The premium in dollars, not percentages
A casement typically runs 15 to 25 percent more than a double-hung of the same size, material and glass package. Percentages are useless when you are writing a check, so here is the same comparison per opening in 2026, installed, insert-style into a sound existing frame.
| Frame material | Double-hung | Casement | Difference per opening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl, mid grade | $600 to $1,050 | $750 to $1,300 | about $150 to $250 |
| Fiberglass or composite | $900 to $1,550 | $1,050 to $1,800 | about $150 to $300 |
| Clad wood | $1,300 to $2,400 | $1,500 to $2,800 | about $200 to $450 |
A 14-opening Coverdale two-story, priced both ways
Take a 1998 two-story with 14 openings, all standard sizes, mid-grade vinyl, insert install, no rot in the frames. All double-hung usually lands between $10,000 and $15,000. All casement pushes the same house to roughly $12,500 and $18,500. The whole-house spread is $2,500 to $3,500.
Now price the version most people actually buy: 11 double-hungs, two casements over the kitchen sink and one casement in the main-floor bath. That upcharge is about $450 to $750 total. That is the number worth thinking about, because it buys the three openings where a casement does something a double-hung cannot.
What pushes either band to its top end
- Full-frame instead of insert. Add $150 to $400 per opening. Common in pre-1950 houses with soft sills and in houses with original aluminum frames.
- Oversize units. Anything past roughly 36 by 72 leaves standard sizing and prices in its own tier.
- Awkward access. Second story over a porch roof, over dense landscaping, or on a walkout wall with nowhere to set a ladder.
- Grilles, obscure glass, custom exterior color, wrapped trim. Each typically adds $40 to $150 per opening.
- Small orders. Two windows never price like fourteen. Per-opening cost on a two-window job commonly runs 20 to 30 percent higher.
What the extra money actually buys you
The air leakage line on the label
Every NFRC label carries an air leakage rating in cubic feet per minute per square foot. Casements commonly post 0.05 to 0.1. Double-hungs in the same product family more often post 0.1 to 0.3. Both are legal and both are fine. What the tighter number does is kill the specific draft you feel standing beside the window on a 10 degree January morning, which is the complaint that drives most replacement work in the first place. It is not going to halve a gas bill.
Glass area and usable ventilation
On the same rough opening a casement gives roughly 10 to 15 percent more glass, because nothing splits the view across the middle. It also opens to nearly its full area while a double-hung tops out near half. In a bedroom with one window that you want moving air in May, that gap is real rather than promotional.
What it does not buy
It does not buy a better U-factor. The glass package does that, and the same low-E coating and argon fill are available in either style. It does not make a house quiet on its own either, though the compression seal usually helps a little on a road-facing wall. Anyone selling casements on energy savings alone is overselling them.
The one-page spec every Coverdale bidder should get
Quotes only compare when they describe the same thing. Write down, per opening: room, style, frame material, insert or full-frame, glass package, exterior color, grille pattern, hinge side for any casement, and the required net clear opening for any bedroom. Then ask every bidder to price the all-double-hung plan and the mixed plan on that same sheet.
When three quotes come back in that format, the real difference between contractors shows up immediately, and it is usually not in the window price. It is in whether they included exterior trim wrap, interior finish work, disposal and the permit.
How to split a Coverdale order and hold the price down
Buy casements where they solve a problem and double-hungs everywhere else. Then do three things that cost nothing at all.
- Order every opening at once. Whole-house pricing beats phased pricing by a wide margin, and the crew is already set up and permitted.
- Keep every unit inside standard sizing wherever the existing framing allows it.
- Match exterior color and grille pattern across both styles so the mixed order reads as one house from the street.
- Order in late winter if you can. Manufacturing lead times on both styles typically run six to ten weeks, and they stretch after spring storm season when everybody is replacing at once.
What you give up by going all double-hung to save that $500: the kitchen window nobody opens, and a bedroom that may still not meet egress. That is the honest trade, and on some houses it is genuinely the right call.
The cost that never appears on the quote
Operators, hinges and the twenty-year part
A casement operator is a small worm-drive gearbox, and it wears. Past year 15 it is the most common casement failure. Current catalog operators typically run $45 to $120 plus labor. If the line has been discontinued, which happens often with windows a builder installed in the early 2000s, you may be looking at replacing the sash or the whole unit instead. Ask before you sign whether the operator is a current production part and whether the manufacturer stocks service parts for retired lines.
Balances, latches and what they run
Double-hung failures are duller and cheaper. A failed balance means a sash that will not stay up; parts typically run $20 to $60 a pair and most service techs carry them on the truck. Tilt latches snap and cost a few dollars. Neither one ends the life of the window.
Screens and glass, the parts people forget
A double-hung half screen is a stock item and typically runs $25 to $60 to rescreen or replace. A casement full screen sits inside the opening, gets handled every time the window is washed, and is more often a special order at $45 to $110. Sealed glass unit replacement runs roughly the same either way, usually $150 to $400 per sash depending on size and coating, but on a casement the sash often has to come off its hinge arms first, which adds an hour of labor.
Four openings where the premium pays for itself
- Over a kitchen sink. Reaching across 25 inches of counter to lift a sash is why that window has not been opened in three years. A crank is a wrist movement.
- A bedroom that has to meet egress in fixed framing. Indiana follows the IRC here: most bedroom escape openings need 5.7 square feet of net clear opening, 5.0 square feet at grade, with a minimum clear height of 24 inches and a minimum clear width of 20 inches. A double-hung gives you only the lower sash, so it often cannot clear that without enlarging the opening. A casement usually can. Confirm the current requirements with your local building department before ordering.
- Finished basement bedrooms. Same arithmetic, with concrete and a window well waiting if you get it wrong.
- High or blocked openings. Above a garden tub, behind a laundry counter, at a stair landing, anywhere a two-hand lift is not happening.
Four openings where you are burning money
- Anything over a walkway, deck, patio or driveway apron. The sash projects 15 to 20 inches and somebody eventually walks into it.
- A room that gets a window air conditioner. A casement will not take one, and the alternatives cost more than the window did.
- Street-facing openings on a traditional elevation. The proportions are wrong and it can cost you at resale.
- Exposed west walls you leave cranked open. Spring storm lines in Indiana bend operator arms on open sashes.