What door installation actually involves
Door installation is the process of fitting a new door — interior, exterior, sliding, or barn — into an opening so that it closes flush, latches without forcing, swings without dragging, and seals against drafts, sound, or weather. The work covers measuring the rough opening, choosing between a pre-hung unit (door already mounted in its frame) and a slab door (door only, reusing the existing frame), shimming and leveling the frame, hanging the hinges, drilling for the latch and strike plate, and finally adjusting the hardware so the door operates smoothly. A clean install ends with a door that latches with a soft click rather than needing a shoulder push, and a gap line around the perimeter that stays consistent from top to bottom.
Pre-hung doors come with the door already attached to a new frame and pre-bored for hardware. They are the easier install when you are replacing the whole assembly — common after water damage, pest damage, or when an opening was never properly framed. Slab doors are the door alone with no frame, sized to drop into an existing frame whose hinges and strike plate are still good. A slab swap is the cheaper, faster route when the existing frame is square, plumb, and undamaged — which in older Los Angeles homes is rarely the case for exterior doors but often workable for interior swaps.
Door work in Los Angeles has its own quirks. Spanish-revival homes in Silver Lake, Pasadena, and Hancock Park often have arched interior doors that were custom-built decades ago, meaning a stock door from Home Depot will not fit the opening. WeHo and DTLA condos lean toward modern barn doors as a design choice, which is more about header strength and track alignment than traditional hinge work. Westside neighborhoods like Santa Monica, Venice, and Pacific Palisades have sliding glass patio doors that suffer from track corrosion in the salt-air climate. Each of these scenarios calls for a different skill set, and the right pro for one situation is not necessarily the right pro for another.
When you need this service
Your existing door no longer closes properly. Maybe it scrapes the floor, sticks at the top, swings open on its own, or refuses to latch without a shove. In LA's older housing stock, this is usually the house settling, the frame moving with seasonal humidity, or hinges that have loosened over decades. Sometimes a quick shim or hinge tightening fixes it; sometimes the door has warped past saving and a replacement is cheaper than continued adjustments.
You are renovating and the existing doors do not match the new aesthetic. A 1980s hollow-core slab is a small thing that loudly dates a remodeled room, and replacing four to six interior doors at once is a high-impact, moderate-cost change that ties a refresh together. This is the most common driver for door installation jobs in LA — homeowners 18 months into a slow remodel finally getting around to the doors.
Your exterior door has failed at the seal. Drafts under the threshold, light visible at the corners when the door is closed, weather-stripping crumbling in your hand, or water seeping in during rare LA storms — all signs that the door, the frame, or both have aged past serviceability. Exterior doors are also security points, and a tired door with a sloppy strike plate is one of the easiest entries for a casual break-in.
You bought the home and the previous owners' choices need to go. Cheap bifold closet doors that warp every summer, hollow plywood pantry doors with a hole punched in them, the front door that the listing photos hid with a wreath — these are common move-in punch-list items. Bundling four or five doors into a single visit drops the per-door cost.
You are adding a barn door for design or space reasons. Barn doors are popular in WeHo lofts, DTLA condos, and Eastside bungalows where a traditional swinging door eats up wall and floor real estate. The install is straightforward in concept but depends entirely on what is behind the drywall above the opening — if there is no header or the studs are weak, the track has nothing to anchor to, and the project quietly turns into a framing job.
How to choose the right pro
Verify what has been verified. Every Shatun Brothers door installation pro verifies their identity through Persona ID + selfie liveness before they list: government-issued ID through Persona, current general liability insurance certificate, and California state license where the job exceeds the $500 CSLB handyman scope. Most single-door installs fall under the exemption, but multi-door projects, exterior door replacements with structural framing, and full sliding-glass-door swaps can cross the threshold — your pro should know whether your job needs a CSLB number and tell you up front.
Match the pro to the door type. Interior pre-hung swaps are routine handyman work. Exterior pre-hung installs need someone who understands flashing, threshold sealing, and door-frame anchoring into stud framing. Sliding glass doors require a pro comfortable with track alignment, glass weight handling, and sometimes two-person lifts. Barn doors live or die on header strength inspection. Custom-cut work in older Spanish-revival homes is its own niche — pros listing arched-door experience are worth the premium.
Read the recent reviews, not the lifetime average. A pro with 80 lifetime reviews averaging 4.8 stars but a recent run of complaints about doors that bind or strike plates set wrong is heading the wrong way. The last 10 reviews on every pro profile let you see the trajectory, not just the headline number.
Get the materials and brands in the quote. For interior doors, Masonite is the most common manufacturer in LA — solid-core options handle sound better than the hollow-core defaults. Therma-Tru and Pella are typical for exterior pre-hung. Schlage and Kwikset dominate hardware. Real Sliding Hardware is the standard choice for barn-door tracks. If your pro is bringing the door, the brand should be named in the quote, not described vaguely as a quality door.
