What is a reasonable cost for replacing an exterior door & repair frame?
It all depends on where you live, the kind of door you want, the material, and the labor charges if you get it done professionally. We’ve also been thinking of getting a new entry door – the one we have is in a very bad shape. We’ve read hordes of reviews online and found positive reviews about Champion Windows and Doors. Thinking of calling them for a free estimate – let’s see how that goes! You can save money if you’re a DIY kind of guy, but if not, it’s best left to the experts!
Depends on who does the work and where the material comes from. If you scout out the material yourself and do some of the tear down and check for rot, you can save a lot. Also, I am low income so have become good at finding low cost ways to get things done….if you contact a lot of repair people and ask if they would work for less in their off season or when they don’t have enough work, they will sometimes work for half the usual wage. Also, if you can find someone who is just a handy man and not a full fledged contractor, as long as you get refs and talk a lot about the work with them to make sure they know what they are doing, they often work for far less….good luck.
If you are asking here, i’m guessing you don’t know the carpenter. Get a couple of estimates not just one. This will give you a better idea of price in your area. Where i live, standard installation of new construction exterior door (pre-hung door which includes door, frame, jam, threshold and new lock set) is 300-500. If you call a large home center in your area, they should be able to tell you what they charge for standard intall. Once you have std install price, the main price difference will be the quality/price of the door and how much extra work needs to be done because of the condition of the existing opening. Ask carpenter for details of what he feels needs to be done and what is included in his installation and compare that with all other estimates.
The cost of the door (plus markup) plus $400 to $600 for labor would be some what reasonable unless there is other damage (water damage, rot) that needs to be repaired. Replacing a door isn’t extremely difficult but it is best done with two people (although I have done it alone very succesfully). It shouldn’t take a two man team more that have a day to replace it if they are experienced.
Most new doors have a new jamb so there wont be any repair work on the old one ,if the framing is bad behind the jamb this will cost you a little more (sheet rock,studs texture, paint, an poss ably some siding) . Most good carpenters get 20 t25 $ an hour an worst case this should only take one day or 8 hours s about 200.
