What interior doors really cost
Someone walks into the first showroom and sees doors for four thousand. They walk into the second, and a similar-looking door costs eight. The obvious conclusion: the second place marks up twice as much.
That conclusion is usually wrong. The first place quoted the price of the slab alone; the second quoted the price of the full set. These are different things, and the gap between them is bigger than it looks.
This article isn't about how much our doors cost. It's about how to count so you're comparing like with like — with us, with competitors, anywhere.
A door is not one thing
When people say "door," they usually mean at least seven separate items:
- Slab — the part you actually open. Its price is what gets advertised most often, because it's the smallest number.
- Frame — the casing the slab sits in. The second most expensive part of the set, sometimes close to the slab itself.
- Architrave — the trim that covers the gap between frame and wall. Needed on both sides of the opening, so it's counted twice.
- Jamb extension — a board that extends the frame's depth when the wall is thicker than the frame. May not be needed in a panel building, but is needed almost always in a new-build with aerated-concrete walls or in a private house.
- Hardware fitting — labor: marking out the lock and hinges, routing the recesses, fitting the frame.
- Hardware — the handle, hinges, lock, stop. On its own, without fitting.
- Delivery to your address.
And separately, outside the set — installation. We don't do it, but you will pay for it, so it belongs in your calculation.
Now go back to that "door for four thousand" and check how many of these items it actually included.
What makes a slab more expensive or cheaper
Within a single factory, the slab's price depends on a few things, and all of them are noticeable by touch.
- Thickness. Ours is 40 or 34 mm depending on the line. Six millimeters don't show in a photo, but you feel them in your hand: a thicker slab is heavier and closes more solidly. In the ETALON line, that 40 mm thickness is exactly what leaves room for a sound-insulation material — a thinner slab has no such option.
- Finish. PVC film is the base option — the color is known upfront, and there's a physical sample. RAL or NCS painting is made to order: the color is exact, but there's no ready photo, only an approximate sample, and it takes longer to produce. Painted finishes always cost more than film, and that's a fair price for precision.
- Edge. A PVC edge band is standard. An aluminum edge profile costs more but holds up to impact better — with kids or a dog in the house, the difference becomes obvious after about five years. The INSIDE profile is the same metal plus a decorative insert on the slab face.
- Decoration. A flat slab is cheaper than one with molding, and molding is cheaper than full milled relief. It's directly proportional to how many operations the workshop has to run.
The frame: the thing nobody asks about until they see the invoice
Frames come in different types, and the price gap between them isn't a design whim.
- Telescopic — the most common. Has a sliding part that adjusts to wall thickness without cutting. Widths of 80, 100 or 120 mm: the thicker the wall, the wider the frame needed.
- Flush (coplanar) — the slab sits level with the wall, with no protruding edge. It looks more expensive because it is: it demands more precision to make and a perfectly flat wall.
- Concealed — disappears into the wall entirely. The most expensive option, and not just because of the frame itself: it needs neither architrave nor jamb extension, replaced instead by a system of aluminum profiles.
When comparing two quotes, don't just look for the word "frame" — check which type it is and what width.
Architrave and jamb extension: small items that add up
Architrave is needed on both sides of the opening. The telescopic version is 80 mm, with a 40 mm-wing option available; the flush version at 80 mm only comes as a front-side piece — there's no back-side version in the flush design.
A jamb extension adds to the frame's depth: 100, 150 or 200 mm. Whether you need one depends on your wall thickness, and it's the item most often "forgotten" in a preliminary quote, only to show up later on the invoice.
Work it out in advance: measure your wall thickness at the opening and ask whether the frame will cover it without an extension.
Hardware fitting: work that someone will do either way
A slab can arrive in one of three states.
- No fitting — as is. The cheapest option.
- Lock fitting only — just the recess for the lock mechanism.
- Full hardware fitting — lock, hinges and frame adjustment. The door arrives ready to install.
Here's the thing: this work doesn't disappear if you skip ordering it. Your installer will do it — on site, by hand, at their hourly rate, in the dust of your apartment. The only question is who does it and whether it's already accounted for in the invoice.
We fit hardware at the factory, on a machine, by template. On models with an aluminum edge, fitting costs more — metal is harder to work with.
How to compare honestly: a short formula
When you ask for quotes in two places, require the same set of items:
Slab + frame + architrave + jamb extension + hinges + lock + handle + delivery + installation.
Nine items. If one quote has nine and the other has three, that's not a cheaper price — it's just a different list.
And two more questions worth asking both suppliers:
- What's the production time? The difference between forty-five days and three months is not a minor detail if you're mid-renovation.
- What does the clock start from? The inquiry, the contract, or the payment. For us, it starts from the deposit landing in our account: 45 days for a standard size, 60 for a custom one.
Why our website doesn't show prices
It's a fair question, so here's a straight answer.
A set is put together for a specific opening. The same model with an 80 mm telescopic frame versus a flush frame plus a 200 mm jamb extension is a difference you can't show as one number in a catalog. And a number that doesn't mean anything only gets in the way: someone remembers it, then decides they were misled.
So we quote on request. You send us your opening sizes and preferences, and you get back a line-item quote — you can see exactly what you're paying for.
To speed things up: send us the opening's width and height, wall thickness, number of doors and preferred color right away. With that, a quote takes one business day.
Sizes: where we differ
One detail that affects price more than it seems to.
Our size grid runs in 50 mm steps: width from 400 to 900 mm, height from 1800 to 2100 mm. Within that range, there's no surcharge for size — an 830 mm opening takes an 800 or 850 mm door, at the same price as the most common size.
Wider and taller are made to order: width of 950 or 1000 mm, height from 2150 to 2300 mm, plus 20% on the slab price. A custom-size frame and jamb extension are priced the same way.
Compare that with "resizing the opening to fit a standard door": demolition, bricklaying, plastering, leveling — all before you've even paid for the door itself.
What to do with this
Before you ask for a quote anywhere, do three things.
- Measure your openings — width, height and wall thickness. We've written up how to do this correctly in a separate article.
- Decide whether you need hardware fitted at the factory. If your installer charges by the hour, you almost certainly do.
- Ask for a line-item quote, not a single number. A quote where you can see every component is almost always more honest than one that just says "turnkey doors" and one total.