Job pricing guide
How to price door repair or installation
Door pricing depends on whether the work is an adjustment, hardware repair, slab replacement, or full prehung installation.
How should you price this job?
Start by deciding whether the job is an adjustment, hardware repair, slab replacement, or prehung installation. Check the frame, reveals, swing, hardware locations, trim, and finish before estimating labor. Then include materials, disposal, travel, overhead, concealed-condition risk, and your target margin.
What affects the price?
- Repair versus replacement
- Slab or prehung unit
- Frame condition and alignment
Pricing considerations
- Verify that the frame is square and stable before quoting a slab replacement as a straightforward swap.
- Separate fitting and hardware work from trim, weather sealing, paint or stain, disposal, and surrounding repairs.
- Use a clear change-order boundary for rot, framing movement, threshold damage, or other conditions hidden until removal.
What costs should you include?
Count every hour the job occupies—including paid travel—then add raw materials, vehicle cost, allocated overhead, and job-specific expenses. Add visible pricing adjustments and a risk reserve before using margin math to find the selling price. The pricing methodology explains each allocation and the difference between markup and margin.
Pricing workflow
- Operate the door and measure the slab, frame, reveals, swing, and hardware locations.
- Check the jamb for square, level, rot, movement, and failed fasteners.
- Separate adjustment, slab replacement, prehung installation, trim, finishing, and disposal before estimating.
Scope checklist
- Include removal, fitting, mortising, hardware installation, alignment, and cleanup as applicable.
- State whether trim, weatherstrip, caulk, paint or stain, and haul-away are included.
- Exclude hidden rot, framing correction, and threshold or siding repair unless specifically priced.
Common scope variables
- Hardware reuse or replacement
- Trim removal and reinstallation
- Planing, mortising, and strike adjustment
- Exterior weather sealing
Costs commonly forgotten
- Rot or framing corrections
- Disposal of the old door
- Paint, stain, and return visits
Assuming the existing frame is square and pricing a simple slab swap before checking reveals, hinge alignment, and jamb condition.
Flat rate or hourly?
Use flat-rate pricing for a verified adjustment or standard replacement. Price unknown rot, framing, and finish work hourly or as clearly defined add-ons.
In either case, calculate every planned allocation first. A flat rate should still pay for estimated working time, travel, overhead, risk, and target-margin surplus.
Worked pricing example
These hypothetical assumptions run through the same pricing engine as the calculator:
- Labor time
- 4 hours × 1 worker
- Travel time
- 1 hours
- Desired hourly compensation
- $55.00 per worker-hour
- Planned labor compensation
- $275.00
- Raw materials
- $80.00
- Material pricing adjustment
- 15% = $12.00
- Overhead allocation
- $1,200.00 ÷ 100 billable hours × 5 hours = $60.00
- Vehicle and job expenses
- $50.00
- Difficulty adjustment
- 20% = $77.00
- Contingency / risk reserve
- 8% = $43.36
- Target margin
- 25%
- Calculated minimum price
- $796.48
- Rounded suggested quote
- $800.00
The rounded quote contains $202.64 of target-margin surplus after all listed allocations. Replace every assumption with your own job numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Should the door itself be marked up?
If you procure and warranty it, enter its cost as materials and choose a transparent markup that covers purchasing risk.
What if the frame is out of square?
Exclude unknown framing repairs from a fixed scope or include a contingency based on what you can inspect.
How does pricing a door repair differ from replacement?
A repair quote should name the fault and the adjustment or hardware work included. Replacement pricing must also account for removal, fitting, trim, finishing, disposal, and any verified frame correction.
Use your actual numbers
Calculate your door repair / installation quote
Travel time is paid business time in this calculator. No local or national price averages are used.