Composite door prices in the UK run from about £600 to £1,800 supply only, and from about £1,200 to £2,500 supplied and fitted for a standard front door on a standard opening. This page is written for builders and contractors pricing door, window and joinery work for their clients, using Builder Expert's own fitting rates alongside current UK market prices for the doors, windows and wardrobes themselves.
Everything here follows the way a basic construction estimate is built: the door or window unit is a budget the client sets, and the fitting is a priced task. Figures are indicative and current as at October 2026, not a quotation.
Composite door prices: current UK market averages
These are market averages from installer and supplier price guides published for 2026, not Builder Expert rates. They cover the door and frame as a product, and the supply and fit column is what a window and door company charges for a straight swap into an existing opening.
| Door type | Supply only (UK market average) | Supplied and fitted (UK market average) |
|---|---|---|
| Standard composite front door, single leaf | £600 to £1,200 | £1,200 to £1,900 |
| Composite back door, plainer glazing | £550 to £1,000 | £1,100 to £1,700 |
| Front door with one side panel | £1,000 to £1,800 | £1,700 to £2,800 |
| Composite stable door | £800 to £1,500 | £1,500 to £3,000 |
| Composite French or double doors | £1,400 to £2,500 | £2,200 to £3,500 |
Sources read for these ranges: GFD Homes composite door price guide 2026, Go Doors composite door cost guide 2026 and Less.co.uk front door cost guide 2026. Bespoke colours, decorative glazing and a higher security cylinder push a door to the top of its band or past it.
What is cheaper, composite or uPVC?
A uPVC door is cheaper at both ends. Supply only, a uPVC front door is typically £350 to £700 against £600 to £1,200 for composite, and fitted it sits around £400 to £1,000 against £1,200 to £1,900. The gap is in the slab, not the fitting: a composite door has a solid timber or foam core with a GRP skin rather than a hollow uPVC panel, it carries heavier three or five point hardware, and it is more often sold to PAS 24 security standard with a TS007 three star cylinder. Fitting time is almost identical, so when you price the two options for a client, change the supply budget and leave the labour alone.
How the door itself is priced: provisional sums
Builder Expert does not price the door leaf, the glazed unit or the window itself. Those are provisional sums: a budget the client sets, the same way kitchen units and sanitaryware are. What we price is the work of taking out the old frame, fitting the new door set, making good and finishing.
Margin and VAT sit on top of a budget, so a provisional sum costs the client about 1.44 times its value. Example: a £3,500 window budget is about £5,040 by the time it reaches the client's total, and a £700 composite door budget is about £1,010. Put the budget in the estimate at its full delivered value, not at the showroom price, or the total comes out short.
Door fitting costs from Builder Expert's own rates
These are Builder Expert's own figures from real estimates, London and South East prices, current as at October 2026. Every figure already includes labour, materials, our margin and 20% VAT, so nothing is added on top. The same work usually costs less elsewhere in the UK, so treat these as the high end of a national picture rather than a UK average. The door leaf and ironmongery are not in them.
| Task fitted (door and ironmongery supplied separately) | Builder Expert range |
|---|---|
| External door with frame | £650 to £750 each |
| Internal door with frame | £400 to £500 each |
| FD30 fire rated internal door with frame and intumescent seals | £650 to £750 each |
| Internal double door with frame | £700 to £800 each |
| Internal sliding door | £850 to £900 each |
An FD30 set costs more than a standard internal door because the frame has to be lined, the seals let into the frame or leaf and the closer and ironmongery fitted and checked. A sliding door costs more again because the gear, track and pocket or wall fixing all have to be set out before the wall finish goes on.
