Fitting Internal Doors - This sounds a lot!

Jst1990

Hi all,

This is actually to ask for help on behalf of my mother. She's having a fair bit of work done at her house (1998 build) to lighten it up and make it a bit more contemporary. As part of this she would like 12 new internal doors fitted. A couple of weeks ago we went to a door supplier and got a quote for the materials. Total cost of doors was around £1300 and then for handles was around £250. A total of around £1550. Not cheap but those were the ones she wanted.

She has just received a quote to fit all these doors (including tradesman buying them from supplier, picking them up, skip for old doors, and fitting - basically everything) of over £3000. To me this seemed like a lot as they appear to be charging around £1500 for labour unless there are some other materials that they require that I haven't factored in. I know there are 2 guys who do it and they have come recommended by a family friend but even so I was still a bit shocked by the price!

Would really appreciate any responses from people who know more than me!

Thanks

TheCyclingProgrammer

Price for the doors sounds ok. You can get engineered oak doors for around £80 online for a basic panel door so assuming they are engineered doors then just over £100 a door sounds ok. You could of course get cheap hollow core doors for a quarter of this price if you wanted.

Handles can vary as well. You could probably save some money by ordering the doors and handles online. You should find somewhere that offers free delivery for that quantity. Try handlestore.com for handles.

Labour I don't think you should be paying for than £40-50 a door. So say about £500 for fitting without waste disposal.

Add the cost of a decent sized skip to that.

I'd say the cheapest you'd be looking at is around £2000-2200.

Hasbeen

Depends where you are, big city prices or sensible prices.

Around here would est £50 - 2hrs work per door. Plus approx. £125+ for skip

Jst1990

Thank you for your suggestions - really appreciated. Around £2000-2200 was more what I was thinking too.

The doors she has her eye on are "Internal Oak Suffolk" or something similar and they seem to retail for around £85-100 online. The handles were in a pack with the relevant other fixtures for £15 per door I think so assuming £100 a door and £15 fittings that's £1380 if I order myself.

Assuming skip of £125 & £50 labour per door that adds up to just under £2200. She lives in Derbyshire so I wouldn't expect prices to be too high there.

Perhaps I should ask for a detailed breakdown of their quote to see what their labour charges are.

TheCyclingProgrammer

You could, but I'd be ringing up a few local joiners/carpenters who hang doors for their price - you'll find most probably offer a fixed price per door and you might be able to swing a discount for 12 doors.

Then order all the doors online, get handles/fixings in a pack per door and arrange for the skip. That's what I'd do.

The one potential downside to ordering the doors is not having an exact date of when they might arrive and having to coordinate with whoever is hanging the doors, or you'll need somewhere to store them all. A lot of online places selling doors will only deliver to the kerbside too so you'll need to make sure you (and probably a friend) can arrange to be there to help move them.

Jst1990

Thanks - really useful information. Feel much more comfortable about it now.

I'll definitely look into sourcing everything myself as there's ample storage room in a garage on site.

martinsurrey

TheCyclingProgrammer wrote: »

The one potential downside to ordering the doors is not having an exact date of when they might arrive and having to coordinate with whoever is hanging the doors, or you'll need somewhere to store them all. A lot of online places selling doors will only deliver to the kerbside too so you'll need to make sure you (and probably a friend) can arrange to be there to help move them.

You'll WANT to have the doors stored in the house for at least a few days before you fit them.

Nothing worse than a dry door being well fitted, and then expanding as it acclimatises to the the humidity in the house, and becoming stuck!

TheCyclingProgrammer

martinsurrey wrote: »

You'll WANT to have the doors stored in the house for at least a few days before you fit them.

Nothing worse than a dry door being well fitted, and then expanding as it acclimatises to the the humidity in the house, and becoming stuck!

Good point, my main point was the need to be there to help bring the doors in.

I had to keep our new doors in the garage when we received them, which is where I treated them all prior to fitting and didn't bring them in until the day they were hung and one of the doors did expand a little bit - not majorly but enough for it to rub on the bottom of the frame. It was the one on our shower room so exposed to more extremes of humidity and temperature.

Nothing that can't be easily rectified and we didn't have any problems with the other doors.

TheCyclingProgrammer

Jst1990 wrote: »

Thanks - really useful information. Feel much more comfortable about it now.

I'll definitely look into sourcing everything myself as there's ample storage room in a garage on site.

Sounds like a good plan, but do take martinsurrey's advice and store them in the house for a few days before they are fitted.

I got my doors from http://www.internaldoors.co.uk (Victorian 4 panel oak, two glazed one unglazed) and they are nice doors but I did have a bit of an issue with the lipping on the bottom of them not being as thick as advertised (ended up exposing the core on them when trimmed) but to be fair to them they offered to replace the doors without any fuss.

You can't see the bottom of the doors but it was a bit of an issue as one was for a shower room but they gave me the option of treating the bottom with some heavy duty exterior varnish and then still offered to replace the door if we still had problems with it.

brightontraveller

You tend to pay more for domestic carpenter/joiners whatever they wish to call themselves even so average door, lock, handles etc fitted as described £40 -£60 even slowest should complete 1 per 1 hr -1.30hr ? anything more your paying for there “ego”

Removing doors most would try and sell them first if no joy then skip or trip to dump or call waste removals in or bonfire time ? Other waste shouldn't be anything more than you can put in your bin ?

Cost of doors handles etc Down to desired style manufactures etc, Like most things more effort you put into calling around etc likely lower the price

Furts

£15 for ironmongery is cheap, so be careful about what you buy. Provided you are happy then that is all that matters, but there is an enormous amount of tat sourced from India and China. As an example, the polished brass handle sets sold at B&Q rank as the worst quality I have come across. Many latches have excessive play allowing doors to rattle, many handle sets have poor springs and stops and do not last.

There are countless doors available so I cannot comment on your choice. As a guide my internal doors are hung on three hinges, (always recommended) - and each is a washered butt hinge. However, these are only 75mm so technically do not meet requirements - I had them surplus so that is why they were fitted!

My hinges, latch and handles are good quality but it is inconceivable that I could buy them for the £15 you quote.