How Long Does It Take And How Much Should You Pay? Part 2
I wrote last month about the expense of removing wall-to-wall carpeting from a property and offered some food for thought on how much you should pay to have that task done -- or whether you should even consider just doing it yourself. You can read that blog here:
How Long Does It Take And How Much Should You Pay? Part 1
This time I want to delve into the issue of upgrading a home with new interior doors, and point out some potential for saving money on that project, and how much you should be paying vs. the quote given to you by some contractor you just met.
But why would you want to deal with the work and expense of new doors?
Why Replace The Doors?
Face it: Both buyers and renters today are very heavily influenced by the homes they see on TV shows such as “Flip or Flop,” or “Property Brothers.” And those homes are almost always made to look “new, new, new!”
Just so you know, in addition to doing rehabs, I am a property manager with dozens of properties, and a Realtor. So I’m out showing properties a lot -- something I actually really enjoy. Sometimes those are my properties, but more often than not, they belong to other owners, or are MLS showings I’m doing.
I especially like to show just-upgraded homes. It’s nice to get to see newly rehabbed properties and get ideas and tips, and to keep up with design trends, such as popular paint colors or kitchen backsplash looks. I get to meet a lot of people too, which I also like.
From these experiences I realized years ago that just about everyone has seen those TV shows, and they all expect homes to be pretty much pristine. Even folks who aren’t really in a position to be real picky surprise me (baffle me is more like it), when they start calling pretty nice looking places “shabby,” or “not as modern as we want.” And they will, believe me. Today, everyone wants their house to look NEW.
So What About New Doors?
Anyway, replacing all your old, outdated doors with new, modern doors is a sure way to modernize your home and give it a very upgraded feel, even if much of the rest of the property is still in need of some TLC. And that project doesn’t have to be super-expensive either.
Also, you should consider the pitfalls of dealing with replacing just the door itself, or replacing the door and the door jamb. If you’re not aware, it really isn’t much more expensive to replace the whole thing -- with new door casings and everything -- than it is to just replace the door. Perhaps you already know that the door itself is often referred to as a “slab,” and the door with the jamb attached is referred to as “pre-hung.”
Sure you can purchase a door slab for about $30, but then you’ll probably have to stain it and seal it -- and you’ll never match the color of your old, aged doors, believe me. And then you’ll have to cut the hinge insets so that the door swings correctly. These are both time-consuming and potentially very frustrating (and messy) tasks. And if you don’t cut the door hinge insets correctly, you’ll get to buy a new door and start over again. What fun.
But for not much more, you can replace the whole thing with a brand new, modern door and give your property a fresh new look. Home Depot and other retailers sell beautiful white six-panel pre-hung doors for about $64. You won’t have to stain anything, and you won’t have to cut any door hinges.
Go With New Pre-Hung Doors if You Can
I replaced all the interior doors in my recent rehab with new, pre-hung, six-panel models. The end result is a clean, modern look that is really stunning. And this with just budget priced doors, and a nice oil-rubbed bronze lever-style handle set.
Like I mentioned above, Home Depot and other similar stores sell doors like this for about $64. I put 10 in my rehab, including all the bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, basement door, etc. So that’s a whole new house full of brand new, modern doors for about $700 with tax.
The trim around the door, primarily, the "door casing," can be purchased for about $15 per door, per side. So you'll need about $30 per door -- or less: I just bought casing "Pro Packs" at Home Depot for about $25 that do both sides of the average door.
The handle sets I went with cost about $17 each for locking handles (for bedrooms and bathrooms), and about $14 each for non-locking (for closets). So that’s about $200 in handles to give the whole house a very upgraded look.
So I updated every door in the property with a material cost of about $1,100. Not bad.
And Then There’s The Labor
Obviously material costs are not all there is to consider. So let’s look at the labor, beginning with removing the old doors. Just so you see how quickly an old door can be removed, you might want to check out this 2-minute video I found on YouTube:
How To Remove An Interior Door and Jamb
And the guy in the video did it the slow way. If you hire a contractor to demo your house, they won’t be anywhere near as gentle. After they take the door off the hinges, which takes all of about 3 minutes, they’ll use a Sawzall or even possibly a small chain saw and they’ll just cut right through all the trim and door casings about halfway up the door.
Then they’ll just grab the pieces of trim and casing and old door jamb with their bare gloved hands and roughly tear it all right away from the wall. They’ll be done removing your door and the entire door frame (casing, trim, and jamb) in less than 10 minutes per door.
So how much are you paying them? How much money do you make per hour?
One guy, working alone, can easily remove all the doors in a normal sized three-bedroom house in less than three hours.
Did he quote you $1,000 to do this? That’s $333 per hour. Do you make $333 per hour?
This is a job any high-school kid could do for about $12 to $15 per hour. This is a job you could probably do too.
And How Long Does It Take To Install the New Doors?
Then there’s the installation of the new doors to deal with. My contractors at my recent rehab in Homewood, IL, put in all 10 new, pre-hung doors in one day.
Ten doors. One day.
And that included all the new trim, casings, door jamb, and everything. They may or may not have put the handles on in that same day, I don’t really recall, but putting a new door handle on a door takes all of about 10 minutes or less, so that wasn’t any major time-burner.
Once you have the old door out, installing a new pre-hung door is almost easier than cutting the hinge insets on a door slab. And if you count the time spent staining an unfinished slab door, and waiting for it to dry, then sealing it and waiting for that to dry, you could have installed a whole house full of brand new pre-hung doors instead.
Check out this video: How To Install a Pre-Hung Door in 15 Minutes
Anyway, how much did your contractor quote you to install new, pre-hung doors? Honestly, in my experience, it takes them about an hour per door, maybe less. Hopefully you’re not paying them $333 an hour for that too.
Just Think About It
I like the contractors I work with. And I know they have families to support. So do I. And probably, so do you. Just understand how long it takes to do various projects around your rehab -- before you agree to pay someone more money than most lawyers make -- to do a job a minimally-skilled laborer could have done for about $15 an hour.
And with the money you save, you can meet up with me and buy me a nice frosty beer!
Adam St. James
Cell: 630-697-4500
Email: [email protected]
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