In the US there seem to be serious anti-competitive practices in many retail sectors. Windows and doors are but one example. You will find that it is almost impossible to find price lists for any doors or windows online. It is no accident. Keeping consumers in the dark is intended to prevent consumers having market knowledge. TO ANSWER some of the comments suggesting that it is acceptable to charge such massive margins for essentially putting an order in to PGT... in most cases there is no overhead for stock in a warehouse because most dealers do not keep stock. The only overhead is marketing and administration. It is motivated by pure greed. In most other countries, windows and doors are substantially cheaper and it is possible to see prices online. Greed and gouging is rife in the US and the retail prices reflect bad practices in many industries aimed and making excessive profits from consumers. You do not have to be a victim, source your products from elsewhere and put these people out of business. That is what the market needs.

jprobins: If I may be blunt, you're in denial. You are going to spend quite a bit of money for good quality doors in a hurricane zone. Make sure you don't need the darkened "turtle glass" which keeps your nighttime light pollution from confusing sea turtles to walk toward you instead of the moonlight over the sea. The codes are very strict regarding window/door installation in hurricane areas. You need a professional contractor, not your brother-in-law or a local handyman. WinDoor is the Cadillac of sliding doors. Amazing quality. I pushed a 4'x8' with one finger.

We ended up getting a quote for the PGT 5400 Energy Vue line as well. It really comes down to the Simonton 9800 w/ laminated glass and the PGT. Slight nod to the PGT for the installation. The price difference is 6.84% more for the Simonton. Simonton's warranty is better by far, mainly because the installer matches the manufacturer for the labor warranty. Thus, if we go with the Simontons, we have a 25+ year parts AND labor warranty. PGT is only 1 year labor but a good parts warranty. Simonton also comes with a lifetime glass breakage (due to the laminated glass). Simonton offers dual sliders (I think that's the term, where you can open the slider either way) while PGT's only open one way (the equivalent of single hung). Thus PGT's air infiltration numbers are substantially lower (.02 vs. .13). SHGC are virtually the same at .21 and .22. The SoftLite's came in significantly more expensive (50%). We really liked the Alside installer, but aren't sure of the product, so we eliminated them.

Standard doors are 6" - are you suggesting not to upgrade to 8" ? We felt higher the door height, the easier it is to move furniture and stuff, of-course the width of the door isn't changing. I wouldn't bother with this. How often do you move "furniture and stuff" that's taller than 7'? Extended Lanai: Oh, I thought it'd be a deeper lanai ... I'd be less inclined to pay for a wider lanai. Wider isn't all that useful, and it means more rooms are shaded /have less natural light. Vent Hood/Microwave to Outside - If we don't choose, the smoke will stay indoors - the builder should have included this in the base price but it is what it is. I am really surprised that this isn't standard. I would do the oak riser steps instead of carpet. Yes overpriced but probably better now. Yes, if you don't do the oak risers now, you probably won't be able to do them later ... at all. If they do carpet stairs, they're going to use plywood /paint quality stuff under that carpet; thus, it won't be a matter of pulling up carpet later and staining /painting. It is easy to say walk away and build a custom home, but not everyone can afford to do that, nor does everyone want to go that route (even if they can afford to). True. Tara we all have to make compromises. For ourselves it's been a 2 year journey building our custom home, plus the hours and hours spent researching and finding even the smallest details. So I understand where you're coming from. Yup, no matter your circumstances, you're going to "give" somewhere. For us, we're taking the same route as CP describes above: The place where we're "giving" is time and personal effort.