Included, and what it is not
- ✓ Check the opening, the cill and the lintel that is already there
- ✓ Set the frame plumb and packed
- ✓ Hang the leaf, fit hinges and the lock
- ✓ Fit weather seals and the threshold
- ✓ Check the lock throws and the door clears the floor
Ways this job is specified
Composite entrance
A skinned slab with a multi-point lock. Most of the price is the door set. Fitting is the frame, the lock keeps and the threshold.
Timber entrance
Can be trimmed to an older opening. Needs paint or stain on all edges, especially the bottom, or it rots from the end grain.
uPVC residential
Usually a frame-and-sash set. The opening has to suit the frame; you do not plane a uPVC sash like softwood.
Stable and glazed back doors
Heavier, and the glass stays in the leaf we hang. We are not a glazier for a misted unit in an old door.
On the day
01
Survey the opening
Width, height, how square it is, and whether the cill and the frame feet are rotten. A new leaf in a rotten frame will not stay weather-tight.
02
Frame and leaf
Pack the frame, fix it, hang the door, and line the multi-point lock up with the keeps. Seals and the threshold go in before we leave, not as a second visit.
03
Lock and water
Throw every bolt, shut the door on the seal, and check the outside cill sheds water away from the floor.
What changes the price
Labour to hang an external door is typically £150–£350, on top of the door, and more if the frame is rotten and has to come out. A uPVC or timber entrance door supplied and fitted often lands between £600 and £1,500. Composite supply and fit commonly starts around £900 and runs past £2,000 for a larger or glazed set. Coastal sites cost more in time because the cill and the ironmongery have to suit salt. The written quote is based on the door you choose, whether the frame stays, and access.
Symptoms people search
A draught at the floor is usually a tired threshold seal or a door that has dropped, not “the letterbox”. A multi-point lock that will not throw means the frame has racked or the door has dropped — forcing the handle bends the mechanism. Blackened or soft timber at the bottom of the frame means the frame needs replacing with the door. Condensation between panes in a glazed door is a failed unit, which is a reason to replace the leaf rather than to plane it.
Before and after the hang
Clear the hall side so the old door can come off without marking the floor. If you are supplying the door, it needs to be on site and dry. After fitting, do not slam a door against a new seal for the first day while the frame fixings settle, and wipe salt off coastal hinges rather than letting it pit them. Painted timber needs the bottom edge coated; that is the edge rain sits on.
What fails later
The slab can last decades. Seals, hinges and locks are the parts that wear. On a coastal elevation, plated hinges and cheap threshold seals fail in a few winters. Timber left unpainted on the end grain rots upwards from the cill. A composite door fails at the lock and the seal long before the skin looks tired.
Doing it yourself
A back door in a square timber frame is the most realistic DIY external job, and it is still easy to twist the frame so the lock never lines up. Composite, uPVC and glazed entrance sets are a fitter’s job: they are heavy, the locks are unforgiving, and a gap at the cill lets water in. We fit them. We do not fit the windows either side.
Outside this job
- We do not fit windows, up-and-over garage doors or electric gates
- We do not install a new structural lintel; a builder does that before we hang the door
- We do not claim a security certificate the door set does not already have
- A night-time lockout on an otherwise sound door is a locksmith visit
Questions about external door installation
A straightforward leaf in a sound frame is often half a day. A rotten frame, a non-square opening or a multi-point lock that has to be reset takes longer. The house is not left with an open doorway overnight.
Yes, if the set matches the opening and the frame is part of the kit or the existing frame is sound. Measure before you buy. A slab that is already too small cannot be packed out to look right.
French doors and sliding patio doors have their own pages. This page is single entrance and back doors.
If the cill is soft or the frame is twisted, a new leaf still draughts and the lock will not throw. Frame replacement is a separate job and is priced that way.
It will if the threshold seal, the frame and the lock all meet. A new slab on a rotten cill will not.
Yes. The old leaf and, if it is being replaced, the frame, leave with us. We do not leave them in the garden.
Other door jobs
Quote for external door installation
Say how many doors, whether you have already bought them, and the town. We reply with a written quote.