A whole-house window job starts with a question that sounds trivial and is not: how many windows, and what size? Get the count wrong and the bid is wrong. Get a size wrong and you own a custom unit that fits nothing.
The scan builds the schedule
Scanstead detects doors and windows as it maps each room and reports them as openings with measured width and height. Walk the house once and you leave with:
- A count per room, so nothing in the back bedroom gets missed
- Measured opening sizes, enough to sort units into standard sizes and oddballs
- Which wall each one sits in, with the model to point at
- Photos of every elevation if you scan in High Fidelity mode
That is an accurate, complete schedule — the thing that takes an hour with a clipboard and still comes back with one window unaccounted for.
Then measure the rough openings by hand
This is the honest boundary. A scan measures the opening as the room sees it, not the rough opening behind the trim, and replacement units are ordered to a tolerance a scan does not hold. Use the scan to build and price the list; use a tape on the units you are ordering, before you order them.
That is not a workaround — it is the right division of labor. The scan eliminates the hour of counting and sketching. The tape handles the ten minutes of confirming.
Where it pays off
For bidding, the schedule is the job. You can price a full-house replacement from the scan on the same visit, show the client their house with every opening marked, and only pull out the tape once the contract is signed.
Counting is the part people get wrong. Measuring is the part they remember to double-check.