← Egress window bid calculator
Owners call with a hopper in the driveway: “I already bought the window at Menards. Can you just cut and set it for $1,800?” That sounds like free margin because the sash and well invoices left the bid. They did not leave the masonry cut, the drain, the set hours, or the chance that the hopper will not pass a legal-bedroom inspection.
Open the free egress window bid calculatorA contractor-supplied slider still carries the sash and well invoices. An owner-supplied kit that actually fits zeros those lines and keeps the same cut and set hours. On a typical masonry legal bedroom — vinyl slider, new-cut masonry, steel well, cover, drain, ladder, $42 wage, 30% burden, 15% overhead, 20% target margin, 14 miles — the contractor-supplied bid is $3,976.62. Zeroing a $520 sash and a $480 well drops it to $2,539.12, but the owner-supplied walk-away stays at $2,031.30. Taking the Facebook special to “just cut and set what they bought” for $1,800 still loses $231.30.
| You supply | They supply, it fits | They supply, wrong size | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sash and well invoices in the bid | Yes | No | No |
| Cut and set hours | Same | Same | Same, plus a callback |
| Your bid | $3,976.62 | $2,539.12 | $3,569.17 |
| At $1,800 install-only | Loses $1,381.30 | Still loses $231.30 | Loses $1,055.34 |
Store shelves default to a vinyl hopper and a 36-inch plastic well. Plenty of legal bedrooms need a slider or casement for the 5.7 sq ft clear opening, and a well that actually projects. Setting the wrong kit means an exchange or a legal replacement sash. Price that callback on the same opening before you agree. The calculator adds a starting second trip and a vinyl-slider replacement sash on top of the rates you already typed.
A hopper into an existing hole with a plastic well can still hold a margin at $1,800, even when you supply the kit. That is the Facebook special. Matching that number on a masonry new-cut — the job that actually makes a basement a legal bedroom — is how a sold opening becomes a loss when the saw and the well eat the margin. The calculator prices both openings on the same wage so you can show the owner the difference.
Open the egress window bid calculator, enter the opening you are standing in, and put their install-only number in “price you’re considering.” The who-supplies table scores that number against you-supply, owner-supplies-it-fits, and owner-supplies-wrong-size. Nothing is uploaded.
This is the same arithmetic as how much to charge to install an egress window. They want Saturday? See should I cut an egress window on Saturday. It is not a building-code determination, an egress-size approval, or a reason to refuse a customer — it is the walk-away number on each supply path.
Only after you price the cut without the sash and well invoices. Pulling their Menards kit is still a trip, a saw, and crew hours. A $1,800 install-only special often sits under that walk-away number even when the kit is free to you.
Usually not on a legal-bedroom new cut. Zeroing a $520 slider and a $480 steel well drops the bid, but loaded labor, the masonry cut, the drain, travel, and overhead stay. On a typical masonry new-cut the owner-supplied walk-away is still above $1,800. A hopper that will not pass adds a second trip and a legal replacement sash.
That is a second dispatch plus a legal replacement sash or a deeper well. Store hoppers often miss the 5.7 sq ft clear opening, and a 36-inch plastic well often misses the projection. Price that callback on the same opening before you agree to set whatever they rolled into the driveway. The calculator adds a starting callback trip and a vinyl-slider replacement sash on top of your current rates.