How Much to Hang a Door?

How Much Does It Cost To Hang a Door?

The cost to fit internal doors will vary depending on factors such as the type of door being fitted, the size of the doors, the finish required, the number of doors fitted and whether any internal adjustments need to be made to your home to accommodate the door.

So, how much on average will you pay?

As a rough guide, you can expect a single 4-panel, unfinished oak veneer door with new hinges and handles to be hung for £235 including materials and labour, assuming no changes are being made to the location of the doors.

It's worth noting the cost factors involved, depending on type, style and material.

Internal Door Fitting Prices

The type of door you choose to install will have a big impact on both your home aesthetic and your budget. You should budget labour costs at roughly £50 per door.

Outlined below are some door styles to consider and their average cost of purchase per unit, not including labour fees for installation:

Unfortunately, having an estimate for the style of door is not the only influencing factor on the price; the material you choose will also change the cost of purchase.

The prices below are to be used as a guide and are based on a single door:

You can also have internal doors specially made to measure and to your own specifications; however, as these will be bespoke items, they will cost considerably more than an off-the-shelf item.

Additional Door Fitting Costs

As well as the cost of the door and labour, you may also have to consider other costs involved in hanging new doors in a property. Outlined below are some rough estimates of additional costs associated with hanging doors.

As you can see from the price breakdown, the desired quality and finish of the door and related furnishings can have a huge impact on the overall cost of the door fitting, so it’s a good idea to shop around for the best prices to suit you.

It could also be that you take the opportunity while work is going on to tackle some related jobs that could improve the overall aesthetic of your home.

Replacing Skirting Boards Cost

Hanging internal doors may cause damage to your skirting boards, or simply leave them looking out of place with your new doors.

The cost to replace skirting boards can be between £300 and £500, but if they just need sprucing up, consider painting them instead.

A benefit of painting your skirting boards after having internal doors fitted is that they will look fresh and new. On average, skirting board painting prices are around £200 and £300 for a 3m by 3m room, depending on whether the woodwork is in good condition.

The comparable price range for replacing your skirting boards is between £270 and £440.

External Door Painting Cost

At the same time as installing new interior doors, it might also be time to paint the exterior ones.

The cost of painting external doors will vary depending on where you are in the country and whether any extra work is required on the door. Prices start from around £150.

New Front Door Cost

If you decide your existing front door doesn't fit with your home's aesthetic anymore or it's in poor condition, you may consider getting a new one.

Just as with internal doors, there are plenty of options to choose from that will suit any budget. The typical new front door cost ranges all the way from £500 to £2,500.

Labour Cost to Fit Internal Doors

On average, you can expect a tradesperson to charge between £100 and £150 a day in labour, and be able to hang 3 doors per day (allowing for up to 3 hours per door).

The exact time it takes will vary depending on the number of doors in total being fitted, as well as the size and weight of them, with heavier doors taking considerably longer to hang than their lightweight counterparts.

You will also need to factor in additional costs if you are having doors relocated in your property, as this will involve more time, materials and labour costs and could involve multiple trades such as plastering, decorating and electricians.

It's worth remembering that tradesmen day rates are geographically varied, so if you're in London or the surrounding areas, you may pay more per hour.

What Does Hanging a Door Entail?

Firstly, a decision needs to be made as to whether just the door is being replaced or whether new door linings are being installed, as well as the positioning of the new door – whether it is being kept in its original location or if you wish to move it to a different area of the wall.

If you’re keeping the original lining, you will need to accurately measure the size of the frame to be able to purchase the correct door size. You may find that an off-the-shelf door isn’t available in the right size. In which case, it’s best to purchase the closest size and trim it down to the appropriate dimensions.

If new linings are required, you should purchase these to the closest size available, upscaling as well. These can also be adjusted to size, or minor work can be done to the walls in order for them to fit.

In the event that you are repositioning doors, the desired dimensions will need to be taken into consideration as it will dictate the amount of work involved in knocking through the wall, covering the existing doorway and redecorating.

Assuming that the existing linings will be used, you will need to measure the door height and place hinges at equal distances along the door and lining. You may find that the hinge from the existing door is appropriate to reuse.

Once the hinges are in place, the door will be positioned in the hole and the hinges connected with the hinge pin.

DIY Door Hanging

Although considered a tricky job, door hanging is a perfectly suitable DIY job for anyone with the required knowledge and physical capability of doing so.

