Internal Door Fitting Costs UK — What to Charge to Hang Doors in 2026

Hanging a Door vs Fitting a Complete Door Set

The single biggest pricing mistake is treating every door job as the same job. There are two very different pieces of work, and the customer often does not understand the difference — so it is on you to make it clear in the quote.

Hanging a door means fitting a door leaf into a frame or lining that already exists and is sound. You trim the door to size, fit the hinges, mortise the latch, hang it and adjust the gaps. The frame stays put. This is the quick job.

Fitting a complete door set means supplying and installing the whole assembly: the door leaf, a new lining or frame, the architrave around it, doorstops and the ironmongery. This is what you need when a frame is rotten, out of square, the wrong size, or when there was no door there before. It can take three to four times as long as a straight hang, and it needs a second-fix carpenter who can scribe, plumb and make good. Quote them as separate things, always.

What's Involved in Hanging a Door

A clean door hang into an existing lining sounds simple, but there are five distinct steps and each one is where a botched job shows:

• Trimming and planing to fit: doors come oversized so you can shave them to the opening. You trim top and bottom (watch the lippings on engineered doors — there is a limit to how much you can take off before you hit the hollow core) and plane the hanging and closing stiles for a consistent gap.
• Hinges: mark and chisel the hinge recesses on both the door edge and the lining, then hang on two or three hinges. Heavier solid and fire doors need three.
• Latch and lock mortising: drill and chisel the mortise for the tubular latch, bore the spindle and handle holes, and fit the strike plate to the frame so it lines up cleanly.
• Hanging: offer the door up, screw off the hinges and check the swing.
• Adjusting: ease any tight spots, set even 2–4mm gaps all round, make sure it latches without slamming and does not drop on the floor covering.

A confident carpenter hangs a standard door into a good existing lining in well under an hour. Build that into your day rate rather than the per-door price when you are doing several in one visit.

Door Types: Hollow, Solid and Engineered

The door the customer chooses changes both your material cost and the labour, so it is worth knowing what you are hanging.

Hollow-core doors

The cheapest option — a lightweight frame with cardboard honeycomb inside and a thin facing. Material cost is often £25–£60 a door. They are light to hang but easy to damage, and you have very little timber to trim before you break through into the void, so measure twice.

Solid-core and solid timber doors

Heavier, better for sound and a more solid feel. A solid-core flush or panelled door typically runs £60–£200, oak veneer more. They take three hinges, are harder to plane and need a steadier hand — price the extra labour in.

Engineered doors

Most quality internal doors today are engineered — a stable timber core with a real-wood veneer and proper lippings (the solid timber edge strip). The lippings tell you how much you can safely trim; once it is gone, you risk exposing the core. These are the most common doors you will fit on a decent renovation and hang well, but respect the trimming limits printed on the manufacturer's label.

Fire Doors (FD30 and FD60)

Fire doors are where internal door work gets serious. Since the Building Safety reforms following Grenfell, and with growing scrutiny of HMOs and flats, more landlords and managing agents are required to fit and maintain certified fire doors — and they are willing to pay for it done properly.

An FD30 door resists fire for 30 minutes; an FD60 for 60. But the door leaf is only part of it. A fire door is a certified assembly — leaf, frame, intumescent and smoke seals, the correct ironmongery and the right installation gaps — and it only performs if every element is to spec:

• Intumescent strips: fitted into the door edge or frame, they expand in heat to seal the gap. Combined intumescent and cold-smoke brush seals are common.
• Correct gaps: typically a consistent 2–4mm around the leaf — too tight and it binds, too loose and it fails certification.
• Certified ironmongery: CE/UKCA-marked hinges (usually three), fire-rated latches, and a self-closer where required so the door actually shuts.
• No over-trimming: fire doors have strict limits on how much can be removed before certification is void.

