Door Installation Cost Calculator

CostMyProject Research Team Prices checked October 2026

What will new doors cost? Enter the door count, pick the door type and material, add hardware and finishing — get a line-by-line installed estimate with local labor rates. No email required.

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What this calculator estimates

This tool prices door installation from the decisions that actually move the number: how many doors, the door type (interior slab rehang, interior prehung, exterior entry, french/patio pair, or sliding patio), the material (hollow-core, solid wood, fiberglass, or steel), hardware and finish upgrades, and your region's labor rates. Every result shows the line-by-line math and a ±25% planning range — because this is a budgeting estimate, not a quote, and real bids move with frame condition, rot repair, lockset choices, and local labor markets.

How the math works

• Door + install base: per-door installed base — interior slab $230 (door $80 + 1.5 hr labor), interior prehung $400 (door $180 + 1 hr labor), exterior entry $800 (door $450 + 3 hr labor + weatherproofing), french pair $1,800 per door ($1,200 door + 4 hr labor), sliding patio $1,400 ($900 door + 3.5 hr labor).
• Material multiplier: hollow-core 0.85×, steel 1.0×, fiberglass 1.15×, solid wood 1.25× — applied to the door portion only, since labor barely changes with material.
• Labor scaling: the labor portion is multiplied by your region rate (0.85–1.2×) and your ZIP adjustment if entered. Materials stay at national prices.
• Hardware: reuse $0, standard lockset $60, premium $180 — per door.
• Finish: pro paint/stain $120 per door, both sides. Unfinished saves it all if you'll DIY.
• Frame repair: $250 per door when the frame is rotted, split, or out of square — covers jamb repair, shimming and re-trimming.

Every figure is an October 2026 US planning estimate. Real quotes vary — that's why results show a ±25% planning range. This is a budgeting estimate, not a quote.

Worked example: 3 solid-wood prehung interior doors

Here's exactly what the calculator does with a common job — three solid-wood prehung interior doors, reusing hardware, unfinished, good frames, South labor, no ZIP:

Planning range (±25%): $1,001 – $1,669 — about $445 per door, squarely in the national $250–$800 band for prehung interior doors. Swap to hollow-core slabs rehung in existing frames and the same 3 doors drop to roughly $585 total. See our door installation cost guide for material comparisons and the prehung-vs-slab decision.

Door installation costs by region: same job, different labor market

Materials cost roughly the same everywhere — labor doesn't. This table takes the worked example above (three solid-wood prehung interior doors) and scales only the labor portion by each region's labor multiplier, exactly as the calculator's ZIP adjustment does. The doors themselves ($675) stay fixed. The worked example uses South labor, so the national-equivalent labor is $660 ÷ 0.89 = $742; other regions scale from that national figure.

Regional multipliers are the mean of this site's state labor multipliers (BLS OEWS May 2023, construction laborers — the same data behind the ZIP adjustment). The Northeast–South gap on this job is $215, all labor. Enter your ZIP in the calculator for your metro's exact multiplier.

Door installation cost by type (2026)

Per-door installed ranges, national-average labor, standard hardware, unfinished unless noted:

The pattern: interior doors are a labor story (the door is cheap, the carpenter isn't), while exterior and patio doors are a materials story (the door itself is half or more of the total). That's why DIY pays best on interior prehung doors — you erase the biggest line item — and pays worst on entry doors, where the weatherproofing skill is the whole job.

Prehung vs. slab: the real math

This is the most misunderstood choice in doors. A slab (door only) looks cheaper on the shelf — $50–$150 for hollow-core vs. $150–$250 prehung — but the installed math often reverses:

Rule of thumb: if the frame is perfect and square, a slab saves ~$50–$100 per door. If the frame is even slightly off — and most 20-year-old frames are — the carpenter burns that savings truing it up, and prehung wins on both cost and result. For new openings, there's no contest: prehung, every time.

Material guide: what your money buys

• Hollow-core molded ($50–$150 slab): cardboard honeycomb inside, featherweight, dents if you look at it hard. Fine for closets and pantries. Terrible for bedrooms — you can hear everything through them.
• Solid-core molded ($120–$280 slab): the value sweet spot for interiors. Particleboard or foam core kills sound transmission and feels substantial. The upgrade from hollow-core costs ~$100/door installed and transforms how a house feels.
• Solid wood ($250–$800+ slab): beautiful, heavy, repairable — and it moves with humidity. Best for high-visibility interior doors and traditional entry doors. Needs finishing on all six edges or it warps.
• Fiberglass ($300–$1,500 entry): the modern exterior default. Molded wood-grain looks convincing, never rots, dents less than steel, insulates well. The rational choice for most entry doors.
• Steel ($200–$600 entry): cheapest exterior option, strongest security, but dents show and scratches rust. Great for side and back doors where looks matter less.

