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What window replacement actually involves in a Cypriot home

What a Cyprus window replacement quote really covers, what it leaves out, and the costs owners only find out about once the old frames are on the pavement.

7 min read

What Window Replacement Actually Involves in Cyprus — illustrasjonsbilde

Photo: Karl Solano on Pexels

ByStavros Loizou· Editor, kitchens, bathrooms and finishes

Stavros covers the rooms that carry the most cost per square metre and the finishes that go into them. He tracks the order trades have to arrive in, which moves a Cypriot renovation bill further than any hourly rate does.

Published

Replacing the windows in a Cypriot home is a supply-and-fit job priced by the square metre of opening, and the fitting takes days rather than weeks. The quote you sign is narrower than most owners expect: new frames and sealed units dropped into the openings you already have, the old ones carted away, and a bead of sealant round the outside. Thermally broken aluminium runs roughly €190 to €450 per square metre supplied and fitted, median near €280. Almost everything that pushes a project up that range — repairing the reveals, refinishing the shutter boxes, getting a full-width balcony slider to an upper floor, redecorating afterwards — sits outside that figure unless someone wrote it in.

Scope in plain terms

Be clear what is being bought. Replacement means the frame comes out and a new one goes in. That is a different job from reglazing, where the frame stays and only the sealed unit is swapped, and different again from enclosing a veranda, which creates a new external wall where there was open air. The three sit at very different prices, and quotes get compared across them far more often than they should.

Nearly all Cypriot domestic glazing is aluminium. In the 1970s to 1990s apartment stock that fills districts like Strovolos, the original specification is single-glazed aluminium with no thermal break, a roller shutter box cast in above each opening and a marble sill below. Newer housing has thermal breaks and double units, but the system is still aluminium, still mostly sliding, and still measured the same way: per square metre of opening, with a minimum charge per unit. That is why a small bathroom window never costs a fraction of a balcony slider in proportion to its area, and why a house with big veranda openings lands higher in the range than the same floor area with modest windows.

The sequence is predictable. A surveyor measures each opening after you commit, because nobody orders off a sketch. The frames are then made to those measurements, which is the long part of the programme. Fitting follows: old frame out, new frame packed and levelled, mechanically fixed into concrete or blockwork, sealed externally, trims on. Then someone has to make good what came away with the old frame — and that is where projects diverge.

What is included as standard

Ask for the inclusions as a written list. Anything not on it is not in it. On a normal Cypriot quote you should expect:

  • A site survey and measured order. Openings in a concrete-frame house are rarely square, and the survey is what stops frames arriving out of true.
  • Removal and disposal of the existing frames, glass and packaging.
  • The frame system, named. Manufacturer and profile series, thermal break or not, powder coat colour and finish.
  • The glass specification, named. Unit build-up, and which openings are treated as safety glazing with toughened or laminated panes.
  • Hardware. Handles, locks, rollers, restrictors where they apply.
  • Fitting. Packing, levelling, mechanical fixing, perimeter gap filled.
  • External perimeter sealant. A neutral-cure bead between frame and reveal — the single component keeping driven rain out of the wall.
  • System trims inside and out, plus a basic clean.
  • A written guarantee, separated into frame, sealed unit and hardware, because they are rarely the same length.

Insect screens and any shutter refurbishment are the two items most often assumed and least often included. Ask about both explicitly.

What is almost always extra

Reveal repair is priced as render — around €8 to €22 per square metre, median near €13 for two coats on blockwork — and redecoration after it around €6 to €15 per square metre, median near €9. Across a whole flat those narrow strips add up, and the bill arrives after the fitters have gone.

Access. The biggest single swing. Ground-floor windows on a level plot need nothing. Central Limassol's high-rise stock, where balcony and facade work is already a standing maintenance demand, may need scaffold or a platform, quoted at roughly €4 to €13 per square metre per week, median around €7, erected, hired and dismantled. On the hillside plots around Peyia, steep access roads limit crane and delivery vehicle size, capping the panel size you can realistically specify.

