Joinery charges - £150 to fit an internal door??

[Eastie77Returns]

I need to have 3 internal bedroom doors fitted. The first tradesman I contacted quoted me £500. I dismissed him as a chancer and asked a couple of other joiners for quotes. They have come back with £150 and £180 per door. I'm shocked. I haven't used this kind of service before but was expecting something in the range of £70 per door.

Can I ask anyone who is London/SE based and has paid to have doors hung recently, how much did you pay? The doors are only £100 each so these prices to get them installed just seem crazy.

Lol I got quoted £800 for 3 doors! Having seen one fitted previously by a carpenter in about 2 hours, they were utter chancers. Started watching Youtube videos pretty quickly after that - it's not impossible, just fiddly and a learning curve.

For £150 a door I’d have a steady day fitting one and be quids in 🙂

I received a quote yesterday from a Door Fitting specialist company. It was £2.2k including VAT for 3 doors, hinges and handles etc. The doors were about £120 each. Lol.

I went back to the shop I had originally decided to buy the doors from to order and pay for them. I noticed they provide a Supply and Fit service so asked for a quote and it was £620...

So back to initial plan to get a tradesperson in. My street WhatsApp group put me in contact with a Joiner who has done a lot of work for various neighbours. It's £120 per door which at this point I've accepted is very reasonable and probably the best I'm going to get! He is booked solid for the next 2-3 weeks which I took as a good sign.

Thanks all for the advice. Still can't get over the regional difference in costs for the same type of work. I think I need to take the MN standard advice whenever anyone complains about costs and "just move up North".😂

Not necessarily. If the doors have 'rising butt' hinges, they are supposed to self-close.
I'm shocked at some of the costs here, you could buy all the tools to do the job, do it yourself, and still have change and all the tools for next time. Some of the charges are high but I suppose fair, but the others- well, best I can say it that it's a heavy cost for those not able to do it themselves.

Rising butt hinges are primarily used when the floor is out of level (upwards) as the door opens and the bottom of the door catches on the floor or there is a thick floor covering on the floor. Normal hinges will work in these circumstances but it will require a big gap under the door when it’s closed.

And they will only close the door to,not close it on the latch.

Hanging doors ( well ) is not really a diy job , it takes time to learn how to do it properly.

I paid £265 recently to have 4 doors hung which included one which I needed to open the opposite way to the previous door. We renovated our whole house last year and he was by far the best out of all the tradesmen we used. We’re also SE so if you’re anywhere near Maidstone I can PM you his details.

Thanks @Startuplife , I’m SE but about 45 miles from Maidstone which I guess is too far.

The joiner who agreed to do the work didn’t turn up on the agreed date and ghosted me for several days. He eventually messaged to say sorry he had doubled booked, has a load of jobs on and is now allegedly coming next week. I said sure, fine. I mean what else can I do - I don’t have tradesman queuing up to do the work so guess I’ll just have to wait and hope he turns up!

Oh what a pain, it’s such a nightmare finding reliable people! I’ve organised a tradesman to come and fix our fence tomorrow but I’ve just realised he hasn’t messaged me since he confirmed the date 3 weeks ago so who knows if he’ll actually be here in the morning!

A joiner on a day rate might not work out much cheaper than the OP's £150 per door.

With a day rate of £280 you either need to find enough jobs to fill a day or hope they agree to fit the door and charge a fraction of a day. When I've employed trades on day rates they've never wanted to break it down into little chunks though. You'd likely end up paying for at least a half day, i.e., £140.

Joiner near me advertises £80 per door to supply and fit! May not be the poshest doors but they look fine in pictures.
Another reason not to live down south!

I don’t live down south, you wouldn’t get a decent door and furniture for £80 , let alone get it fitted .

I don’t understand tradespeople. Since buying and renovating my house I’ve had to do with endless shithousery and mind games from so many of them.

Today the joiner messaged and asked for the address of the workshop where the doors are currently waiting to be picked up. I had asked several times if I should have them delivered but he insisted he would pick them up tomorrow. He then messaged to say there is a problem, the workshop doesn’t open until 9.30 which means he can’t start work until after 10am and he has to stop work at 2pm to go to another appointment. This means he has to do the work over two days which is “not ideal” and a real problem. He wondered why I didn’t tell him before that the workshop opened late. Tbh he sounds as if he doesn’t want to do the job and it’s all a bit of an inconvenience. Which is fine. I get that he might have other jobs that are bigger or more lucrative. But why not just say that instead of wasting my time like this?! I do not expect him to turn up tomorrow and am waiting for the excuses to roll in.

That sounds a bit rubbish. Can't he just collect the doors the day before he installs them?

Ask B&Q or a DIY shop to cut them to the exact size for you - that's the hard bit.

Then either have a go yourself. It's relatively straight forward - you need a sharp chisel to lightly chsel out tge hinge shape - if you use tge same hibges, you wont need to do anything to the frame. It is a bit fiddly to lift the door so you can attach it by the hinge to the frame, so you'll need someone to help or a tool/block of wood the exact height needed to sit the door on it whilst your screw the hinges on.

Or ask for a quote to just chisel out tge hinges and attach the doors. That should bring the price down, though you still need to attach the door handle/nob and closure...

Have you tried hanging one? It's not as easy as it looks , and that is if the door hole is even 'square'

Exactly price anyone will get is prices upon a carpenters look of the frame when he comes to give you a price . New house built on the last 25 years it’s a straight swap . Anything older and it’s door on and off to make it perfect as possible cutting and planing . Don’t under estimate a good door fitting . Handymen can’t fit doors to old frames . You get what you pay for

We paid £150 (North Yorkshire) but it was a fire door and needed a joiner who was qualified to fit it.

I'm a carpenter myself and I can tell you costs for installation vary massively between different carpenters. You'll find different doors yield a different fitting fee too. Cheaper hollow moulded doors are pretty much the cheapest to install, I only charge £50 per hollow door, but when you're talking about solid engineered core doors, so oak veneer or something more decorative, then you can expect to pay a fitting fee that reflects. I charge £50 a door for the hollow moulded doors, £100 for engineered solid core (oak veneer, laminated etc) and fire doors are in the region of £200/£350. But also you are in London, everything is more expensive there so £150 isn't unreasonable

I do some admin for a carpenter, he loathes fitting doors in old houses, customers think its a one hour job and it isnt, its fiddly and takes a lot of time to get it all neat and closing properly etc...it can take a day to get it perfect if frames are wobbly, need filling or inserts fitted etc plus hinges to hang and lock maybe.

Hello

Hello. I'm looking to get some doors hung with new handles etc. would you be happy to give me the details of the person you used if you were happy with them. Many thanks 👍