Job takeoff
External door replacement, with its frame takeoff
Take out an outside door and its frame and fit a new one in the same opening: the doorway protected and made secure overnight, the frame packed and fixed, the threshold and weatherbar (the sill or saddle, in North America), the leaf hung with its ironmongery (hardware), the frame sealed outside and in, the reveals made good, the architrave, the paint and the waste.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 3Measurements in
- 6Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the external door replacement quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorwayMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the floor inside and the step or path outside, and tape all round the opening to hold a sheet over the decoration beside it while the frame is levered out. The row counts whole sheets and whole rolls.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Masking and Protection Materials Calculator | 2 items | |
Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wallWindow Opening Flashing Membrane CalculatorSelf-adhered flashing across the foot of the opening first, then up the jambs over it and across the head, with the page's run past each corner and its allowances, so each piece laps over the one below. It is laid before the frame goes in, over the sill tray or pan. A frame in a brick or block wall is sealed to it with foam and mastic, which leaves this row unticked.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Window Opening Flashing Membrane Calculator | 28.6 ft | |
Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a headDoor & Window Casing CalculatorNew architrave round the inside of the frame in the page's stock lengths with its mitre waste, fixed once the reveal's plaster is dry. The old architrave rarely survives the frame coming out.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The mitre waste: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Door & Window Casing Calculator | 18.7 linear ft | |
Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and insideCaulk & Sealant CalculatorTwo beads, taken on the caulk page as two openings of the frame's size: an exterior mastic where the frame meets the brick or render, and inside a paintable decorator's caulk along the architrave's outer edge, where it meets the plaster, the joint that shows once the architrave hides the frame's own. Both at the page's 1/4 in (6 mm) bead and its waste allowance, in tubes. The page runs each bead across the foot as well: outside that stands for the ends of the threshold and its bed; inside there is no bead along the floor, which more than makes up for the architrave's edge being a little longer than the frame, so the tubes run a little over. The filling before the paint does not caulk either joint again.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 2 tubes | |
Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and glossWoodwork Paint CalculatorBoth faces of the leaf, taken as 85% of the frame's outline, and the frame's face outside with the architrave inside, each a run of both jambs and the head at the page's opening girth, two coats at the page's spread rate: an undercoat and a gloss (enamel) coat. Bare timber takes knotting and a primer first, which this figure leaves out, and a steel door is painted over its factory primer with a paint its maker names.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
| 0.2635 gal | |
Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frameSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorAn allowance rather than anything measured: the old leaf, its frame, the broken plaster and the new door's packaging, taken as loose waste a quarter of a metre (about 10 in) deep over the frame's outline. A single door often leaves in the fitter's van; a pair of doors, or reveals that come away in lumps, fill a small skip.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator | 0.6379 yd³ | |
Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorwayMasking and Protection Materials CalculatorSheets over the floor inside and the step or path outside, and tape all round the opening to hold a sheet over the decoration beside it while the frame is levered out. The row counts whole sheets and whole rolls.
Why this quantity? | 2 items | |
Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wallWindow Opening Flashing Membrane CalculatorSelf-adhered flashing across the foot of the opening first, then up the jambs over it and across the head, with the page's run past each corner and its allowances, so each piece laps over the one below. It is laid before the frame goes in, over the sill tray or pan. A frame in a brick or block wall is sealed to it with foam and mastic, which leaves this row unticked.
Why this quantity? | 8.62 m | |
Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a headDoor & Window Casing CalculatorNew architrave round the inside of the frame in the page's stock lengths with its mitre waste, fixed once the reveal's plaster is dry. The old architrave rarely survives the frame coming out.
Why this quantity? | 5.63 m | |
Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and insideCaulk & Sealant CalculatorTwo beads, taken on the caulk page as two openings of the frame's size: an exterior mastic where the frame meets the brick or render, and inside a paintable decorator's caulk along the architrave's outer edge, where it meets the plaster, the joint that shows once the architrave hides the frame's own. Both at the page's 1/4 in (6 mm) bead and its waste allowance, in tubes. The page runs each bead across the foot as well: outside that stands for the ends of the threshold and its bed; inside there is no bead along the floor, which more than makes up for the architrave's edge being a little longer than the frame, so the tubes run a little over. The filling before the paint does not caulk either joint again.