Here are the basic steps when you're purchasing and hanging a door yourself:

• 1. Planning - Decide on your budget and how your new doors will affect the aesthetic of your home. You should also decide whether you will fit new doors into existing linings and which way you want the doors to open.
• 2. Taking Measurements - Measure the width and height of the current door if available, or the door lining. Take the measurements from three different points to ensure that the frame is straight. Your new doors should be as close in size as possible to the door lining, rounding up to the appropriate size, not down.
• 3. Purchasing - Buy new internal doors in person if possible, as this will give a clearer indication of quality and finish. If you purchase online, check them immediately upon delivery for any damage.
• 4. Removing Existing Doors - You'll need to remove the hinge pins before lifting the door out of its frame. You may need to remove all the hinges from the door lining if you're replacing them.
• 5. Preparing New Doors - Measure where you want your new hinges to be in the lining and on the door itself. You will also need to check whether door trimming will be needed at this point. Once the door is trimmed to size, you should decorate your door if it isn't unfinished or primed.
• 6. Fitting New Doors - Fit the new door by standing it upright near the frame and putting the upper section of the door in first. Then you should be able to manoeuvre the rest of the door hinges into place and secure them with hinge bolts.

You should note that hanging doors can be physically exhausting, particularly if large or heavy doors are being installed. Consider asking for help from a friend to make it easier, or hire a trusted professional to complete the work for you.

Whilst it may cost you more in labour, it will save you physical strain when a professional can complete the work quicker than you may be able to yourself.

Installing a New Frame and Lining

In the event that you wish to replace the door and lining as a whole, either because you have purchased door and frame sets or because you want to reposition the doorways within your home, there are a few extra steps.

You should be aware of the structural changes that come with repositioning a doorway, such as the removal of suitable walls to make space for the new door. The cost of removing a load bearing wall can be between £1,200 and £1,750, adding substantial expense to your budget.

Whilst doorways can be placed in load-bearing walls, it is a tricky and dangerous job to complete; load-bearing walls offer structural integrity and if incorrectly handled can cause a lot of damage to your property. You should hire a professional to complete the work if you must have a new doorway placed in a load-bearing wall.

You will also need to consider how to fill the existing doorway and be aware of any wiring or electrical outlets that may be running through the new door position.

You may need to hire a trained electrician to rewire the wall, and you may need a plasterer and decorator once the wall has been re-covered if you are not able to do the work yourself. These tasks will, of course, come at an additional cost for labour and materials.

On average, the cost to plaster a room is up to £1,400, while the cost of painting a room is around £250 to £300.

Cost to Replace Different Types of Internal Doors

The cost of internal doors will vary depending on your needs and requirements.

You should consider how well the doors will fit with the decor and aesthetic of your home, as well as whether rooms need privacy or would benefit from glazing.

For example, glazing in social areas such as kitchens and living rooms allows light and line-of-sight vision through the home, making the space feel larger.

Let's look closer at some popular internal door options and the typical door fitting cost for each type:

• Flush Doors - An uncomplicated, flat door with no panelling that closes into its frame. On average, the door installation cost for a flush door is between £30 and £250.
• Panelled Doors - These doors have raised panels that add to the overall design and effect, and are an alternative to a flush door. The cost of an internal door with panels is between £45 and £160.
• Folding Doors - Sometimes known as bi-fold doors, these internal doors are good for helping to split large rooms in two while still ensuring they can be separated when required. The typical price of bi-fold doors is between £60 and £165.
• Sliding Doors - These doors are another type that is useful for demarcating different areas of the home. Typically, expect to pay between £35 to £170 for hanging sliding doors.

Within these general classifications, there is a vast array of design and style options that will affect your internal door fitting cost.

Internal Door Sizing

Doors and their frames come in a number of standard sizes to suit most homes:

• 1981mm x 457 / 533 / 610 / 686 / 711 / 762 / 838 / 915 / 1067 / 1168 / 1220 / 1372 / 1524mm
• 2034 x 813mm
• 2134 x 915mm
• 2040 x 526 / 626 / 726 / 826 / 926mm

The average height and width of a UK door is 1981mm x 762mm and has, on average, a depth of 40mm.

In some cases, you may find that a pre-made door will need to be trimmed to fit the doorways within your home.

An alternative to doing this is to commission custom-built doors, which will allow you to customise the style and finish to match your home aesthetic – but be aware, these come with a much heavier price tag than off-the-shelf doors as they will be bespoke items for your home.

How to Measure for a New Internal Door

To ensure you select the right size door for the frame, it’s important you measure the space properly.

