Doors and windows
Interior door installation cost
One pre-hung hollow-core door, fitted, cased, painted and with a lever, is about $669 — and every door after it on the same visit is about $492, so ten are $5,093. A slab in the old frame is the cheaper piece and the dearer hour at $492; solid core is $856; a bifold $538; a barn door $923; a pocket door $1,948, because it is a wall job with a door in it. This prices each kind per door, counts the doors, and adds the paint every quote forgets.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-23 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Interior door installation cost calculator
The door, and how many
A slab keeps the old jamb and costs chisel time. A pre-hung unit replaces it and costs casing. A pocket door costs a wall. And every door after the first is cheaper on the same visit.
Door, jamb and hinges as one unit, set in the rough opening and shimmed square. The old casing comes off and new goes on, and the door closes properly for the first time in years.
A second on the same visit: $492.
Lever or knob, and hinges where the door needs them.
Off the hinges, two coats each side.
Replacing a door in an existing opening.
A carpenter, by the hour plus the trip.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
1 pre-hung, hollow core door
$669
$669 a door · 2.2 h
The second door is the cheap one
The first door carries the trip charge and the setup; every door after it is the hours alone, at a better pace. A second door on this visit would be $492, not $669.
Hollow or solid
$170 a door for the sound of a wall.
A hollow-core door weighs a third of a solid one and sounds like it. Bedrooms and bathrooms are where the difference is heard every night; closets and the pantry are where hollow is fine. Three hinges on a solid door, not two.
One opening, nine doors
Each kind of door in the same opening, fitted, one door with the trip charge.
What to buy, and what the visit costs
- 1 × pre-hung, hollow core
Door, jamb and hinges as one unit, set in the rough opening and shimmed square. The old casing comes off and new goes on, and the door closes properly for the first time in years.$170 - Hardware, 1 door
A passage or privacy lever or knob per door. Pre-hung units come bored, not fitted. Three hinges for a solid door; slabs reuse the old ones if they match.$52 - Casing, both sides
Casing both sides of a pre-hung unit, cut, nailed, filled and caulked.$48 - Painting, 1 door
Doors arrive primed, not painted, and a door painted hanging shows every drip. Off the hinges, on horses, two coats each side: an hour a door, and worth having the painter do the lot at once.$60 - 2.2 hours of a carpenter
Door, jamb and hinges as one unit, set in the rough opening and shimmed square.$187 - Trip charge
Shared by every door on the visit.$140 - The old doors away
Hollow doors are light; solid ones are not.$12
What it costs
National average. 1 pre-hung, hollow core door, painted, with hardware. Not included: a bearing-wall header for a new opening, matching stain on old trim, or flooring repairs where a wall came out.
The casing around a pre-hung unit is priced by the foot with the rest of the trim on the baseboard page; the doors to the outside, where the frame is the whole question, on the exterior door page.
Worth knowing
- Hollow core is $170 a door less than solid core, and it sounds like it — a bedroom or bathroom door is the place to spend the difference. Everywhere else, the closets and the pantry, hollow is fine.
- One door is $669, of which $140 is the trip. A second door on the same visit is about $492. If there are others in the house that stick or rattle, this is the visit.
- Doors arrive primed, not painted, and a door painted hanging shows every drip. Off the hinges, on horses, two coats each side: an hour a door, and worth having the painter do the lot at once.
On this page — 5 sections
The cheap door is the dear job
The short version
- One door $669; every door after it $492. Ten are $5,093.
- A slab is the cheaper piece and the dearer hour. $492 fitted against $669 pre-hung.
- Solid core is $170 a door for the sound of a wall. Bedrooms and bathrooms.
- A pocket door is a wall job. $1,948, most of it drywall.
A slab is a door with nothing attached, and it is the cheapest thing in the aisle. It also has to match the jamb it is going into — width, height, which side the hinges are on, exactly where they are, where the latch bores — or be chiselled to suit, which is an hour and more of mortising per door. A pre-hung unit costs more as a piece, arrives square in its own jamb with the hinges already on, and goes in with shims and a level in less time. Fitted, the pre-hung door is the cheaper door, and it closes properly.
The slab wins only where the casing cannot be touched: tile run up to the trim, a stained casing nobody can match. Everywhere else, buy the unit.
| Slab in the old frame | Pre-hung unit | |
|---|---|---|
| The door | $75 | $170 |
| Hours | 1.8, chisel work | 2.2, shims and casing |
| Fitted, painted, with a lever | $492 | $669 |
| Solid core, the same | $624 | $856 |
| What you get | The old jamb, the old gap | A square jamb, new casing |
MaterialsEstimator, Interior door installation price survey · checked 2026-09-23
The second door is the cheap one
The first door pays for the visit: the trip charge, the tools out, the horses set up. Every door after it is the hours alone, and the hours get shorter as the carpenter finds the rhythm of the house. One pre-hung door is $669; the second is $492; ten are $5,093, or $509 each. The painter works the same way, with every door on horses in the garage at once.
Which is why the list matters. Every door in the house that sticks, rattles, is hollow where it should not be or dated where it is seen goes on the same visit — and the tenth costs about three quarters of what the second did.
