Home projects

[Jurgis]

I have a specific question, but perhaps this can be a topic for any home project questions/answers.

 

We are looking to replace couple back entry doors.

We are getting quotes in the area of $2.5K-3.5K per door installed (fiberglass Therma Tru / Provia).

 

I have a value investor  8) ;) question: how come a garage door costs ~1.5K installed while entry door is 1K-2K more expensive? Both are doors, garage doors are way larger and IMO more complicated (multi panels), both doors have glass, insulation, etc. Is it just that people are ripping off the entry door customers? Curious value investors want to know.  ;D

[Spekulatius]

I have a specific question, but perhaps this can be a topic for any home project questions/answers.

 

We are looking to replace couple back entry doors.

We are getting quotes in the area of $2.5K-3.5K per door installed (fiberglass Therma Tru / Provia).

 

I have a value investor  8) ;) question: how come a garage door costs ~1.5K installed while entry door is 1K-2K more expensive? Both are doors, garage doors are way larger and IMO more complicated (multi panels), both doors have glass, insulation, etc. Is it just that people are ripping off the entry door customers? Curious value investors want to know.  ;D

 

Seems expensive. I got my front door replaced a couple of years ago for ~1.5k. This was for a larger door (~60” double door with glass). The door cost was ~1.1k ( Home Depot) and installation ~ $400. This was a couple of years ago when contractors were really hungry for jobs. I am hearing nowadays that people get outrageous quotes for all sorts of things.

 

Home Depot also has an installation service, so it’s worth getting A quote from them. A door installation isn’t really a difficult job as long as the size doesn’t change, so even a good handyman might be able to do it.

[Jurgis]

I have a specific question, but perhaps this can be a topic for any home project questions/answers.

 

We are looking to replace couple back entry doors.

We are getting quotes in the area of $2.5K-3.5K per door installed (fiberglass Therma Tru / Provia).

 

I have a value investor  8) ;) question: how come a garage door costs ~1.5K installed while entry door is 1K-2K more expensive? Both are doors, garage doors are way larger and IMO more complicated (multi panels), both doors have glass, insulation, etc. Is it just that people are ripping off the entry door customers? Curious value investors want to know.  ;D

 

Seems expensive. I got my front door replaced a couple of years ago for ~1.5k. This was for a larger door (~60” double door with glass). The door cost was ~1.1k ( Home Depot) and installation ~ $400. This was a couple of years ago when contractors were really hungry for jobs. I am hearing nowadays that people get outrageous quotes for all sorts of things.

 

Home Depot also has an installation service, so it’s worth getting A quote from them. A door installation isn’t really a difficult job as long as the size doesn’t change, so even a good handyman might be able to do it.

 

Thanks for the numbers. Some quotes I got do not split work and doors cost. The one that does has $800 maybe discounted to $400 for work. The door is way more expensive. It's a Provia and it's at ~$2.9K just for the door. Of course, they claim this is way superior to HD door.

What I've seen suggested as OK prices online is $1.5K installed for a-bit-better-than-HD (Therma Tru) door. Haven't found anyone who would give a price close to that though.

 

Anyway, this is helpful.

 

I still wonder why garage doors are so much cheaper.  ;D

[pocoapoco]

You have to separate the price of the door from the install.

 

You can get en entry door for $300 or $6000 depending on how fancy it is or the size, material, thickness, detail, quality, brand etc

And some garage doors are 10k as well.

 

Install should be about $400-500 if it’s a single door and it’s by a pair of decent carpenters because it will take them 2-3 hours, assuming it’s prehung and prebored.  Longer and more $ if they have to do more (mortise, etc).

 

For $2.9k I’m guessing this is a pretty high quality fancy door.

My entry was like $1.4k for a nice stain grade solid pine door with glass panels from a reputable manufacturer.  But the catalog had stuff much higher.

 

I’m building a guest house so been quite involved in these details.  It’s not fun.

[Gregmal]

You can find a $1500 garage door and a $5000 entry door just as easy as you can find a $10,000 garage door and an $800 entry door.

 

The prices will vary but if you shop around you can get to wherever you want on pricing on the hardware. Installation is always where people get fleeced. For certain tasks, such as something like this, I ve had much better luck ordering the part and having it shipped to the house, and then paying a quality handyman any variation of an hourly rate or a per day rate. ($40-$75 per hour and $300-$600 per day would be a reasonable range)

[Spekulatius]

My door was a Home Depot  Fiberglass door back then. I was pretty satisfied with the quality. The door looked similar to this:

https://www.pella.com/doors/half-light-entry-doors/pella/

I also recall I got a bit money back from the utility back then for buying an energy star product.