Exterior doors also carry energy ratings — look for ENERGY STAR certification and check the DOE's door guidance on U-factor and air leakage. A $1,200 fiberglass door with proper weatherstripping outperforms a $3,000 wood door with gaps, every winter, forever.

Hardware and locksets: the $30–$300 swing

Hardware is where door budgets quietly double. Budget honestly:

• Interior passage/privacy: $15–$60 per set. Privacy (bedroom/bath) costs slightly more than passage (closet/hall).
• Entry handleset: $60–$150 standard, $150–$300 premium (solid forged brass, smart deadbolt).
• Deadbolt alone: $30–$80 standard, $100–$250 smart. A $40 deadbolt with a reinforced strike plate beats a $200 decorative handleset with a flimsy strike — burglars attack the frame, not the lock.
• Hinges: usually included with prehung; $5–$15 each for slab upgrades. Ball-bearing hinges ($10–$20 each) are worth it on heavy solid doors.

Security truth: the DOE and locksmiths agree — a 3-inch screw into the stud through the strike plate ($2 in screws) adds more real security than a $250 lock on a 3/4-inch screw. Do the screws regardless of what lockset you buy.

When the frame is the problem

About a third of "door replacement" quotes are really frame repairs wearing a door costume. Know the signs:

• Rot: soft, punky wood at the bottom of exterior jambs — $150–$400 to cut out and splice, $250–$600 for full jamb replacement. Caused by missing flashing or failed caulk; fix the water source or it returns.
• Out of square: door rubs top corner on one side, gap at the bottom on the other. A carpenter can often re-shim a prehung unit in an hour ($100–$200); a slab in a racked frame is a losing battle — go prehung.
• Split jamb from a kick-in: $100–$250 to sister and re-secure, plus the strike-plate reinforcement that should have been there. Common enough that it's worth checking every exterior door you own.

If rot extends past the jamb into the subfloor, rim joist, or wall framing, you're past door work and into carpentry — $800–$2,000+. That's the moment to get a contractor, not a handyman.

How to save 30% on doors

• DIY the interior prehungs. It's the highest-ROI DIY in doors: 30–60 minutes per door with shims and a level, saving $150–$300 each. Watch one video, do a closet first.
• Buy solid-core, not solid-wood, for interiors. ~$100/door cheaper installed, 90% of the sound and feel benefit.
• Keep the same sizes. Every non-standard opening is custom money — reframing a 32" opening to 36" costs $300–$600 before the door.
• Reuse hardware where it's fine. Hinges and passage sets don't wear out; moving them to the new door saves $30–$80 each.
• Paint it yourself. $120/door pro finish vs. $25 in paint and an afternoon. Doors are the easiest thing in the house to paint well — they're flat and portable.
• Bundle the job. A carpenter's day rate ($300–$500) covers 6–10 interior doors; one door at a time pays the $150 minimum trip charge every visit.

Manufacturer starting points: Therma-Tru and Masonite for fiberglass entry systems, JELD-WEN across interior and patio lines — compare their catalog prices against your quotes so you know how much is door and how much is labor. The NAHB remodeling data backs up what the calculator assumes: on interior doors, labor is the majority of the installed cost.

Door terms worth knowing

The vocabulary that keeps a quote honest:

• Slab — the door alone, no frame, no hinges. Hangs in your existing frame.
• Prehung — door pre-mounted in its own frame with hinges installed. The whole unit goes into the rough opening.
• Jamb — the frame around the door opening: two side jambs and a head jamb.
• Rough opening — the framed hole in the wall, typically 2" wider and 2.5" taller than the door.
• Strike plate — the metal plate on the jamb the latch/deadbolt engages. The actual security point.
• Backset — distance from door edge to lock bore center: 2-3/8" or 2-3/4". Must match your lockset.
• Bore — the hole drilled for the lockset. Standard 2-1/8" diameter.
• Weatherstripping — the compressible seal around exterior doors. Q-lon kerf-in is the good stuff; foam tape is temporary.
• Threshold / sill — the bottom of an exterior door assembly. Adjustable thresholds seal against the door sweep.
• Brickmould — exterior trim covering the gap between frame and siding. Often where rot starts.
• Astragal — the vertical strip sealing the gap between french door pairs.
• Shims — tapered wedges used to plumb and square the frame. A door is only as good as its shimming.