$669
One door
$140 of it the trip
$492
The second door
Same visit
$509
Each of ten
$5,093 all in
20%
Faster per door
After the first
Masonite / JELD-WEN / Johnson Hardware, Interior pre-hung door, bifold and pocket door frame installation instructions · checked 2026-09-23
Which door for which opening
A swinging door needs the floor it swings over; where that is a problem, the opening decides the door. A closet takes a bifold — the whole closet open, a track that is the part that fails — or a bypass pair, half open at a time and nothing in the room. A room a swing would block takes a barn door if there is clear wall beside the opening, and it does not seal; or a pocket door if there is a wall to open, and it is a wall job.
| Door | The piece | Hours | One, fitted | Each of ten |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slab, hollow core | $75 | 1.8 | $492 | $338 |
| Slab, solid core | $190 | 2 | $624 | $467 |
| Pre-hung, hollow core | $170 | 2.2 | $669 | $509 |
| Pre-hung, solid core | $340 | 2.4 | $856 | $693 |
| Pre-hung, solid wood | $620 | 2.4 | $1,226 | $1,063 |
| Bifold | $160 | 1.5 | $538 | $389 |
| Bypass sliding | $220 | 1.6 | $606 | $456 |
| Barn door | $520 | 2.5 | $923 | $758 |
| Pocket door | $420 | 10 | $1,948 | $1,669 |
Fitted, with hardware and paint. The pocket door’s hours are the wall.
Before the carpenter comes
On the list
- Every door in the house that sticks, rattles or is dated — on the same visit.
- Slab or pre-hung, decided by whether the casing can come off. Pre-hung unless it cannot.
- Solid core for bedrooms and bathrooms; hollow for closets and the pantry.
- The hand of each door, standing on the side it swings towards: hinges left or right.
- Widths: 30 or 32 in for rooms, 24 to 30 for closets. A 36 in door where a walker might ever pass.
- Hardware chosen and bought — pre-hung units come bored, not fitted.
- Paint: the doors off the hinges and on horses, all at once, and the painter booked for the day after the carpenter.
A pre-hung unit goes in with shims behind every hinge and at the strike, a level on the hinge jamb, and a gap that is even all the way round before the casing hides it. That gap is the whole job; a door that binds at the top was shimmed at the bottom.
What goes wrong
01Buying slabs to save money
Each has to match the old jamb or be mortised to it. Fitted, a slab is $492 and a pre-hung unit $669 — and the slab keeps the old gap.
Instead — Pre-hung, unless the casing genuinely cannot be touched.
02One door at a time
Each visit is a trip charge and a setup. Ten doors on ten visits cost nearly twice ten doors on one.
Instead — Every door on the list on one visit: $509 a door instead of $669.
03Hollow core on a bedroom
It sounds like a cardboard box because it is one, every night, for twenty years.
Instead — Solid core: $170 a door more.
04Two hinges on a solid door
Three times the weight on the same two hinges, and the door sags at the latch in a year.
Instead — Three hinges, and a pre-hung solid unit comes with them.
05A pocket door priced as a door
The door is $420; the wall is $380 and 10 hours.
Instead — Price it as $1,948, and use it where a swing would block the room.
06A barn door on a shared bathroom
It does not seal: sound, light and steam go round the edges.
Instead — A pocket door there; the barn door on a pantry or an office.
07Painting the doors hanging
Every drip runs, the edges are missed, and the hinges get painted.
Instead — Off the hinges, on horses, two coats each side — $60 a door for the painter to do the lot.
08Shimming top and bottom only
The jamb bows between the shims, the door binds at the latch, and the gap is uneven for ever.
Instead — Shims behind every hinge and at the strike, and the gap even all round before the casing.
- 01Count them allEvery door on the visit after the first is cheaper. Sticking, hollow, dated, missing — list them.
- 02Decide slab or pre-hungIf the casing can come off and go back, pre-hung: it arrives square and costs less to fit. Slab only where the trim cannot be touched.
- 03Hollow or solid by the roomSolid for bedrooms and bathrooms, where the sound is heard every night. Hollow for closets and the pantry.
- 04Match the door to the openingClosets get bifold or bypass; a room a swing would block gets a barn door if there is wall, or a pocket door if there is a wall to open.
- 05Add the paintDoors arrive primed. Off the hinges, two coats each side — an hour a door for a painter, and the lot at once.
- 06Book one visitThe trip charge and the setup are paid once. The tenth door costs about three quarters of the second.
Where the frame is the whole question — slab or pre-hung, and the sill under it — priced the same way on the exterior door page.
The doors to the outside- Slab
- The door alone, no frame or hinges. Hung in the existing jamb, which it has to match in size, hand, hinge positions and lock bore — or be mortised to.
- Pre-hung
- Door, jamb and hinges as one unit, hung at the factory. Set in the rough opening, shimmed square, and cased both sides.
- Hollow core
- A cardboard honeycomb between two thin skins. Light, cheap, and it sounds hollow because it is.
