What is the 'Floor Price' in Double Glazing? The Industry's Best Kept Secret

If you are researching double glazing prices, you will eventually encounter a term the industry desperately wants to keep hidden: The Floor Price.

Understanding this single concept is the difference between paying a fair rate for your windows and being overcharged by thousands of pounds. Here is the definitive explanation of what the floor price is and how it dictates the entire double glazing sales process.

Defining the Floor Price

The Floor Price is the absolute minimum amount of money a double glazing company will accept to manufacture and install your windows while still achieving their required baseline profit margin.

It covers the cost of materials, labor, overheads, and the company's minimum acceptable profit. It is the real price of the job.

The Sliding Scale Commission Model

To understand why the floor price is kept secret, you must understand how double glazing salespeople are paid. Most operate on a "sliding scale" commission structure.

When a salesperson visits your home, they calculate the floor price on their laptop or tablet. However, they do not show you this number. Instead, they present a "book price" or "retail price" that is massively inflated—often 150% to 200% higher than the floor price.

Everything between the floor price and the price you eventually agree to pay is the sliding scale. The higher up the scale the salesperson can convince you to sign, the larger their commission check.

Before any salesperson visits, use the Bottom Line Price Checker to find out the floor price for your specific job. That way you are negotiating from the bottom up — not from an inflated book price down.

How the Game is Played

The sales presentation is a carefully choreographed performance designed to walk you down the sliding scale just enough to make you feel like you've won, but not far enough to reach the actual floor price.

• The Shock: They present the inflated book price (e.g., £20,000).
• The Drop: They offer a "promotional discount" or "scrappage scheme" to drop the price (e.g., £14,000).
• The Manager's Special: If you resist, they make a theatrical phone call to their manager to secure a "tonight only" deal (e.g., £11,000).

You feel victorious because you negotiated £9,000 off the price. But if the floor price was £8,500, you have still been overcharged by £2,500.

How to Find the Floor Price

Salespeople are trained to never reveal the floor price. If you ask for it directly, they will deflect, claiming their "manager's special" is the absolute bottom line.

The only way to know the true floor price is to use an independent data source. At ReQuotes, our AI checker uses decades of insider data to calculate the exact floor price for your specific job, stripping away the sliding scale and giving you the power to negotiate from a position of absolute truth.

And here is the part that surprises most people: the floor price of a national company like Anglian or Everest is not dramatically higher than a local firm's price. These companies extrude their own uPVC and manufacture their own frames — so yes, the product is genuinely superior. But the floor price reflects the real cost of production, not the theatrical markup of the sales process. When ReQuotes users negotiate to the floor, they are getting a better product for roughly the same money as a local company would charge. That is the real value of knowing the floor price.