I need to price an interior door installation.

[mikeangelini]

Hello,
I have been asked by someone I know to install 12 interior doors. I do work on the side for friends and family, etc. I need to come up with a fair price to charge.

The house is an old Philadelphia row home. Some of the jambs are in OK shape, and others may need to be replaced with a new pre-hung door. I was hoping to just change out the doors itself on ones with better looking jambs. Mortise the hinges and bore the know holes, etc. I have done this in the past with decent results.

On some doors, there are 2 extra layers or more of sheathing (paneling, drywall, even 19/32 plywood) covering the outside edges of the jamb. It seems the walls were covered over and over again throughout the years. In order to put in a new pre-hung door, I would need to cut away those layers, and later put in some ripped 1X to build out the wall width, and then re-trim inside and out. This will be more work and materials, but will yield a much nicer looking finished door. I was thinking of letting the homeowner decide which ones need to be ripped apart, and which jambs are nice enough to cleanup and just replace the door.

The question here is what to charge him for each type of install, entire pre-hung door, buildout, and trim. Or just putting in a new door and boring the knob holes. This will also present some challenges as well lining things up and making it work perfectly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Mike Angelini

[statjunk]

You may get all kinds of interesting answers. It really depends on the job. I can tell you that I would charge more for having to mortise the hinges and what not than I would to just hand a new pre-hung door. Less liability, less trouble and less headache.

One thing to consider is how clean and neat is the job expected to be. Is the house a construction site that you can come and go as you please? etc...etc....

To hang a pre-hung door, including removal of the old door and trim. I charge $100. I will fur the jam out for trim installation and install the door handle but that's it. No trim or anything else. If I were doing the same thing in a house that was under massive construction my price could drop down to $75. This of course is with multiple doors. One door wouldn't be worth the time to even drive over.

Tom

[mikeangelini]

Thanks for your reply Tom. If there are multiple layers of sheathing on top of the old jamb that you had to cut away, but not too much where the trim wouldn't cover it, would it still be $100? When you say 'fur out the jamb', are you referring to building out the jamb so the molding has a place to be nailed into? What if I did that and also trimmed out the door? $100, or more then?

Thanks for all your help,
Mike

[hj]

First figure out how long it will take you, then how much you would like to make per hour. We don't know how fast, or slow, you work, so our numbers would not apply to you.

[Cass]

If all the doors need the same amount of work, I would do 1 for $100.00 or what ever you want to be a trial price then based on the time it takes you can give them 1 price for the rest of the doors.

[frenchie]

First figure out how long it will take you, then how much you would like to make per hour. We don't know how fast, or slow, you work, so our numbers would not apply to you.

What he said. Discussing price, over the internet, with people who don't know each other, about jobs they haven't seen, is completely pointless.

If you're not confident of your ability to estimate it accurately, do it T & M.

[crater]

Amen frenchie, And you'll probally keep a friend this way also. I've been bidding work for 12yrs and still can get into some that I WISH I could do T&M.

[AZ Contractor]

Ditto what HJ said.

I would rip out the old doors and jambs. Sawzall off the additional sheathing and paneling and put new jambs (per-hung door), jamb extension and trim.

That would yield the nicest result. This is a LOT more work then just replacing the door. You may have flooring issues if you do it this way. Also measure the doors to make sure a pre-hung would actually fit without having to get them custom made. Without paint figure about 1 1/2 hours per door and charge if you have to haul them off.

Just swapping out the old doors for new ones I would figure 45 minutes per door, without paint, plus haul off.


How much do you charge per hour?

Now if your speed = my speed I can easily calculate how much to charge, add additional fees for overhead, profit and taxes.

[jimbo]

Based on wall issues, look for prehung split jamb doors