Start from the door schedule and the hardware sets
Every commercial bid starts with the opening. The architect's door schedule lists each opening by number and tells you the door type, size, material, fire rating, frame and the hardware set assigned to it. The hardware sets, usually written up in the specification, spell out exactly which hinges, locksets, closers, exit devices, stops and accessories belong to each kind of opening.
Before you price anything, read both together and make sure they agree. A schedule that calls for a 90-minute rated opening but a hardware set with no fire-rated closer is a conflict you want to catch now, not after you have quoted it. The schedule and the sets are the source of truth for the whole bid; if they are wrong, the price is wrong.
Build the takeoff
A takeoff is the count. You work through the schedule and tally what the job actually needs: how many openings, and for each one, how many doors, how many frames and exactly which hardware items. A pair of doors is two leaves in one opening, often with a mullion, and it carries more hardware than a single. Sidelites, borrowed lites and transoms add frame and glazing lines.
The takeoff is where most of the real work lives, and where a missed line becomes a loss. It helps to count in a consistent order every time so nothing is skipped.
- Openings: the total count, by type and rating
- Doors: leaves per opening, material, size, finish, any vision lites
- Frames: knock-down or welded, throat size, profile, anchors
- Hardware: every item in each set, by quantity, times the openings using that set
- Accessories and prep: silencers, thresholds, weatherstrip, glazing
Price each line from the manufacturer price books
With the takeoff done, each line gets a price. Distributors price from manufacturer price books, which list list prices for every door, frame and piece of hardware a given maker offers. You apply your buying multiplier or discount to the list price to get your cost, then add margin to reach your sell price.
The hard part is not the arithmetic, it is keeping the price books current. Manufacturers reissue them, discontinue items, change multipliers and move products between categories. An estimate priced off last year's book can be wrong on dozens of lines without anyone noticing until the purchase order bounces back. Maintaining price books is ongoing work, and it is one of the places software earns its keep: eMullion maintains manufacturer catalogs for you so a line is priced from current data rather than a spreadsheet someone last updated months ago.
Apply multipliers, margin, labor and freight
Cost is only the starting point. You apply your discount multiplier to get landed cost, then a margin to reach the sell price. Margin should be deliberate and consistent across the bid; when it drifts line to line, the total stops meaning anything.
Depending on scope, you may also add labor for shop prep or install, prep charges for machining frames and doors for hardware, and freight. Whether these belong in a given bid depends on what you are selling: material-only, or material plus installation. Decide that up front, because it changes the number and what the contractor thinks they are buying.
Review the worksheet, then produce the proposal
Before the price goes out, review the bid worksheet as a whole. Does every opening on the schedule appear? Do the quantities total correctly? Is the margin consistent? Are the rated openings carrying rated hardware? A short, honest review catches the errors that cost real money.
The proposal is the last step: a clean document that states what you are furnishing, any clarifications or exclusions, lead times and the price. Exclusions matter as much as inclusions, because they define the edge of what you are responsible for.
Common pitfalls
Most bad Division 08 numbers come from a short list of recurring mistakes. Knowing them is half the defense.
- Stale price book data: pricing off an outdated or discontinued line
- Missed hardware: a set item left off the takeoff, multiplied across every opening that uses the set
- Transcription errors: a quantity or price mistyped between schedule, takeoff and worksheet
- Inconsistent margin: different markups applied line to line with no reason
- Schedule and spec conflicts carried straight into the price
