A French door job around Portland usually comes to somewhere between $950 and $6,120 per unit, door included, with $3,000 as the middle of the market (market data, November 2026) . Roughly half pays for the doors themselves. Four things push the rest up or down: inside or outside wall, the size of the pair, rot under the old sill, and whether the opening has to change. Our French door installation page covers the work itself.
I'm Slava. This page is only about the bill and where its surprises come from.
How much does French door installation cost around Portland?
These are local market ranges from November 2026, not a quote from us. The first line includes the door unit. Every line below it is labour only, so wood, epoxy and paint are extra.
| What gets done | Low end | Middle | High end | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| French door unit installed (one unit, a pair counts once) | $950 | $3,000 | $6,120 | per door, with materials |
| Rotted jamb or sill cut out and patched (epoxy or Dutchman) | $400 | $800 | $1,600 | per job, labour only |
| New unit painted or stained | $150 | $300 | $600 | per door, labour only |
| Threshold, sweep or rain drip cap added | $150 | $250 | $450 | per job, labour only |
| Casing replaced inside and out | $200 | $400 | $800 | per job, labour only |
Three common bills, from the middle figures. A pre-hung pair into a sound opening of the same size: about $3,000. The same job with rot fixed at the sill and jamb: about $3,800, anywhere from $1,350 to $7,720. Add paint on a primed unit and you're near $4,100. That's arithmetic, not a promise.
Oregon has no general sales tax, so the unit costs what the shelf says. National calculators that add a tax line look higher on paper than a west-side job really is.
The market row doesn't separate interior from exterior work, and I read its "per door" as one unit, whether that's a single leaf or a pair . Every line here except the door unit can involve old paint in a house built before 1978; the Oregon section below explains why that matters.
How much is labor to install a French door?
On a typical $3,000 job, labour is about $1,500, spread over roughly ten hours. For an exterior pair that means one long day or two shorter ones .
Those hours buy more than hanging doors. The old unit comes out, the subfloor and rim get checked, a sill pan goes in, and the new frame is set level and plumb so both leaves meet evenly in the middle. Then the gaps get sealed, the head is flashed into the house wrap, and casing, hardware, strike plates, weatherstrip and caulk finish it off.
That's why the few-hundred-dollar "labor only" numbers you see online don't fit here. They describe swapping an interior slab, not setting an exterior pair that has to shed rain winter after winter. The full install order is on the French and sliding doors page. If you already bought a unit at a big-box store, ask for an install-only price .
What decides the price of the French door unit itself?
No unit prices here yet .
Exterior units cost more than interior ones. A single French door costs less than a pair, and a pair with sidelites costs more again. Two working leaves cost more than one active leaf beside a fixed one. Material matters: wood, fiberglass, vinyl and aluminum-clad wood each sit at a different level. So does the glass, from plain double-pane to Low-E or blinds sealed between the panes. A multi-point lock on the active leaf adds to it too.
Watch the cheap "assembly required" kits with a loose jamb. They move work from the factory to your house, so a lower unit price can come with a bigger labour line . If you're really pricing a single front entry door, the front door replacement cost guide fits better.
Why do interior French doors usually cost less?
Inside the house there's no weather to fight. No sill pan, no flashing, no exterior trim to seal against rain.
What drives the price inside is the opening. A regular bedroom or office door is often 30 to 32 inches wide, while a French pair wants about 60 inches or more. Turning a single doorway into a pair means cutting the wall wider and putting in a new header, and that brings in a permit. Hanging a pair into an opening that's already wide, like an open archway into a den, is closer to hanging two ordinary doors . For other inside door work, see interior doors.
What does it cost to swap a sliding door for French doors?
This is often the cheapest exterior case. A common 6-foot slider opening can usually take a 6-foot French pair without touching the header, so the bill looks like the first line of the table above .
Two catches. Swing room: an out-swing pair needs clear deck space, and an in-swing pair needs the floor and furniture out of the arc. The other is the sill height compared with the deck or patio outside, which decides how water and feet meet the new threshold.
