Developers, shopfitters and small contractors usually want the same three things before they commit: how a quote gets built, how a fit-out runs on site, and what other projects looked like once the doors were hung.
Picked from the pages contractors open most.
Reviews
Feedback from townhouse developments and shopfitting jobs: lead times on meranti sets, how aluminium pivot units held up on the coast, and where hardware specs needed adjusting mid-build.
Read the reviewsPost 1
What to include before you ask for a bulk quote: opening sizes, frame profiles, hinge side, finish, and the tiling or painting dates the install has to work around.
Open the postPost 2
A short walk-through of when frames go in, when leaves stay wrapped, and how to avoid swelling or scratched architraves on a busy site with several teams working.
Open the postThree moments that decide whether a door schedule runs on time: the frame set-out before screeding, the hardware check against the door stile, and the pivot threshold level with the finished floor.
On townhouse runs we mark every opening from the same datum line. If the frame goes in after tiling, thresholds sit proud and the architrave has to be packed out.
A 60mm backset will not sit in a narrow stile without splitting it. We check stile width per door type before the hardware pack leaves the yard.
Pivot units carry no standard hinges, so the rough opening and finished floor height have to be agreed before the tile bed goes down. Coastal sites get aluminium for a reason.
On a townhouse run, the door schedule is rarely the problem. The problem is a supplier who quotes one frame profile and delivers another, or ships handles with a 60mm backset that will not seat on a 100mm stile. Here is what tends to separate a workable supplier from a frustrating one.
Send a door schedule with opening sizes, handings and finishes, and it comes back as a single line-item quote covering leaves, frames, architraves and hardware. No chasing three vendors for a frame that matches a leaf you already bought.
Standard 813mm and 914mm openings are routine. Custom widths, pivot rough openings and sliding pockets get measured against your set-out drawing first, because a pivot unit has to be positioned before the screed and tiles go down.
Meranti and oak veneer for interior runs, powder-coated aluminium where coastal humidity or rainfall would keep swelling a timber exterior leaf. We will say so plainly when a cheaper option will cost you a re-hang in two years.
Locksets, cylinders and lever handles grouped by finish and backset so a unit does not end up with three different satin nickel tones. Coastal projects get finishes that will not pit within a season.
Doors arrive after painting and tiling are scheduled, not before, so leaves are not stacked in a wet unit. Bulk orders for townhouse phases are sequenced to the block that is actually ready to hang.
Sealing all six faces of a meranti leaf, hinge screw depth, weather seal compression on an aluminium frame. Written notes your site team can follow without a phone call, plus care instructions for the handover pack.