Why this quantity? | 2 tubes | |
Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and glossWoodwork Paint CalculatorBoth faces of the leaf, taken as 85% of the frame's outline, and the frame's face outside with the architrave inside, each a run of both jambs and the head at the page's opening girth, two coats at the page's spread rate: an undercoat and a gloss (enamel) coat. Bare timber takes knotting and a primer first, which this figure leaves out, and a steel door is painted over its factory primer with a paint its maker names.
Why this quantity? | 0.9641 L | |
Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frameSkip & Dumpster Size CalculatorAn allowance rather than anything measured: the old leaf, its frame, the broken plaster and the new door's packaging, taken as loose waste a quarter of a metre (about 10 in) deep over the frame's outline. A single door often leaves in the fitter's van; a pair of doors, or reveals that come away in lumps, fill a small skip.
Why this quantity? | 0.483 m³ |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorway0.2 h (0.1–0.5)
- Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wall4.0 h (1.0–8.0)
- Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a head1.0 h (0.6–2.3)
- Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and inside1.5 h (0.7–3.0)
- Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and gloss0.9 h (0.5–2.0)
- Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frame0.5 h (0.2–1.5)
About 8.1 person-hours in all, between 3.2 and 17.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Glazier2 glaziershalf a day
- Carpenter1 carpenterunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painterunder a quarter of a day
About half a day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorway0.2 h (0.1–0.5)
- Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wall4.0 h (1.0–8.0)
- Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a head1.0 h (0.6–2.3)
- Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and inside1.4 h (0.7–3.0)
- Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and gloss0.9 h (0.5–1.9)
- Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frame0.5 h (0.2–1.4)
About 8.1 person-hours in all, between 3.1 and 17.
Trade by trade
- Labourer1 labourerunder a quarter of a day
- Glazier2 glaziershalf a day
- Carpenter1 carpenterunder a quarter of a day
- Painter1 painterunder a quarter of a day
About half a day, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Replacing an outside door keeps the hole in the wall and renews everything in it. The old leaf comes off its hinges, the frame is cut free of its fixings and levered out, and a new frame goes into the same opening: a timber frame hung on site, or a doorset (a prehung door, in North America) that arrives with its leaf already hung. The new frame is set plumb and square on packers, fixed back through its jambs into the reveals (the returns) and sealed to the wall, and the leaf is hung or adjusted until it closes and locks without force. The opening does not change size. A wider or taller door needs a lintel (header) over it, which makes it the new opening takeoff's job rather than this one.
The threshold decides whether the hall stays dry. The door closes onto it, rain runs across it, and the step outside feeds water towards it, so it is bedded on sealant over a sill tray (a sill pan, in North America) that turns any water back out; it falls outwards, and it carries a weatherbar that throws the rain clear of the gap under the leaf. North American carpenters call the same piece the sill or the saddle. No page on this site measures a threshold, so it has no row; it is listed as the job's own work, one to the door, and the check page reads a quote's threshold, weatherbar or door weatherboard, oak or hardwood sill, sill pan, saddle and door sweep as that work, and its door bar or threshold strip as the edge strip where the floor inside meets it.
The rows are what the frame's outline measures. Dust sheets (drop cloths) cover the floor at the doorway inside and out. Flashing tape goes round the opening before the frame, sill first, where the wall is timber-framed; a frame in a masonry wall is sealed to the wall with foam and mastic instead, which is why that row is not held against a quote with metric showing. The mastic (caulk) runs round the frame twice: once outside, where the frame meets the brick or render (stucco), and once inside as the painter's bead along the new architrave's outer edge, where it meets the plaster, counted in tubes on the caulk page's 1/4 in (6 mm) bead at 25 ft (7.6 m) a tube. The architrave (casing) is two legs and a head inside, and the waste is the old door, its frame, the broken plaster and the new door's packaging.
The paint follows the door. A timber door, or a steel one delivered primed, is painted on site on both faces with its frame outside and the architrave inside; its face is taken as 85% of the frame's outline, the frame and threshold taking the rest. A composite, uPVC or fibreglass doorset comes finished from the factory, and then only the new architrave is painted. Choose which one the door is, since the paint row changes with it.
Three questions about the door itself are left open on purpose, and the hanging row's scope statement names them: whether it needs a tested security rating or a lock to an insurer's standard, whether the glass in it must be safety glass, and whether it must resist fire, as a door from an integral garage into the house does. The maker, the insurer and the rules where the house stands decide those, and the page rates none of them.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Measure the opening inside and out, masonry to masonry and floor to head, and order the door or doorset to fit it; settle who notifies the work or takes out the permit, and have any old panel or board round the frame that could contain asbestos checked before it is disturbed.
