The number a homeowner wants is a published “$1,200 installed” steel-entry-door special, or a “$400 to hang a prehung” coupon. That number is not a takeoff. A 36-inch steel prehung in a square, rot-free one-story opening is not the same job as a fiberglass unit with two sidelights, a transom, eight feet of jamb rot, brickmold, and a storm door. The trip is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorGarage-door calculators price springs, torsion, and the opener. Window-replacement calculators price united inches and flashing. An entry-door hang is a different job: the unit, the lights, the opening, and the extras that are not in the coupon. Quoting all of that from a published installed special is how the first out-of-square shim eats the field margin.
Each sidelight is time that never appears on the coupon. A transom, brickmold, a storm door, and paint are billed as their own hours. An out-of-square rough opening and jamb rot are adders that get forgotten on a brochure special. On the sample rates a fiberglass unit with two sidelights, a transom, eight feet of rot, brickmold, a storm door, smart-lock prep, paint, tear-out, and second-story porch access prices about $7,268.16 (21.3 crew-hours). The same shop’s 36-inch steel brochure hang prices about $1,411.11 (5.0 hours, walk-away $959.55). Matching the brochure job’s $1,200 special on the sidelight house is how that job becomes a loss — the walk-away on the heavy job is already $4,942.35, and the $1,200 special loses about $3,742 there. The “$400 to hang a prehung” coupon loses $559.55 even on the brochure hang.
A wood stain-grade 36-inch hang with four feet of rot, an out-of-square opening, brickmold, and paint is not the steel brochure hang plus 15%. On the sample rates that wood job prices about $4,549.68 (12.1 crew-hours). A slab-only swap in an existing jamb drops hang hours and the unit cost; rot in the jamb does not disappear with the slab. Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first out-of-square shim.
A $42/h installer loaded at 32% payroll burden is $55.44. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not a door design, a building-code determination, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. The opening, the unit, rot, trim, storm door, and finish are yours to confirm. It does not price a garage door or a window replacement.
Charge from the trip, the hang, the opening (out-of-square and rot), sidelights and transom, brickmold, storm door, paint, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 36-inch steel prehung in a square one-story opening, at the sample rates in this calculator, prices around $1,411 — about 5.0 crew-hours.
Homeowners count a door. Sidelights, a transom, an out-of-square rough opening, jamb rot, brickmold, a storm door, and paint do not scale with that number. Matching a cheaper special written for a 36-inch steel hang is how a sidelight-and-rot job becomes a two-day loss. On the sample rates the $1,200 special still clears the $960 walk-away on the brochure hang, but it loses about $3,742 on the sidelight house whose walk-away is already $4,942.
A fiberglass unit with two sidelights, a transom, and rot is not a 36-inch steel special. On the sample rates that job prices around $7,268 (21.3 crew-hours), while a 36-inch steel brochure hang prices around $1,411 (5.0 hours).