Shutter boxes and shutters. The box above the opening is the oldest, dirtiest part of the assembly. New slats, straps or a motor are separate, and a motorised shutter needs a certified electrician — the certificate matters again on sale.

Structural changes. Making an opening taller or wider means a lintel and an engineer registered with the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber. It also changes the elevation, which is a planning matter for the Department of Town Planning and Housing rather than something your fitter signs off.

Marble sills and security grilles. Replacement stone sills, and removing and refitting grilles, are almost never in the base price.

Enclosing rather than replacing. Closing a veranda in is aluminium and glass enclosure work at roughly €220 to €580 per square metre installed, median near €340 — and it needs permission settled before anything is ordered.

The parts people underestimate

The wait between measure and fit. Frames are made to your survey dimensions. Lead time is set by the profile system, the colour, whether the glass is a stock build-up or a special, and how loaded the fabricator is — refurbishment in the resort stock around Ayia Napa is concentrated into November to March, and it pulls fabricator capacity with it. Get the lead time in writing before you pay a deposit.

Living in the house while it happens. Each opening stands open to the street for part of a day. Plan for dust, for pets and small children, and for the fact that a flat with its balcony slider out cannot be left unattended. Most owners run the job room by room for exactly that reason.

Where the moisture goes. A well-sealed replacement stops the draughts that were quietly ventilating the flat. In an uninsulated concrete frame the cold surfaces are the columns, beams and reveals, and moisture that used to leave through gaps condenses on them instead — which is why new windows are sometimes followed by mould in a corner that was previously dry. Nicosia has the widest temperature range on the island, which sharpens the effect inland. Extraction and trickle ventilation belong in the specification, not in the list of regrets.

Fixings on the coast. In Kato Paphos and along exposed coastal frontage the air is salt-laden, and galvanised or marine-grade fixings are the standard there, not an upgrade. Ask what the frames are being fixed with, because that decision is buried in the wall for the life of the window.

The reglazing question, asked too late. If the frames are square, drain properly and have sound coating, replacing only the sealed units runs about €90 to €260 per square metre, median near €150. Have someone assess the frames honestly before you price new ones. Our window replacement project guide covers that call, the projects index sets out the plastering and decorating that follows, and the district pages list contractors covering your area.

Sequencing. Windows go in after any structural work to the opening, and before final decoration and new floors reach the threshold. Fitting them last, into finished rooms, is how a tidy job pays twice for making good.

Common questions

Do I need permission to replace my windows?

Like-for-like replacement in the same opening raises far fewer questions than altering the opening or the external appearance. Enlarging an opening or enclosing a veranda can require permission, and apartment blocks frequently impose uniform frame colour and profile across the facade. Check with the Department of Town Planning and Housing, and with your management committee, before ordering — unauthorised work follows the property, not the contractor.

How do I compare quotes that look wildly different?

Give every contractor the same written scope — same openings, same access assumptions, same statement of who makes good the reveals — then compare frame system and glass build-up line by line. A cheaper quote here is usually a thinner profile, no thermal break, or reveals and decoration silently excluded.

When is the best time of year to have it done?

Outside the wet months if you can, because the external perimeter sealant wants a dry, clean substrate and the openings are exposed while the work runs. Fabricator lead times also stretch when resort refurbishment work is at its peak between November and March, so ordering early matters more than the fitting date does.

What should the guarantee actually say?

Three separate periods, in writing: the frame and its coating, the sealed units against misting, and the moving hardware. It should name who honours each — the fabricator, the fitter or the glass supplier — and say whether it transfers if you sell.

Does the price differ by district?

Barely on the frames, which come from the same handful of fabricators. What differs is access, delivery distance and what the location demands — marine-grade fixings on the coast, vehicle limits on steep plots, platform hire on high-rise balconies.

Window and glazing contractors listed by district

8 companies covering this area.

Sources

  1. Department of Town Planning and Housing — planning and building control — retrieved 2026-07-29
  2. Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber (ETEK) — registered engineers and technical practice — retrieved 2026-07-29
  3. Cyprus Statistical Service — construction cost statistics — retrieved 2026-07-29

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