You should take a minimum of 6 measurements: 3 across the width at the top, middle and bottom of the frame, and 3 across the height at the left, centre and right.

It may seem excessive to take so many measurements, but it’s for a good reason; often door frames and linings warp, particularly in older houses, or the frame may not have been set straight. You should take the largest of the height and width readings and base your door size on that. You can trim a door down to size if necessary, but you’ll struggle to add to it if it’s too small.

How to Trim an Internal Door

It may be necessary to trim a door, perhaps because the frame is warped or because the flooring has changed.

A professional carpenter charges around £100 to £150 a day in labour, usually with a minimum call-out charge of £50, so if you’re considering hiring one to trim the doors, it’s the best value for you to have them all completed at once.

If you’re hiring someone to hang the doors for you as well, they will likely include this work in their quote.

Trimming a door is possibly a task you can do yourself, but only if you have the skills and experience. It can also be quite an awkward process, and involves the use of dangerous tools.

There are multiple ways that you can trim a door down to size, including:

• Circular Saw - Using a fine-tooth circular saw can make quick and easy work of removing excess materials from a door. You can buy circular saws for £50 to £150 each, or replacement blades for as little as £8.
• Hand Saw - You can use one of these to cut away the bulk of the wood, followed by sanding or planing to achieve smoothness. Hand saws range in price from £5 to around £20, though they are a labour-intensive choice.
• Wood Planer - If only a small amount of material needs to be trimmed from the door, you could use a wood planer, available to buy from as little as £35 for an electrical one, or a manual plane from £10.

Always make sure your door is secured properly and that adequate protection is worn before starting to trim the door. A sawhorse is the recommended platform to lay the door on, secured with adequate clamps.

Failing to take safety precautions could result in serious injury to yourself and damage to your property.

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Internal Door Finishing

Doors come in three conditions:

• Finished – The door is ready painted and decorated.
• Primed – The door has been primed and is ready to be decorated.
• Unfinished – The door requires sanding, priming and decorating.

As the names suggest, unfinished and primed doors need more work to complete them compared to finished doors. The benefit of these two types is the customisation options that are available; you can paint the door to suit your home and design needs.

You could even opt for an unfinished, plain door, which is cheap to purchase and add your own beading (starting from around £2 per 2.5m) before painting to enhance the aesthetic.

Most doors undergo a lot of use, particularly in communal areas such as bathrooms, kitchens and living rooms – so it’s important that you decorate them with appropriate materials. Gloss or oil are generally recommended as they are easy to clean after use without damaging the finish.

You can purchase door oil for wooden doors from a variety of shops starting from around £15 per 750ml, gloss from £10 per 750ml or opt for durable paint for the same price.

Choosing the right door handles or knobs will set the tone of the door as well, so consider your options and budget carefully when choosing.

Handles and knobs range from as little as £2 a pair to upwards of £80 depending on the design, but ultimately will affect the overall aesthetic; so if you’ve chosen doors that truly complement your home design, it’s best to acquire handles or knobs that also complement it, rather than contrast it.

Should My Internal Door be a Fire Door?

A fire door, in contrast to a standard door, is specifically designed and manufactured to act as a barrier within a building in the event that a fire breaks out. Fire doors typically come in two categories, FD30 and FD60, meaning they are built to withstand fire for a duration of 30 or 60 minutes, respectively.

The type needed will depend on how much time is deemed adequate for home occupants to evacuate the site safely. However, any fire door you purchase must be a certified product and must not be altered beyond what the manufacturer's instructions allow.

Fire doors are becoming increasingly popular due to the added safety and peace of mind that they bring to residential properties.

In some instances, fire doors are a legal requirement. According to Building Regulations, Part B – Fire safety, fire doors are required when:

• The building is a house of multiple occupations, such as flats.
• In homes that are more than two storeys high, for example, with a loft conversion.
• Between a house and an integral garage.

As a general rule, fire door costs range from £50 to £200 to purchase, but do come under stricter guidance regarding trimming than standard internal doors.

Cost of Internal Door Repair and Maintenance

From time to time, it may be necessary to carry out maintenance and repair work on your internal doors to ensure they work correctly and continue to look presentable. Common work includes:

How to Paint and Oil a Door

After a while, your doors may begin to look shabby. By repainting or oiling your doors, you keep them looking presentable and help to protect them from becoming dry and brittle, which can lead to damage. Door oil can cost as little as £15 for 750ml, with durable paint or gloss from £10 per 750ml.