The wider joinery scope a builder prices alongside doors
Second fix joinery rarely stops at the door. These are our own ranges for the rest of the phase, again including labour, materials, margin and VAT.
| Task | What it involves | Builder Expert range |
|---|---|---|
| Architrave to a door set | Scribe, mitre and fix architrave both sides, ready for decoration | £15 to £20 per linear metre |
| Standard skirting | Scribe, mitre, fix and fill skirting to the room perimeter | £25 to £30 per linear metre |
| Boxing in pipes or steelwork | Timber frame and board around pipework or a beam, ready to skim | £50 per linear metre |
| Internal timber stud wall | Sole and head plates, studs and noggins, boarded both sides | £250 to £300 per linear metre |
| Complete staircase with balustrade | Supply and fit a new flight with strings, treads, newels, spindles and handrail | £5,000 to £5,500 each |
Preliminaries (protection, access, skips, welfare, parking) typically run 10 to 15 percent of a project total and sit inside that total, never added on top. How that works across a whole job is covered in our guide to preliminaries in construction.
uPVC and composite window prices
Windows work exactly like doors: the unit is a client budget, the fitting is a priced task. The ranges below are current UK market averages, kept separate from our own rates.
| Window or glazed door | Supply only (UK market average) | Supplied and fitted (UK market average) |
|---|---|---|
| uPVC casement, around 1.2m x 1.2m | £350 to £550 | £600 to £900 |
| Large casement or window over 2m wide | £550 to £900 | £900 to £1,500 |
| uPVC bay window, three panels | £1,800 to £3,000 | £2,500 to £4,000 |
| uPVC French doors | £900 to £1,500 | £1,500 to £2,400 |
| Aluminium bi-fold doors, three panel | £2,200 to £4,000 | £3,000 to £6,000 |
White uPVC with standard double glazing sits at the bottom of each band. A rated glazing, coloured foils such as anthracite grey and triple glazing add roughly 15 to 30 percent to the supply price and nothing to the fitting.
Fitted wardrobe costs
Fitted wardrobes are another provisional item: carcass, doors and interior fittings are chosen by the client, and the carpentry to build and hang them is labour. At current UK market prices a bespoke fitted wardrobe runs £800 to £1,500 per linear metre supplied and fitted, with flat pack or semi fitted nearer £400 to £700 per linear metre. A single chimney breast alcove, 1.5 to 2 metres wide, usually lands between £1,500 and £3,000 complete.
Worked example 1: one external door replacement as a standalone job
A single front door swap for an existing client, priced as its own mini project rather than a bare fitting line. Assumptions: a standard single leaf opening in a three bed semi, no structural alteration, old door and frame removed and taken away, reveal made good, architrave renewed inside, the hall side of the opening redecorated, and the house protected and cleaned.
What goes in, in build order: protection to the hall floor and stairs, removal of the old door and frame, fitting the new composite door set, making good the reveal and plaster patching, new architrave, decoration to the made good areas, plus the preliminaries the job carries on its own (protection, parking, waste disposal, final clean and a minimum visit).
Worked from our own rates plus the preliminaries a one door visit carries, that lands at £2,000 to £2,500, with the door leaf and ironmongery on top as a budget (£600 to £1,200 supply only, about £870 to £1,730 once margin and VAT are on it). That is more than a glazing firm's straight swap because a straight swap leaves the making good and decorating to someone else.
Worked example 2: doors and joinery inside a larger project
A full second fix joinery line in a three bed house refurbishment. Assumptions: eight internal door sets, architrave both sides to each (about 40 linear metres in total), about 90 linear metres of new skirting, door leaves and ironmongery at a mid range budget.
Priced this way the joinery line comes to £7,000 to £9,500, including the door and ironmongery budget at its delivered value. Preliminaries, plastering and decorating are not in that figure: they sit in the project's own phases and are spread across the whole refurbishment, so putting them in here would count the same money twice.
The gap between the two examples is real, not a markup. One door on its own carries a minimum visit, its own protection, its own parking and waste, and a trip back to adjust it. Ten doors on a job already on site share all of that, which is why one door costs disproportionately more than one tenth of ten.
Downsides and risks that affect the price
- Colour fade. Dark slabs, especially anthracite and black, fade unevenly on a south facing elevation. Quote the manufacturer's colour warranty, not your own.
- Bowing. A cheap foam core door in direct sun can bow enough to stop the multi point lock throwing. The fix is usually a replacement slab, and the fitter carries the labour.
- Hardware and cylinder. A door sold without a TS007 three star cylinder or a PAS 24 tested frame will be queried by the client's insurer. Price the cylinder you intend to fit and name it.