- Solid core
- A particleboard or composite core in the same skins. Three times the weight, the sound of a wall, three hinges.
- Solid wood
- Stile-and-rail construction in real wood, stained or painted. Moves a little with the seasons; the door people notice.
- Casing
- The trim around the door on both sides of the wall, covering the gap between jamb and drywall. New with every pre-hung unit.
- Hand
- Which side the hinges are on and which way the door swings. A slab of the wrong hand has its hinge mortises on the wrong edge.
- Mortise
- The recess chiselled into a door's edge for a hinge or a strike. Matching them to an old jamb is the slab's chisel work.
- Bifold
- Two panels hinged together, hanging from a top track and folding to one side. The closet door.
- Bypass
- Two panels on parallel tracks sliding past each other. Half the closet open at a time; nothing swings out.
- Barn door
- A slab on a rail above the opening, sliding along the face of the wall. Needs wall beside the opening; does not seal.
- Pocket door
- A door sliding into a cavity in the wall, on a frame kit that goes in before the drywall. In an existing wall, the drywall comes off.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to install an interior door?
- About $669 for one pre-hung hollow-core door, fitted, cased, painted and with a lever — of which $140 is the trip charge. Every door after it on the same visit is about $492, so ten doors are $5,093, or $509 a door. A slab in the old frame is $492, solid core $856, a bifold $538, a pocket door $1,948.
- What is the labour cost to install an interior door?
- About $187 for a pre-hung unit — 2.2 hours — plus a $140 trip charge that every door on the visit shares. A slab is 1.8 hours of chisel work at the hinges and strike, $153; a bifold 1.5 hours; a pocket door 10 hours, because the wall comes apart. On ten doors the labour is $1,533 — $153 a door, because the first door's setup is paid once.
- Slab or pre-hung: which is cheaper?
- The slab is the cheaper door — $75 against $170 — and the dearer hour: it has to match the old jamb's size, hand, hinge positions and lock bore, or be mortised to suit. Fitted, a slab is $492 and a pre-hung unit $669, and the pre-hung one arrives square in a new jamb and closes properly. Buy the slab only where the casing cannot be disturbed — tile up to the trim, a stained casing that cannot be matched.
- Hollow core or solid core?
- $170 a door for the difference between a door that sounds hollow and one that sounds like a wall: $856 against $669 fitted. Solid for bedrooms and bathrooms, where it is heard every night and the weight helps it close; hollow for closets, the pantry and the laundry. Solid wood — $1,226 — is the look, stained or painted, and it moves a little with the seasons.
- How much does a pocket door cost to install?
- About $1,948 in an existing wall — the door and frame kit are $420, and the rest is the wall: drywall off one side, the switch and wiring moved out of the pocket, the frame in, the wall closed, taped, mudded and painted. 10 hours a door. It is the small door that costs the most, and it earns it where a swing would block a bathroom or a hallway. In a wall being built anyway, it is a frame kit and an hour.
- How much does a barn door cost?
- About $923 — a $520 door-and-rail set and 2.5 hours to fix the rail into studs or a header board. It needs clear wall beside the opening as wide as the door, and it does not seal: sound, light and steam go round the edges, which rules it out for a shared bathroom. Where the wall is there, it is the quickest way to close an opening that a swing could not.
- How much do closet doors cost?
- A bifold — two panels folding to one side — about $538 fitted and painted; a bypass pair on parallel tracks $606. The bifold opens the whole closet and the track is what fails, so buy the one with metal pivots; the bypass opens half at a time and nothing swings into the room.
- How much does it cost to replace all the interior doors in a house?
- Ten pre-hung hollow-core doors, fitted, cased, painted and with levers: about $5,093, or $509 a door — against $669 for one. The first door pays the trip charge and the setup; every door after it is the hours alone, at a better pace, and the painter does the lot on horses in the garage. Solid core throughout adds about $1,830.
- Do new doors need painting?
- Yes. They arrive primed, not painted, and a door painted hanging shows every drip. Off the hinges, on horses, two coats each side: about $60 a door for a painter, $669 against $609 for one door fitted. Solid wood is stained and varnished, about $150 a door.
- Can I install an interior door myself?
- A pre-hung unit is the friendliest carpentry there is: $288 of door, hardware, casing and paint for one, $2,880 for ten. Shims behind the hinges until the gap is even all round, a level on the hinge jamb, casing cut at 45 degrees. A slab is chisel work at three fittings; a bifold is a track and twenty minutes; a pocket door is drywall and a weekend.
- How much does it cost to add a door where there is a wall?
- About $1,799 for a pre-hung hollow-core door in a new opening in a non-bearing interior wall: a header even though the wall carries nothing, the studs cut, drywall to the new jambs both sides, and the floor that was under the wall. In a bearing wall the header is sized to the load above it, and that is an engineer's question.
- What size are interior doors?
- Bedrooms and bathrooms are usually 30 or 32 in wide, closets 24 to 30, and 80 in tall; a pre-hung unit wants a rough opening 2 in wider and about 2.5 in taller. A 36 in door is the accessible width, and the one to fit if anybody will ever use a walker in the house.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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