Door installation cost dataset
This is the complete dataset behind the door calculator, at national wage rates. Its one structural decision is to price the door unit as its own line, so that everything fitted around it — sill pan, flashing, hardware, casing, finishing and disposal — can be seen separately. On an interior door that split is close to even; on an exterior one it is not. Last reviewed 2026-08-24.
The door against everything around it
| Kind of door | Hours | The unit | Share | Installed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interior door, slab only — reusing the existing frame | 1.8 | $215 | 27% | $800 |
| Interior door, prehung in its own frame | 2.6 | $215 | 22% | $956 |
| Exterior entry door, prehung | 5.5 | $1,010 | 47% | $2,165 |
| Entry door with sidelights or a transom | 8 | $1,010 | 38% | $2,681 |
| Sliding patio door | 6.5 | $1,010 | 39% | $2,593 |
| French patio doors | 7.5 | $1,010 | 38% | $2,652 |
⚠️ An exterior door is not a bigger interior door. The hours nearly triple, and what they buy is a sill pan with end dams under the threshold, flashing lapped over the housewrap at the head and jambs, shimming tight enough for a weatherstrip to seal all round, and a deadbolt that throws into framing rather than into a jamb. All of it disappears under the casing, which is why two quotes for the same door can differ so widely: they are not pricing the same thing around it.
Slab or prehung, and when the answer flips
| The opening | Slab | Prehung | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square and sound | $800 | $956 | +$156 |
| It has moved | $1,064 | $1,026 | $-38 |
The sign in the last column changes, and that is the point of modelling the two separately. A slab into a frame that has moved has to be planed to match and its hinges re-mortised; a prehung is shimmed plumb inside the opening and the casing hides the difference. ⚠️ So the decision is not a price comparison, it is a spirit level held against the existing frame. The hours behind it are declared: 4.5 extra hours on a slab against 1.2 on a prehung.
Quantity, opening and material
| Doors | Each | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $956 | $956 |
| 2 | $834 | $1,669 |
| 4 | $773 | $3,094 |
| 8 | $744 | $5,950 |
| The existing opening is sound and square | 2.6 h | $956 |
| The opening has moved and needs correcting | 3.8 h | $1,026 |
| There is no opening yet, or it has to be made bigger | 9.6 h | $1,367 |
| Material | Fitted in | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Hollow core | interior prehung | $829 |
| Solid core | interior prehung | $956 |
| Solid wood | interior prehung | $1,321 |
| Fiberglass | entry door | $2,165 |
| Steel | entry door | $1,770 |
| With safety glazing | interior prehung | $1,326 |
Each material is priced in the kind of opening it belongs in, because comparing an interior slab against an exterior jamb would compare nothing useful. The calculator warns rather than silently corrects if the two are mismatched. ⚠️ Glass adds $370 here, and it is a federal requirement rather than an option: 16 CFR 1201 treats doors and the glazing beside them as architectural glazing material, so it has to be tempered or laminated and it carries a permanent mark in one corner.
Line items
76% of the reference total comes from estimated rather than official figures. The reference job is one solid-core interior prehung door into a square opening, with new casing, new hardware, painted on site and the old door taken away: 2.6 trade hours, of which the unit itself is 22% of the price.
