Door Installation Cost Calculator

In 2026, professional door installation typically costs $200 to $1,500 per door, depending heavily on the door type. Interior doors are the most affordable at roughly $150 to $400 installed, exterior entry doors run about $500 to $1,200, French doors about $900 to $2,500, and sliding glass patio doors about $1,000 to $3,000+. Storm or screen doors fall around $250 to $500. The wide range reflects that an interior bedroom door is a quick, simple job while a patio door or a new exterior opening involves much more material, weather-sealing, and labor. Other factors include whether you're just hanging a new slab in an existing frame (cheapest), replacing the whole pre-hung unit, or cutting a new opening (most expensive), plus the door's material/quality and extras like hardware, trim, and painting. Installing multiple doors at once lowers the per-door cost. This calculator lets you compare door types side by side.

This is one of the most important distinctions in door installation because it greatly affects cost and labor. A slab door is just the door panel itself — no frame, hinges pre-mounted, or jamb. You install a slab when your existing door frame and hinges are in good shape and you just want a new door; the installer mortises the hinges and bores the handle holes to fit the existing opening. It's cheaper because there's less material and the frame stays put, but it requires precise fitting. A pre-hung door comes as a complete unit: the door already mounted on hinges within its own frame (jamb), ready to be set into the rough opening as one piece. You install pre-hung when the old frame is damaged, out of square, or you're doing a more complete replacement (and always for exterior doors, where the frame and weather-sealing matter). Pre-hung costs more for the added frame and labor but gives a properly aligned, sealed result. This calculator lets you choose slab, pre-hung, or cutting a new opening.

Exterior doors cost significantly more than interior doors for several reasons. First, the door itself is more substantial: exterior doors are thicker, heavier, more durable, and often made of insulated steel, fiberglass, or solid wood to withstand weather and provide security, whereas interior doors are usually lightweight hollow-core or solid-core panels. Second, exterior installation is more demanding — the door must be properly sealed against air and water with weatherstripping, a threshold, and flashing, and it has to be precisely aligned and secure for both insulation and security (a poorly installed exterior door leaks energy and is a security weak point). Third, exterior doors come with more hardware (deadbolts, weather-rated locksets) and often have features like glass inserts or sidelights. Interior doors, by contrast, just need to swing and latch nicely with no sealing or security concerns. So while an interior door might be a sub-$400 job, an exterior entry door commonly runs $700 or more installed, and specialty exterior doors like patio sliders cost even more.

It depends on the condition of your existing frame (jamb) and what you're trying to accomplish. If the current frame is solid, square, level, and undamaged, you can often save money by installing just a new slab or pre-hung door that fits it — there's no reason to tear out a good frame. But if the frame is rotted (common with older exterior doors), warped, damaged, out of square, or if the door has never closed or sealed properly, replacing the whole unit with a new pre-hung door (door plus frame) is the better choice, because a new door in a bad frame will still have problems. For exterior doors especially, the frame's integrity affects weather-sealing, security, and operation, so a compromised frame should be replaced. If you're changing the door's size or location, you'll need to reframe the opening entirely. A good installer will assess the frame and tell you honestly whether it can be reused. This calculator accounts for slab (reuse frame), pre-hung (new frame), and cutting a new opening.

Yes, usually. When an installer does several doors in one visit, the per-door cost typically drops compared to having them come out for a single door. This is because a lot of the cost in any job is the overhead of showing up — travel, setup, hauling tools, and the minimum service charge — which gets spread across all the doors instead of just one. Once the installer is on site and in a rhythm, each additional similar door goes faster and more efficiently. So if you're planning to replace, say, all the interior doors in your home or several at once, doing them together is more economical than one at a time. The savings are most noticeable on lower-cost interior doors, where the per-door labor is a big share of the total; high-cost specialty doors like patio sliders have more fixed material cost per unit, so the bundling discount is proportionally smaller. If you have multiple doors to do, it's worth getting them all quoted together. This calculator reflects per-door pricing for the quantity you enter.

Door material depends on whether it's interior or exterior and your budget. For interior doors: hollow-core doors are the most affordable and lightweight, fine for bedrooms and closets but offer little sound insulation; solid-core doors cost a bit more but feel more substantial and block sound better, a popular upgrade; and solid wood doors are the premium interior choice for looks and quality. For exterior doors: steel doors are economical, secure, and energy-efficient but can dent and may rust if damaged; fiberglass doors are durable, low-maintenance, energy-efficient, and can mimic wood grain, making them a popular long-term value; and solid wood exterior doors are beautiful and high-end but cost the most and need more maintenance against weather. Glass content (in entry, French, and patio doors) adds cost and affects energy efficiency, so look for insulated/Low-E glass on exterior units. This calculator offers builder-grade, mid-range, and premium tiers so you can see how material quality affects the price; choose based on the door's location, how much you value durability and looks, and your budget.

It depends on the scope of the work and your local rules. Simply replacing an existing door with a new one of the same size in the same opening (a like-for-like swap) usually does NOT require a permit in most areas, since you're not changing the structure. However, cutting a new door opening, enlarging an existing opening, or adding a door where there wasn't one before typically DOES require a permit, because it involves altering the wall framing and possibly load-bearing structure — a header must be properly sized and installed, and the work may need inspection. Exterior door changes that affect the building envelope sometimes have requirements too, and if the wall is load-bearing, an engineer or permit is more likely needed. Rules vary by municipality, so check with your local building department, especially for any new or resized opening. A licensed contractor will know the local requirements and can pull permits if needed. This calculator's 'cut a new opening' option reflects the added cost of that more involved work, which is where permits most often come into play.

It varies by door type and installation method, but most door installations are relatively quick. A simple interior door — especially a pre-hung unit replacing an existing one — can often be installed in 1 to 2 hours, so an installer might do several interior doors in a day. A slab door that needs custom fitting (mortising hinges, boring for hardware) to an existing frame can take a bit longer per door for the precise work. An exterior entry door typically takes 2 to 4 hours because of the careful fitting, weather-sealing, and hardware installation required. French doors and sliding patio doors take longer still — often half a day or more each — due to their size, weight, glass, and the precision needed for smooth operation and proper sealing. Cutting a brand-new opening adds substantial time because of the framing, header installation, and finishing work, potentially turning it into a multi-day job. Painting or staining, if included, adds drying time. Your installer can give a specific timeline based on the number of doors, their types, and whether any new openings are involved.