 

There was a little bit of extra work required to get the door to fit, because my house back then  was build in the 70’s so shoddily that all the frame dimensions were off a bit.

[bizaro86]

I installed a sliding glass patio door this summer. Myself and my wife were able to do the job in 1 afternoon. It wasn't terribly hard, although if I had someone reliable I thought would have done the job for $400 I probably would have done that instead. It was really heavy, so getting it in/level was the hardest part.

[BG2008]

I have "door envy" and I still live like a college freshman in an apartment building. 

[Gregmal]

I have "door envy" and I still live like a college freshman in an apartment building.

 

Whoa whoa whoa... you mean to tell me that as an established fund manager with a real business you don’t live in a giant mansion paid for by extracting fees from people?? All jokes aside it’s refreshing every once in a while running into someone in the financial industry who isn’t a totally selfish piece of shit only concerned with stuffing as much money as possible into their pockets. Cuz it’s like 98.5% of them.

[Jurgis]

You have to separate the price of the door from the install.

 

You can get en entry door for $300 or $6000 depending on how fancy it is or the size, material, thickness, detail, quality, brand etc

And some garage doors are 10k as well.

 

Install should be about $400-500 if it’s a single door and it’s by a pair of decent carpenters because it will take them 2-3 hours, assuming it’s prehung and prebored.  Longer and more $ if they have to do more (mortise, etc).

 

For $2.9k I’m guessing this is a pretty high quality fancy door.

My entry was like $1.4k for a nice stain grade solid pine door with glass panels from a reputable manufacturer.  But the catalog had stuff much higher.

 

I’m building a guest house so been quite involved in these details.  It’s not fun.

 

Thanks.

 

Some estimates do not split the price of the door and the price of the work. And they don't specify the door model/number/extras exactly, so it's tough to lookup just the door price and subtract. I have a feeling that they are charging way too much for either door or work, but I can't prove that without being able to price compare the materials.

 

At least the 2.8K door-only guy tells directly that the door is 2.8K. So I know he's not overpricing the work and can decide whether he's overpricing the door.

 

Most installers don't (like to) install prepurchased doors. So you can't split door/install cost that way easily either.

 

I guess I could go Spekulatius way: buy the door at HD and get HD install service. This has some drawbacks too.

[Spekulatius]

I bought the door myself and had a handyman install it. I also had the issue that the price most contractors charge wasn’t transparent as they both had a margin on the door and Charge for labor. That’s why I bought the door myself. This also was cheaper than going with Home Depot doing the whole thing.

 

I think contractors are afraid that customer size the door wrong and want to take some margin on the hardware itself.

 

We did this with our last kitchen renovation, the same way. We bought all the hardware cabinets, stove, tiles vents ourself and had a handyman install it. Cost us  ~10k  back in 2010. Now people pay 5x as much to get similar work done. Crazy!

 

(My wife had awesome connections to Asian hardware stores in the Bay Area back then). Cabinets cost half what we would have paid at Home Depot.

[John Hjorth]

I have "door envy" and I still live like a college freshman in an apartment building.

 

Whoa whoa whoa... you mean to tell me that as an established fund manager with a real business you don’t live in a giant mansion paid for by extracting fees from people?? All jokes aside it’s refreshing every once in a while running into someone in the financial industry who isn’t a totally selfish piece of shit only concerned with stuffing as much money as possible into their pockets. Cuz it’s like 98.5% of them.

 

Personally, I have to agree with Greg here, BG2008,

 

Your personal story for your past and youth is very well documented by you here on CoBF. I would argue that exactly that - and the way you've managed to handle the hardship during those years - is today likely the greatest strength of yours. With regard to "door envy", perhaps you may have a choice. [ ; - ) ]

[Jurgis]

(My wife had awesome connections to Asian hardware stores in the Bay Area back then). Cabinets cost half what we would have paid at Home Depot.

 

The only cheap connection I have is Vietnamese hardwood floor guys. They've done our floors couple times and it's really well priced. Unfortunately they specialize in hardwood floors only and don't do anything else. Maybe they'd recommend someone if I talked Vietnamese, but I don't.

[Jurgis]

I found this startup that provides online configuration and quotes without registration: https://renoviso.com/entry-doors/c3

They have quotes for windows/doors/siding/roofing.

I think their prices are close to bottom prices you can get for particular project. Might be a good resource to get pricing even for people not in their area.

 

I'm not sure we gonna go with them, since there's a risk that their contractors are not that great. We'll see if we gonna get any quotes that are at least close to what their quotes are.

 

For our project, their quote for Therma Tru door is about $1.6K (we have a quote from contractor for $2.6K!). Their quote for ProVia door is about $2.9K (we have a quote for ~3.4K).