Measuring comes first. Take the trim off or measure the old frame, check the width at three heights and the height at both sides, then order to the smallest number . Replacing a slider with another slider is a different job with its own guide coming later.
What does turning a window into French doors cost?
This is a bigger job than a swap. The wall under the window comes out, the opening usually gets wider and taller, and a header sized for the new span goes in. Siding, drywall and trim then get patched on both sides. If there's an outlet or wiring under the window, it may need to move .
A new or resized opening needs a permit. There's no market row for a header, so I won't put a total on it. Here's what the finishing pieces cost on their own (Portland-area market ranges, November 2026) :
| Finishing piece | Low end | Middle | High end | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Siding boards replaced around the new opening | $900 | $1,800 | $6,500 | per job, with materials |
| Drywall patched to match the texture | $175 | $295 | $450 | per job, labour only |
| Casing inside and out | $200 | $400 | $800 | per job, labour only |
| New unit painted or stained | $150 | $300 | $600 | per door, labour only |
These lines can disturb old paint in a pre-1978 house too.
What can be hiding under an old patio door sill?
Rot only shows itself once the old unit is out. It sits at the bottom of the jamb legs, in the subfloor, and sometimes in the rim joist under the sill. Fixing it runs $400 to $1,600 in the local market, $800 in the middle, labour only .
When that happens, the right move is to stop, take photos, and price the extra in writing before going any further . More on that kind of fix is on the rotted door frame repair page.
Why sills go soft here: back patio openings take wind-driven rain from October into spring, many west-side houses sit over crawl spaces, and older units often went in with no sill pan at all .
Do Oregon rules add anything to the cost?
Permit. Replacing a door with one the same size and no structural change doesn't need a building permit under the state's list, and Portland's list says the same when the opening isn't widened or narrowed. A new opening, a wider or taller one, or a window turned into a door does need one, so budget the fee and the wait for inspection. Which office decides depends on the address. Details are in do I need a permit.
Houses built before 1978. Many west-side houses are that old, and the casing, trim and siding around a patio opening may carry lead paint. Disturbing more than 6 square feet of painted surface per room inside, or 20 outside, counts as renovation under Oregon's rule, and lead-safe work costs more. We don't do lead-paint disturbance (what we don't do); the rule itself is in the lead paint rules guide .
Written contract. Oregon wants residential construction agreements over $2,000 in writing, and a typical exterior pair is over that. See Oregon contractor contract requirements.
No federal credit. The IRS energy credit for exterior doors covered units placed in service before December 31, 2025, so a door installed in 2027 gets nothing from it.
What are the downsides of French doors, and which way should they swing?
They need clear floor or deck where they swing. The seam where the two leaves meet is where drafts and leaks usually start, and that center seal wears first; new weatherstrip runs $150 to $400 in the local market, labour only . An out-swing door has its hinges outside, so it wants security hinges or pins that can't be pulled.
For a rainy climate, both directions have a trade-off. Wind presses an out-swing door into its seals, but it eats deck space. An in-swing door keeps the deck clear but depends on a good sill and sweep against blowing rain .
Can you install a French door yourself?
An interior pre-hung pair going into an existing opening is a fair DIY project if you're patient. An exterior pair is a harder one. Two heavy leaves have to meet evenly in the middle, and the sill pan and flashing decide whether your subfloor stays dry. That's what the labour line on a quote pays for.
How do you compare two French door quotes?
Get it in writing and check each one names:
- the old unit's removal, and where it goes;
- the make and model, and whether it's pre-hung or a kit;
- which way it swings and which leaf is the active one;
- sill pan and head flashing;
- casing inside and out, plus paint or stain;
- the lock and handle set;
- how hidden rot gets priced, as a fixed allowance or by the foot;
- for a new opening: header, siding, drywall and the permit.
If one quote is much lower than the other, hold it against this list line by line.