How to Fix Latch Issues

You may find that your door latches begin to stick or that your doors no longer close properly. More often than not, this is because the door itself has shifted, and the latch and strike plate are no longer properly aligned.

You may be able to fix this by tightening the door hinges or adjusting the strike plate positioning. Alternatively, you may wish to purchase a new latch for the door, which can cost as little as £1 from large DIY stores.

How to Fix Door Alignment Issues

Over time, you may find that your door has shifted position within the frame. Ideally, you want to manoeuvre the door and tighten the hinges to fix the problem. However, it may be necessary to replace the hinge joints altogether.

This is particularly true in cases where insufficient hinges have been used to support the door, or the positioning of the hinges is incorrect. You can purchase hinges yourself on average at £3 each, but depending on the door, you may want to hire a professional to refit it, in which case, you should budget a minimum of £50 for labour.

How To Fix a Door From Sticking

Changes in temperature and moisture can cause doors and their frames to warp and expand, which may result in doors sticking and becoming difficult to move.

In the case of minor sticking, you may be able to carefully plane some of the materials from the edge of doors whilst still attached to the frame, but if the issue is on the bottom or top of the door, or it is a large issue, you will need to remove it to complete the work. Wood planes cost around £20 to purchase.

In some instances, it may not be suitable to carry out maintenance and repair work yourself, particularly if you are not physically able or confident in your ability to do the work yourself.

Carpenters and handymen typically charge a day rate of between £100 and £150 a day, so for a relatively quick project relating to door work, you should budget £50 for their time and labour – though always check with them first before the work begins.

Internal Doors vs Open-Plan

Open-plan living has become increasingly popular over recent years, offering large multifunctional spaces compared to compartmentalised living.

Before fitting internal doors, consider some of the pros and cons of open living and whether it would suit your needs better than traditional, separate living spaces.

Pros

• ✔ Your living space will have more natural light, making the space feel airier and potentially reducing the need for artificial light.
• ✔ Open living space makes entertaining guests and family easier to achieve, with more space to utilise than conventional layouts.
• ✔ Open living is sought after, and by integrating open-plan to your home, you may see your property value rise – open living allows potential buyers to easily visualise the space and its potential with a contemporary space.

Cons

• ✖ Noise can be an issue in open-living areas as there are fewer walls to act as sound buffers.
• ✖ Mess and clutter can be a big issue for open-plan living – what was once a messy kitchen may now appear as a messy home.
• ✖ Multifunction rooms inherently offer less privacy than their traditional counterparts
• ✖ It’s very likely you will see an increase in your heating bills – rather than being able to heat spaces that are being used independently, you will now have to heat a much larger space to achieve the same level of comfort.

Whilst there are many pros and cons of open living, it’s important to keep in mind the financial implications of such a choice; whilst your decorating costs may be reduced (fewer walls = less painting if redecorating), you will find that other costs are increased – like heating, and potential refurbishment costs to achieve the desired aesthetic.

New kitchen prices can be around £8,000, but it might be a necessary outlay to achieve a look in keeping with the feel of your home – especially as it would be on display in an open-plan layout.

Cost of Internal Door Removal

Internal doors are relatively cheap in themselves to have removed by a professional; typically speaking, a professional will charge roughly £10 per door in waste removal, plus the cost of labour to unhinge them – which is considerably cheaper than having them installed as it is less time-consuming.

Expect a professional to charge £100 to £150 a day for their labour, with a door taking on average 30 minutes to remove, assuming there are no major issues.

In the event that you want the door removed and the hole repaired, you can expect to pay around £150, depending on the size of the hole for materials, and take roughly 1 to 3 days including filling the wall-space, plastering, and redecorating.

FAQs

How to Find and Hire a Door Fitter

When choosing a carpenter or tradesperson to complete work in your home, consider their qualifications, accreditations and experience to ensure that you are getting the best worker possible to complete the task.

If having internal fire doors installed, the installer should hold some sort of qualification in relation; the Fire Door Inspection Scheme offer online training and education on the matter, or they may be FIRAS certified. Your qualified carpenter should also hold public liability insurance.

The best way to find a suitable carpenter to fit new internal doors is through trusted sources; ask your family and friends if they’ve had similar work done and if they would recommend their professional to you, or use our tool to find trusted and reliable tradespeople in your area.

Sources

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/applications/building-control-applications/building-control/approved-documents
https://fdis.co.uk/