- On the day, sheet the floor inside and the step outside, take the old leaf off its hinges, cut through the frame's fixings and lever the frame out, saving as much of the reveal as it will give.
- Clear the old mastic, foam and loose mortar from the reveals, close the cavity with an insulated closer where it has been left open or bridged, and lay the sill tray or sill pan, with the flashing tape up the jambs where the wall is timber-framed.
- Bed the threshold on sealant with its fall outwards, set the frame on it plumb and square on packers, fix it back through the jambs into the wall, and fill the gap behind it with foam or insulation.
- Hang the leaf or adjust the doorset, fit the lock, handles, letter plate (mail slot) and hinges, and set the multipoint lock so it throws and locks without force; if the door is not in and locking by the end of the day, board the opening and lock it.
- Fix the weatherbar, make good the reveals outside in render, brick or a trim and inside in plaster with a new angle bead where the corner was lost, and run the mastic round the frame outside once the render is dry.
- Fix the architrave inside and run the second, paintable bead along its outer edge against the plaster; fill the nail holes and sand, then prime and paint the frame and the door where they are painted on site, and fit the floor's edge strip where the covering inside meets the new threshold.
- Clear the old door, frame and packaging, check that the door swings clear, the seals close all round and the keys work every lock, and hand over the keys with the installer's certificate and the makers' guarantees.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Widening, lowering or moving the hole in the wall: a new or longer steel or concrete lintel (header) over it, with its bearings and props, belongs to the takeoff for a new window or doorway, never to this page.
- The drainage channel a level, step-free threshold needs and how the approach to the door is laid out for it, and how high a threshold may stand above the floor inside or the ground outside; the rules where the house stands and the door maker's details set those, and the threshold here is counted as one piece of work.
- The ratings: whether the leaf must resist break-in to a tested standard (PAS 24 in England and Wales), whether an insurer wants its lock made to BS 3621, whether its panels need safety glass, and whether it must resist fire, as one from an integral garage must; the maker, the insurer and the rules decide those, and nothing here rates them.
- A sub-sill, step or bearer under the threshold found rotten or loose once the old one is out, beyond bedding the new threshold on sound material.
- Moving a doorbell, an alarm contact, an entry-phone cable or a light switch set in the old frame or its reveal.
- The door or doorset as a row of its own: it is made or chosen to the size of the hole in the wall, and its make, style, colour and glazing are the buyer's choice with the maker.
- Consent to change a door on a listed building or in a conservation area, where the new door's look is controlled.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the external door replacement quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the external door replacement takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Frame width, outside edges 0.92 m · Frame height, threshold to head 2.1 m · Floor sheeted, inside and out 6 m², it orders: Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorway, 2 items; Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wall, 8.62 m; Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a head, 5.63 m; Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and inside, 2 tubes; Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and gloss, 0.96 L; Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frame, 0.48 m³. Opened at Frame width, outside edges 3 ft · Frame height, threshold to head 7 ft · Floor sheeted, inside and out 65 sq ft: Dust sheets (drop cloths) inside and out, with tape at the doorway, 2 items; Flashing tape round the opening, for a timber-framed wall, 28.6 ft; Architrave (casing) inside, two legs and a head, 18.7 linear ft; Mastic (caulk) round the frame, outside and inside, 2 tubes; Paint for the door and frame, both faces: undercoat and gloss, 0.26 gal; Skip (dumpster) or van load for the old door and frame, 0.64 yd³. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the external door replacement takeoff run?
- 6 calculators, one to a line: Masking and Protection Materials Calculator, Window Opening Flashing Membrane Calculator, Door & Window Casing Calculator, Caulk & Sealant Calculator, Woodwork Paint Calculator, Skip & Dumpster Size Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the external door replacement takeoff leave out?
- 7 things, each named on this page: Widening, lowering or moving the hole in the wall; The drainage channel a level, step-free threshold needs and how the approach to the door is laid out for it, and how high a threshold may stand above the floor inside or the ground outside; the rules where the house stands and the door maker's details set those, and the threshold here is counted as one piece of work; The ratings; A sub-sill, step or bearer under the threshold found rotten or loose once the old one is out, beyond bedding the new threshold on sound material; Moving a doorbell, an alarm contact, an entry-phone cable or a light switch set in the old frame or its reveal; The door or doorset as a row of its own; Consent to change a door on a listed building or in a conservation area, where the new door's look is controlled.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The external door replacement quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.