Installing new exterior doors represents a complex home project involving far more considerations beyond just the front door replacement cost. It ranges from materials and styles impacting budgets to understanding wider installation charges affecting final spending requirements before undertaking any upgrades.
This guide examines all notable factors influencing total front door replacement cost on today’s most popular entryway door materials.
Average Exterior Door Replacement Costs By Material
External door material types dominate overall project budget variances more than other elements. Pricing also fluctuates based on intricate construction quality, insulation ratings, and warranty durations. Digital Lock is also an option for better safety.
Fiberglass Doors
Offering lasting durability and smooth long-term functionality by combining composite wood pulp and glass fibers, fiberglass models fetch moderate mid-range price points around $1,200 – 1,800 on average.
More intricate custom designs with added insulation or mixed material accents like wrought iron push averages over $3,000+.
Steel Doors
Steel doors deliver flexibility spanning affordable to premium solutions ($400 – 3,000 range) depending on gauge thicknesses and whether doors arrive hollow or filled with polyurethane foam insulation and wooden edge reinforcements, preventing dents and dampening sound.
Wood Doors
Wood doors fetch the highest premiums for premium natural aesthetic appeals combined with durable construction, averaging between $3,000 on simpler one-wood variety designs up to $7,000+ on intricate multi-wood inlays and carvings requiring custom craftsmanship skills priced per hour.
Impact Of Door Sizes On Pricing
Beyond choosing different primary materials, exterior doors’ actual width and height also significantly impact the overall front door price due to larger material requirements and more intricate installations.
- Standard Sizes
The most commonly requested exterior door sizes range between 30-36 inch widths (or 3 foot to 3 foot 6 inches) by 80-inch heights equivalent to 6 foot 8 inches tall. These incur fairly affordable costs for most applications.
- Custom Oversize Doors
For grander home entryway statement aesthetics, oversized exterior doors spanning 40+ inch widths and 84+ inch lengths add premium custom fabrication and installation pricing. Additional structural supports often become necessary to manage the added weight loads on hinges, plus accounting for higher wind shear pressures.
Style Elements Affecting Costs
Aside from base material and sizing choices, homeowners opting for more intricate door styles face multiplied price impacts, adding more handcrafted finishing steps during production – especially notable on premium wood doors.
- Basic Styles
When opting for any glass element model, the most affordable steel and fiberglass doors feature simple singular-color finishes and basic rectangular light frames. These budget-friendly styles avoid fancy accents driving costs higher through added fabrication time and painting needs.
- Ornate Styles
For luxury aesthetic enhancements on exterior doors, elements like multi-color designs, arched transoms, decorative glass shapes, carved detailing around edges, halo-lit frames, and smart home integrations cause exponential price increases from base models requiring precision artistry craftsmanship and finishing.
Installation & Replacement Labor Charges
While the door itself remains the largest individual price component, homeowners should remember that total front door replacement cost also factors wider removal disposal, structural modifications, and installation labor hourly rates, which can add hundreds to thousands more depending on complexity and existing frame integrity viability for reuse without full replacements factored in too.
- Door Disposal Fees
If the original entry door fails building code safety and insulation ratings to justify full disposal replacements, some removal fees apply for properly disposing rather than risking illegal landfill dumping exposures from older models containing hazardous materials like lead paints or asbestos fillers. Licensed contractors know legal protocols.
- Paint & Finish Enhancements
If desired, small finishing touches on already factory-painted steel and fiberglass replacement door models to match existing home exterior color schemes, minor prep sanding, primers, and touch-up paint coats add modest additional expense through hourly painting quotes.
Other Replacement Cost Considerations
While less frequent contingencies beyond the primary door materials, sizes, styles and installation factors previously detailed, additional considerations influencing total pricing budgets managing exterior door replacement projects include:
- Smart Home Automation
Integrating WiFi controls, electronic locksets, video doorbells, and voice commands inject premiums far surpassing baseline expectations.
- Security Reinforcements
Heavy-duty ballistic-resistant exterior doors will cost homeowners more compared to where less complex security reinforcement details are applied.
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