Fitting fire doors correctly matters because it is a legal obligation under Building Regulations (Approved Document B) and landlord fire-safety duties, not just good practice. If you fit fire doors, keep a record of the door reference, the seals and ironmongery used, and photographs of the gaps — that documentation protects you and is exactly the kind of compliance evidence a managing agent will ask for. Charge for it. A correctly certified FD30 install is skilled, accountable work, not a quick swap.

Frames, Linings and Architrave

When the existing frame is no good, you are fitting a lining. An internal door lining is the timber box that lines the opening and carries the door; the doorstop is the strip the door closes against; the architrave is the moulding that covers the join between lining and wall.

Fitting a new lining means cutting it to the opening, plumbing and squaring it, fixing it without it bowing, packing behind it so it stays true, then mitring and pinning the architrave both sides. On older properties with out-of-square openings and uneven plaster this is real scribing work, and it is where a complete door set earns its higher price. Add making good — filling, caulking the architrave and leaving it ready for the decorator — and you are easily into a half-day per opening.

Ironmongery: Hinges, Handles, Latches and Locks

Ironmongery is the easiest place to either add value or quietly lose money. The basics:

• Hinges: two for a light door, three for solid and fire doors. Quality matters — cheap hinges sag.
• Handles: lever-on-rose or lever-on-backplate, in finishes from chrome to matt black to brass. The customer's choice drives the material cost far more than the door does.
• Latches: a standard tubular latch for most doors, often a 76mm or 100mm case.
• Locks: bathroom doors take a privacy bolt and turn-and-release; a bedroom or study may want a sashlock with key.

Decide early whether you supply the ironmongery or the customer does. If they buy it, make clear in writing that you fit what they provide and cannot guarantee a mismatched or poor-quality set. If you supply it, mark it up — sourcing, collecting and standing behind it is part of the service.

What Affects the Quote

Two door jobs that look identical on paper can be hours apart in reality. Check these before you commit a price:

• Number of doors: doing six in one visit is far more efficient per door than one — batch and discount accordingly without dropping your day rate.
• Door type: hollow, solid or fire all hang differently and carry different material costs.
• New frame vs existing: a straight hang into a good lining is quick; a new lining and architrave is a different job entirely.
• Fire-door spec: certification, seals and documentation add real time — price it as skilled work.
• Ironmongery: who supplies it, and how fancy the customer's chosen handles are.
• Making good and decoration: are you leaving it ready to paint, or is the decorator following you? Filling and caulking takes time.
• Access and floor levels: new carpet or LVT going in afterwards changes the gap you leave at the bottom — confirm before you cut.

How Trades Price This: Per Door vs Day Rate

There are two sensible ways to price internal door work, and the right one depends on volume.

Per door works well for one-off jobs and for clear, repeatable work — a customer wants three doors hung into existing frames, you quote a price each. It is easy for the customer to understand and easy to compare. The risk is underpricing the awkward ones, so inspect first and price the actual openings, not a description over the phone.

Day rate works better when you are fitting several doors, building door sets, or working on a renovation where the openings vary. A carpenter day rate of £200–£320 is typical across much of the UK in 2026, higher in London and the South East. If you can hang five to six straightforward doors in a day, a day rate often nets you more than pricing each at the low per-door figure customers expect.

Batching is the quiet profit lever. Setting up once, planing several doors in sequence and working through a set of identical openings is far quicker per door than isolated visits. When you quote a whole house of doors, your per-door cost drops — keep that efficiency as margin rather than handing all of it to the customer.

To price profitably over time you need to know which jobs actually paid. Tracking what each door job earned against the hours it took — and which enquiries came from which source — is where a tool like Trade2Base helps: it ties each completed job back to the quote and the marketing that brought it in, so you can see whether door work is carrying its weight or just keeping you busy.

Quick Reference: Internal Door Fitting Prices UK 2026

These are labour ranges — add the cost of the door, lining, architrave and ironmongery on top, and expect London and the South East to sit above them. Always inspect the openings before quoting; a description over the phone hides the out-of-square frames and rotten linings that turn a quick hang into a half-day.