| Line item | Unit | Material | Equipment / hr | Trade | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollow core door unitunits, when this material is chosen | each | $45 – $130 | — | — | estimated±49% |
| Solid core door unitunits, when this material is chosen | each | $110 – $320 | — | — | estimated±49% |
| Solid wood door unitunits, when this material is chosen | each | $260 – $900 | — | — | estimated±55% |
| Fiberglass door unitunits, when this material is chosen | each | $420 – $1,600 | — | — | estimated±58% |
| Steel door unitunits, when this material is chosen | each | $280 – $950 | — | — | estimated±54% |
| Call-out and setting up1 per visit | each | $120 – $320 | — | — | estimated±45% |
| Factory-hung frame, jambs and stopunits, on an interior prehung door | each | $48 – $170 | — | — | estimated±56% |
| Safety glazing in the door and any sidelightunits with glass in them | each | $120 – $620 | — | — | estimated±68% |
| Sill pan, flashing and weather sealingexterior units | each | $55 – $210 | — | — | estimated±58% |
| Interior passage or privacy set and hingesinterior units with new hardware | each | $22 – $78 | — | — | estimated±56% |
| Entry handleset, deadbolt and hingesexterior units with new hardware | each | $120 – $420 | — | — | estimated±56% |
| Casing, stop and threshold trimunits, when new casing is fitted | each | $38 – $145 | — | — | estimated±58% |
| Hanging and adjusting the doorhours for the first unit + 85% of that for each additional × lead factor | hour | — | — | Carpenters | sourced |
| Priming and painting on siteunits finished on site | each | — | — | Painters, Construction and Maintenance | sourced |
| Removing and disposing of the old doorunits removed | each | $18 – $65 | — | — | estimated±57% |
| Lead-safe containment and cleaning verification1 in a pre-1978 house | each | $140 – $480 | — | — | estimated±55% |
The reasoning behind each figure
- Hollow core door unitestimated, ±49%
- Interior hollow-core door. Light, cheap and acoustically transparent.
- Prehung units cost more than a bare slab of the same material because they arrive with a frame and hinges fitted; that difference is inside this band.
- Solid core door unitestimated, ±49%
- Interior solid-core door. The cheapest real improvement in a house, and heavy enough to want a third hinge.
- Prehung units cost more than a bare slab of the same material because they arrive with a frame and hinges fitted; that difference is inside this band.
- Solid wood door unitestimated, ±55%
- Solid timber, usually panelled, and it moves with the seasons.
- Prehung units cost more than a bare slab of the same material because they arrive with a frame and hinges fitted; that difference is inside this band.
- Fiberglass door unitestimated, ±58%
- Foam-filled fiberglass entry or patio unit. ⚠️ On an exterior door the unit is a minority of the installed price — everything that keeps weather out is priced on the lines below.
- Prehung units cost more than a bare slab of the same material because they arrive with a frame and hinges fitted; that difference is inside this band.
- Steel door unitestimated, ±54%
- Insulated steel entry unit. Cheapest exterior option to buy, and it dents permanently.
- Prehung units cost more than a bare slab of the same material because they arrive with a frame and hinges fitted; that difference is inside this band.
- Call-out and setting upestimated, ±45%
- Getting a carpenter and tools to the house, and the minimum a joinery firm will invoice for a visit.
- ⚠️ Charged once per visit rather than per door, which is why doing all the doors at the same time is the cheapest decision available here. One door carries the whole call-out; eight share it.
- Factory-hung frame, jambs and stopestimated, ±56%
- What a prehung interior unit carries that a bare slab does not: the jambs, the stop, and the hinges already mortised in at the factory.
- It is the honest half of the slab-against-prehung comparison. The other half is hours, and on an opening that has moved the hours go the other way — which is why the cheaper thing to buy is frequently the dearer thing to fit.
- Safety glazing in the door and any sidelightestimated, ±68%
- ⚠️ Not an upsell. 16 CFR 1201 treats doors and the glazing next to them as architectural glazing material subject to a federal safety standard, so the glass has to be tempered or laminated. A door with a lite costs more than the same door without one, and the reason is federal rather than commercial.
- The band spans a small decorative lite at the bottom and a full-height insulated unit with a sidelight at the top.
- It is also worth knowing what to look for: safety glazing carries a permanent mark in one corner. If a replacement pane does not, it is the wrong pane.
- Sill pan, flashing and weather sealingestimated, ±58%
- A sill pan under the threshold with end dams and a back leg, flashing tape lapped correctly over the housewrap at the head and jambs, and sealant on the right side of the assembly.
- ⚠️ This is the difference between a door and a hole with a door in it, and it is invisible the moment the casing goes on. Water that gets past a threshold with no pan under it goes into the framing and the subfloor, and the first sign of it is usually a soft floor several years later.
