⚠️ The difficulty is not the fitting, it is the part: on a window whose maker is gone or whose line was discontinued, an hour of work turns into a search, and that is the case where replacing a single unit can genuinely be cheaper than repairing it.
- Not scaled by the size of the window: a crank, a lock or a set of balances costs the same on a small opening as on a large one.
- Modelled to last 12 to 20 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Broken crank, lock, hinge or roller — labour
- Modelled at 0.7 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Draughty or rattling — parts and glassestimated, ±55%
- ⚠️ The repair most people actually need and almost nobody buys, because it does not feel like a fix. New weatherstripping, a sash lock that pulls the sashes together, and the perimeter re-caulked outside. It does nothing about the glass and a great deal about the draught, and it is the cheapest line on this page by a distance.
- Not scaled by the size of the window: a crank, a lock or a set of balances costs the same on a small opening as on a large one.
- Modelled to last 8 to 12 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Draughty or rattling — labour
- Modelled at 0.9 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Rotted sill, jamb or sash — parts and glassestimated, ±55%
- ⚠️ Not a window failure. Rot is a water failure that happens to show up at the window, and repairing the wood without finding where the water gets in means doing it again in five years. Sound the sill with a screwdriver before anybody quotes: if it goes in, what you are buying is carpentry, and what you need first is to know why it got wet.
- Priced for a standard opening of about 15 square feet and multiplied by the size factor, because glass is sold by area — ×1.42 for a large opening and ×1.95 for an oversize one.
- Modelled to last 10 to 25 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Rotted sill, jamb or sash — labour
- Modelled at 4.2 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- The longest job on this page by a wide margin, and the one whose hours are least predictable: how much wood is gone is not known until it is opened.
- Torn or missing screen — parts and glassestimated, ±51%
- Re-screening an existing frame, or a new frame made to the opening. It is the cheapest thing on this page and the only one nobody argues about.
- Priced for a standard opening of about 15 square feet and multiplied by the size factor, because glass is sold by area — ×1.42 for a large opening and ×1.95 for an oversize one.
- Modelled to last 8 to 15 years, which is our estimate and is what the cost-per-year comparison on this page hangs on.
- Torn or missing screen — labour
- Modelled at 0.4 trade hours per window on a standard opening.
- ⚠️ The wage is official BLS data for glaziers, which BLS publishes for 194 of the 530 areas in our index. Outside those the model falls back to the construction and extraction group for your area rather than inventing a figure — the same fallback the window replacement page uses, and the page tells you which one you are seeing.
- A single visit, and most of these are done from a ladder without anything coming out of the opening.
- Taking the sash out, working on it off site and rehanging it
- An hour and a quarter per window: pulling the stops, taking the sash out, boarding the opening, and coming back to rehang and adjust it.
- It applies where the work cannot be done in place — a sash to be stripped and reglazed properly, or a rotten rail to be spliced. ⚠️ It also means a boarded window for a week, which is the cost nobody quotes.
- Lead-safe work materials: sheeting, tack pads, HEPA filters and bagsestimated, ±49%
- ⚠️ Only where the repair actually disturbs painted surface and the total crosses the federal threshold of 6 square feet per room. Swapping a sealed unit from outside does not; stripping a sash or cutting out a sill does.
- This is the distinction that makes repair attractive in an old house and it is worth stating plainly: under the federal rule, replacing a window is never minor repair and maintenance whatever its size — but repairing one frequently is.
- Certified renovator: containment, working wet and cleaning verification
- An hour per window plus one fixed: sheeting down, working wet, HEPA-vacuuming and verifying the clean-up before the sheeting comes up.
- It is the same premium our painting pages charge on a pre-1978 house, applied to the windows that actually disturb paint rather than to all of them.
Not included in this dataset
- A new window
- ⚠️ Deliberately not priced here even though this page compares against it constantly: replacement units, insert or full-frame, are on our window replacement page, and the figures this page puts beside each repair come from that model rather than from a second set of bands. One job, one model, one number — two models of the same work drift apart, and a reader who compared the pages would be right to stop trusting both.
- Finding out where the water is getting in
- ⚠️ The thing a rotted sill is actually telling you, and the thing this page cannot price. It might be the flashing above the opening, the cladding beside it, a failed sealant joint, or a gutter that overshoots. Repairing the wood without answering that question buys you the same repair again, which is why the cost-per-year comparison on this page refuses to put a verdict on that row.
- Restoring a historic sash properly
- Stripping, splicing, re-glazing with putty and rebuilding the cords and weights of a genuinely old window is skilled joinery, it is often the right thing to do, and it costs several times what this page shows. It is a different trade with a different market and there is no honest national band for it.
- What the repair does not buy
- ⚠️ Worth reading as an exclusion because it is easy to miss: a new sealed unit in an old sash fixes the misting and changes nothing about the frame it sits in. The air leakage, the U-factor of the frame and the way it operates are all still whatever they were. That is not an argument against repairing — it is what makes the cost-per-year table on this page mean something rather than everything.
Use the calculator, price replacing them instead or the paint on an old frame, or read the full method.