Confirm who measures the rough opening. In older LA homes — anywhere built before about 1970 — openings are routinely non-standard. A 30-inch door that fits the listing measurement may not actually fit because the rough opening is 29-3/4 inches, or 31 inches, or out of square by half an inch corner to corner. The pro should measure before any door is bought, not after. If the pro is asking you to confirm sizes from your end without an in-person measurement, push back.
Ask about the threshold and weather-stripping plan for exterior doors. A correctly installed exterior door has a sealed threshold, fresh weather-stripping, properly bedded jamb in caulk or sealant, and adjusted door sweep. Skipping any of these turns a pretty install into a draft factory within a season. Confirm what is included before signing off on a quote.
Pricing in Los Angeles
Interior pre-hung door installation in Los Angeles runs $200–380 per door for labor. This covers fitting the unit into the rough opening, shimming plumb and level, securing the frame, hanging the door, and basic latch and strike plate alignment. Hardware (knob or lever set) is usually not included in the labor quote and runs $25–80 retail at Home Depot or $40–150 for upgraded Schlage / Kwikset finishes. Trim work — replacing the casing around the new frame — is sometimes included and sometimes a separate line item, so confirm.
Interior slab swaps, where the existing frame is in good shape and you are replacing the door only, run $150–280. This is the cheapest path when it works, but it only works if the existing frame is square, the hinges are still solid, the door size matches, and the pre-bore for the latch lines up. In older LA homes the existing frame is often the limiting factor and the pro will recommend going pre-hung instead — listen to that call rather than forcing a slab swap that will bind.
Exterior pre-hung door installation runs $380–650 for labor. The premium over interior reflects the additional work: weatherproofing the threshold, bedding the frame in sealant, integrating with existing flashing or siding, and the simple fact that exterior doors and frames are heavier and harder to maneuver into place. Sliding glass door installation runs $450–780 because of track alignment precision, glass weight, and the two-person handling typically required. Barn door installation including the track hardware runs $280–450 — the door itself is simple to hang, the cost lives in mounting the track securely to the header behind drywall.
Custom-cut work — older Los Angeles homes with non-standard openings, arched Spanish-revival interior doors, or odd-height openings in converted spaces — adds $80–150 over the base labor for the door type. This covers planing the door to fit, custom mortising hinges, adjusting strike-plate location, or trimming a stock door to a non-standard width. If you live in a pre-1960 LA home, expect at least one of your doors to need this kind of attention; budget accordingly rather than treating it as a surprise.
DIY vs hiring a pro
Slab door swaps — replacing the door only and reusing the existing hinges and lock — are the most approachable DIY door project. If your existing frame is solid, the new door is the same size, and you are comfortable with a Phillips screwdriver and a sharp chisel for hinge mortising, you can do this in one to two hours. The most common DIY mistake is not transferring the hinge mortise locations precisely from the old door to the new one, which leaves the door sitting proud or recessed in the frame.
Interior pre-hung installs are doable as a patient DIY weekend project — call it three to four hours per door if it is your first time. The work is fundamentally about shimming the frame plumb and level in all three planes before you put a single nail through it. Most DIY interior pre-hung jobs that fail do so because the installer skipped the patience step on shimming, and the door ends up dragging at the top or refusing to stay open in the middle of its swing. Buy a four-foot level, take your time, and the result is a usable door.
Exterior pre-hung, sliding glass, and barn door installs are honest pro work. Exterior doors fail in invisible ways — water intrusion behind the threshold, drafts at the bottom corner, security gaps at a sloppy strike — that you do not catch until winter. Sliding glass doors are heavy, require precise track alignment, and a misaligned track shortens the lifespan of the rollers dramatically. Barn doors hinge entirely on what is behind the drywall above the opening; without a stud-finder check and possibly an inspection cut, you do not know if there is a header strong enough to hold 80–150 pounds of hanging door swinging on a track. Pros bring the experience to spot the problems before they become problems.
Common mistakes to avoid
Buying the door before measuring the rough opening. This is the most common Los Angeles door mistake, especially in homes built before 1970, where openings are routinely 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the standard 30, 32, 34, or 36 inch widths. A door bought online that is technically correct for a standard 32-inch opening will not fit a 31-3/4 inch opening, and now you are returning a door or paying a pro to plane it to fit. Always measure first — width, height, jamb depth, and rough opening on all three sides — and write the numbers down before you shop.
Forgetting to specify hinge direction. Doors are either left-hand or right-hand depending on which side the hinges are on as you face the door from the side it opens toward you. Buying a left-hand pre-hung when you needed a right-hand means returning the unit, because reversing it requires moving the hinges, the strike plate, and the door bore — at which point you have done more work than installing a correct one. Stand inside the room facing the door, see which side the hinges are on; that is the hand of the door.