- The order matters as much as the material: flashing has to shed water outwards at every lap, and a job done in the wrong sequence looks identical to one done right.
- Interior passage or privacy set and hingesestimated, ±56%
- A passage set for a hallway or a privacy set for a bedroom or bathroom, plus hinges.
- Small money, and the one place where paying a little more is immediately obvious every day: the difference between a cheap latch and a decent one is felt in the hand rather than seen.
- Entry handleset, deadbolt and hingesestimated, ±56%
- A handleset with a matching deadbolt, keyed alike, plus heavy hinges rated for the weight of the door.
- ⚠️ What actually resists a kick is not the lock, it is the strike plate and the screws holding it. Three-inch screws through the strike into the framing behind the jamb cost almost nothing and change the outcome. Ask whether they are being used — the short screws that come in the box only reach the jamb.
- Casing, stop and threshold trimestimated, ±58%
- New casing both sides of an interior door, or one side plus exterior brickmould on an entry door, mitred and fitted.
- Old casing rarely survives removal intact, and on an out-of-square opening new casing is what hides the shimming. Reusing it is possible and it is slower than fitting new.
- Hanging and adjusting the door
- From 1.8 hours for an interior slab into an existing frame to 8 for an entry unit with sidelights, plus the allowance for the state of the opening.
- ⚠️ The hours are where the interior and exterior jobs separate, not the door. An exterior unit has to end up plumb enough for a weatherstrip to seal all the way round and for a deadbolt to throw freely into its strike, which is a tighter tolerance than any interior door is held to.
- Doing several doors in one visit is meaningfully cheaper per door: the tools are already out and the setting-up is paid once. That efficiency is in this line as a 15% reduction from the second unit onwards.
- Increased by 35% in a pre-1978 house, where removing painted casing disturbs painted surface and brings the job inside the federal lead programme.
- Priming and painting on site
- About 1.6 hours per door: both faces, all four edges and the casing, primed and given two coats.
- ⚠️ The edges are the part that gets skipped and the part that matters. An unsealed top or bottom edge takes up moisture, and that is what makes a door stick in summer and rattle in winter. On an exterior door it is what makes it warp.
- A factory-finished unit costs more and skips this line entirely, which on several doors is frequently the cheaper route.
- Removing and disposing of the old doorestimated, ±57%
- Taking the old unit out, and the tipping fee for a door and its frame.
- A hollow-core door is light and awkward; a solid entry door with a steel skin is heavy and awkward. Neither goes in a domestic bin.
- Lead-safe containment and cleaning verificationestimated, ±55%
- Sheeting, HEPA vacuum consumables and cleaning verification for work inside the federal lead programme.
- ⚠️ Prising off painted casing in a pre-1978 house disturbs painted surface, and the six-square-foot per room exemption is easy to pass once two or three doors are involved. It has to be a certified firm.
Not included in this dataset
- Garage doors
- A completely different product with its own springs, tracks and opener, and its own page here. Nothing on this page applies to one.
- Structural work on a load-bearing wall
- Cutting a new opening is priced here for an ordinary wall. Where the wall carries load above it, the header size is an engineering question and the temporary support is a real cost, and neither is modelled.
- Repairing rot found under the old threshold
- ⚠️ The commonest surprise on an exterior door replacement, and it is invisible until the old unit comes out. Where a door has been leaking, the subfloor and the framing under it frequently need cutting out first. Ask any quote what happens if the sill is soft.
- Security upgrades beyond the lockset
- Reinforced strike plates are part of hanging a door properly. Multi-point locks, security screens and smart locks are separate purchases.
- Storm doors
- A second door outside the first is its own product and its own fitting, and it is frequently sold alongside a new entry door without being separated on the quote.
- Matching an existing period door
- On an older house the profiles, the panel layout and the sizes are frequently not made any more. A joiner making one to match is a different order of cost from anything on this page, and it is sometimes the only thing that looks right.
Use the calculator, price a garage door instead, or read the full method.