- Adjustment call backs. Composite doors settle and need hinge and keep adjustment in the first few months. Allow a return visit per door rather than absorbing it.
- Cheap doors cost more in snagging. The supply saving on a budget slab is routinely wiped out by one return visit, so if the client insists on the cheapest unit, price the call backs honestly instead of discounting the labour.
Measurement and take off rules for this work
- Count door sets room by room off the plan, and note which are FD30, double or sliding before you price anything.
- Architrave: measure per door set, roughly 5.2 linear metres for a standard set architraved both sides, then round up per door.
- Skirting: measure the room perimeter and deduct door openings and any full height joinery, then round up to the next length.
- Ironmongery and door leaves are supplied separately. List them as a budget line with a stated allowance per door, never buried in the fitting rate.
- Windows are counted by opening and measured by overall frame size, because supply prices step with size and the fitting time barely moves.
What a door and window line in a quote must state
- Door or window specification: manufacturer, style, colour inside and out, and frame type.
- Glazing unit: double or triple, obscure or clear, toughened or laminated where it is a critical location.
- Hardware and cylinder standard, named (for example PAS 24 door set, TS007 three star cylinder).
- Threshold type: standard, low or part M level access.
- Who supplies what, and the budget allowed for anything the client is choosing.
- Making good: plaster patching, architrave and reveal works, and whether decoration is included.
- Decoration: which faces are painted and to what standard.
- Handover: FENSA or Certass certificate, manufacturer guarantees and any colour warranty.
Building regulations and compliance items that affect price
Replacing windows and doors in a dwelling is controlled work. Replacement windows in England must reach a whole window U value of 1.4 W/m²K or better, or a Window Energy Rating of band B, under Approved Document L, and replacement doors have their own limiting value. Glass in and beside doors and at low level must be toughened or laminated. Where a window is an escape window to a habitable room or forms part of loft work, Part B applies to the opening size and to the fire doors on the protected stair, which is a cost that catches people out on loft conversions.
A FENSA registered or Certass registered installer self certifies the work and issues the certificate. If the doors and windows are fitted by a general builder outside a competent person scheme, the work has to be notified to building control instead, and that fee is a separate market priced line. Building control and structural engineer fees are never inside our rates: building control for small domestic work typically runs £300 to £600, and an engineer's calculation for a new or widened opening £400 to £800.
Composite door, window and joinery cost calculator
Composite Door, Window and Joinery Cost Calculator
- Composite doors, supplied and fitted
- £1,500
- Internal door sets fitted
- £0
- Windows, supplied and fitted
- £2,250
- Skirting
- £0
- Estimated total
- £3,750
Composite door and window figures are current UK market averages for supply and fit. Internal door fitting and skirting use Builder Expert's own rates (London and South East, including labour, materials, margin and 20% VAT); door leaves and ironmongery are a separate budget. Indicative only, not a quotation.
Composite door and window pricing FAQs
Is a composite door worth the extra over uPVC?
It costs roughly double to supply and the same to fit. It holds colour and shape better and comes with heavier security hardware as standard, which is why most UK suppliers now treat it as the default front door rather than an upgrade.
Do I need building control sign off for a new front door or windows?
Not if a FENSA or Certass registered installer does the work and self certifies it. Work done outside a competent person scheme has to be notified to building control, with its own fee.
Can I price a full house of windows the same way as one door?
No. A single opening carries its own visit and site set up. A full house of replacements shares those costs across every opening, so price it as one job with one set of preliminaries rather than adding up single door prices.
Are these your prices or market prices?
Both, kept apart. The door, window and wardrobe units are current UK market averages from the sources named above. The fitting and joinery ranges are Builder Expert's own figures from real estimates, London and South East, including labour, materials, margin and 20% VAT.
Turning these rates into a priced estimate
Joinery looks simple until you count the door sets, the architrave, the skirting, the making good and the budgets for everything the client is choosing. A basic construction estimate prices the whole joinery phase against our current rates, and if you would rather price it yourself, the building work estimator builds the same figures from the job you type in. Send us your drawings and we will put the whole job together, or run it through the software in minutes.
Last reviewed: October 2026. All figures are indicative and not a quotation.