Buying new doors: getting the supply and the hanging priced together

What the job involves

Door prices are driven by construction and material. Hollow-core internal doors are the budget staple — light, cheap and fine for a cupboard or spare room. Solid-core doors cost more but feel and sound far better, closing with a reassuring weight instead of a rattle. External doors step up again because they're built to handle weather and security hardware, and custom or pivot entry doors in premium timber or aluminium sit at the top.

The supply price is only part of the picture. Hanging a door — trimming it to the opening, fitting the hinges, morticing the lock — typically adds a carpenter's fee per door, and locks and handles are separate again, ranging from budget sets to smart entry hardware. Glass panels, sidelights and decorative profiles all add to the supply cost.

Standard sizes are the quiet saver. A common-size door is cheap and available off the shelf; a non-standard opening pushes even a simple door into made-to-measure pricing with a longer lead time.

How the cost works

A standard internal door sits at the bottom of the range, a quality solid-timber or fibreglass entry door with glazing lands in the middle, and a made-to-measure oversize pivot or double entry door reaches the top. These are supply figures — the estimate on this page adjusts for the number of doors and the quality tier, and hanging and hardware sit on top, so read any number as indicative.

Construction and size drive the supply cost, and hardware is the wild card — a single smart lock can cost more than a budget door. When you're doing several doors, buying them together usually earns a supply discount and cheaper per-door hanging, so it's worth batching internal doors into one order rather than replacing them one at a time.

Choosing supplier and installer

Supplying doors is an unlicensed trade, and hanging them is carpentry — usually unlicensed, though on larger building work it can fall under a builder's licence in some states, so check if the doors are part of a bigger job. Judge the installer on their finish: an evenly gapped door that swings smoothly and latches cleanly is the whole skill.

Measure the existing door and frame before ordering, and take those measurements to the supplier, because standard sizes save real money and avoid a made-to-order wait. For external doors, check the warranty covers weather exposure in your orientation — a harsh western sun warps cheap doors, and a warranty that excludes sun exposure is telling you something.

Mistakes to avoid

Door regrets are usually about forgetting the hanging cost, or ordering an odd size that didn't need to be.

• Budgeting for the door but forgetting hanging and hardware are separate costs
• Ordering a non-standard size when a standard one would have fitted for far less
• Buying the cheapest external door, then watching harsh sun warp it within a season
• Not measuring the existing frame before ordering, and getting a door that doesn't fit
• Replacing internal doors one at a time instead of batching them for a discount
• Skipping the warranty check on weather exposure for entry doors