Not shimming a pre-hung door properly. The frame of a pre-hung door must be shimmed plumb (vertical) and level (horizontal) on both sides before any nails go in. A frame that is fastened too quickly, before careful shimming, results in a door that drags on the floor at one corner, refuses to stay open in the middle of the swing because the frame is leaning, or will not latch because the strike plate is now misaligned with the latch. Six pairs of shims per side, checked with a four-foot level on every face, is the minimum.
Skipping the threshold seal on an exterior door. A new exterior door with a perfect-looking install can still leak air, water, and pests if the threshold is not properly sealed at the bottom, the door sweep is not adjusted to brush the threshold, or the jamb was not bedded in sealant before the trim went on. These are invisible details on day one and obvious problems by month three. Confirm with your pro that all four sides of the exterior door perimeter are sealed and the sweep contacts the threshold along its full length.
Ordering hardware with the wrong backset. Door hardware comes in two backset sizes — the distance from the edge of the door to the center of the latch hole — 2-3/8 inches (standard interior) and 2-3/4 inches (often used for exterior or wider stiles). If you order a knob set with a 2-3/8 backset and your door is bored for 2-3/4, the latch will not reach the strike plate and the lock will not engage. Most modern hardware is adjustable between the two, but cheap or older sets are not. Check both the door bore and the hardware spec before buying.
Frequently asked questions
How long does door installation take in Los Angeles?+
Interior slab swap: 1–2 hours. Interior pre-hung: 2–4 hours. Exterior pre-hung: 3–5 hours including weatherproofing. Sliding glass door: 3–6 hours, often a two-person job. Barn door with track: 2–4 hours assuming the header behind the drywall is solid. Multi-door projects in one visit are usually faster per door than separate visits.
What does a door installation cost in Los Angeles?+
Interior pre-hung runs $200–380 in labor, slab swap $150–280, exterior pre-hung $380–650, sliding glass $450–780, and barn door with hardware $280–450. Doors and hardware are usually separate from labor. Custom-cut work for non-standard openings — common in older LA homes — adds $80–150.
Should I get a pre-hung door or a slab?+
Slab swap is cheaper and faster if the existing frame is square, undamaged, and the new door matches the size and hinge pattern. Pre-hung is the right call when the frame is rotted, racked, water-damaged, or you want a different door size. In older LA homes — anything pre-1970 — frames are more often the limiting factor, so pre-hung tends to be the better long-term choice for exterior work.
Can you install custom-shaped doors in older LA homes?+
Yes. Spanish-revival homes in Silver Lake, Pasadena, and Hancock Park often have arched interior doors that were custom-built decades ago and need a custom-cut replacement. Pros listing experience with arched and non-standard doors handle this work — expect a longer install and the $80–150 custom-cut surcharge. We can match you with someone who has done this kind of job before.
How do I know what size door to buy?+
Measure the rough opening width, the rough opening height, and the jamb depth (the thickness of the wall the frame will sit in). Standard interior widths are 28, 30, 32, and 36 inches; standard heights are 80 inches. Older LA homes routinely deviate. A pro should measure on site before any door is purchased — if a quote is being given without an in-person measurement, push for one.
Can a sliding glass door track be repaired or does it need replacement?+
Often the track itself can be cleaned, the rollers replaced, and the door rehung without a full replacement. In Westside neighborhoods like Santa Monica, Venice, and Pacific Palisades the salt-air climate corrodes tracks faster, so even repair work has a shorter lifespan than inland. If the track is bent, cracked, or the corrosion has eaten through the metal, full replacement is the right call. A pro can assess on site.
What hardware brands do your pros use?+
Schlage and Kwikset are the most common for residential locksets and handles in Los Angeles — both are widely available, well-supported for re-keying, and reasonably priced. Real Sliding Hardware is the standard choice for barn-door tracks. For doors themselves, Masonite is typical for interior and Therma-Tru and Pella for exterior. Pros can suggest other brands if you have specific preferences.
Does the pro bring the door or do I buy it?+
Both arrangements are common. About half of LA homeowners buy the door themselves — from Home Depot, Lowe's, or a specialty supplier — and have the pro install it. The other half ask the pro to source the door, which is more convenient but typically adds 15–30% over retail for the procurement. Pre-measure, decide which route fits your timeline, and confirm in the quote.
Will my new exterior door come with weather-stripping and a threshold seal?+
Pre-hung exterior doors include weather-stripping and a threshold from the manufacturer. The job of the installer is to make sure those are seated correctly, the door sweep contacts the threshold along its full length, and the jamb is bedded in sealant. Confirm these details are in the scope before the work starts — they are often where corner-cutting happens.
What if the door does not close properly after installation?+
If a vetted Shatun Brothers pro installs a door and it drags, will not latch, or leaks air or water due to install error, that is covered under their general liability insurance — every pro on the platform carries current coverage we have verified. File a dispute through your seeker request page within 10 days and we will work with the pro to resolve the issue, whether that is a return visit for adjustment or a full re-do.