Door Hardware Schedule Calculator

The hinges are never the problem. What holds up a trim-out is being three strike plates and a box of screws short on a Friday, because somebody counted doors and not the eleven small things each door needs before it will close.

Bedrooms, hallways, anywhere the door just has to stay shut
Bathrooms and bedrooms where someone wants it locked from inside
Exterior doors, a garage entry, a locked office or store room
Fixed inactive leaves, false doors, some closet doors
Count only what has already been decided. Whether a closer is required on a given opening is a code and listing question, not a take-off question.
Three is the usual interior count. Tall, heavy and closer-equipped doors often get a fourth — the door and hinge manufacturer specify what their product needs.
Doors you have already decided need one more than the number above
Four per leaf on a typical four-inch butt hinge, so eight per hinge
Screws long enough to pass the shim space into the framing. Usually one or two at the top hinge.
The small rubber bumpers pressed into the stop. Three per jamb is typical, two on the hinge side and one at the strike.
Optional. Whatever your supplier quotes — leave every price blank to skip the cost section.
Door Hardware Schedule Calculator — Hinges and LatchesBuildFigure

Count the doors by what they do, not by how many there are

A door schedule is a list of openings with a function against each one, and the function is what decides the hardware. Passage, privacy, keyed and dummy are the four that cover almost every house. Passage latches and does not lock. Privacy locks from one side with a button or a turn and has some way to release it from the other. Keyed takes a key. Dummy is a handle screwed to a door that does not latch at all, which is why it needs no strike and, on a fixed inactive leaf, often no hinges from you either.

Work the default schedule on this page through: six passage, three privacy, two keyed and one dummy is twelve doors, of which eleven are hinged and latching. Eleven doors at three hinges is thirty three hinges, and at eight screws per hinge that is two hundred and sixty four screws before the long ones. Eleven strikes, eleven stops, and at three silencers per jamb, thirty three silencers. That is the list, and every item on it after the first two is one somebody forgets.

The things that hold up a trim-out

ItemHow manyWhy it gets missed
HingesPer hinged door, times the hinge countNobody misses these
Hinge screwsAround eight per hingeThe ones in the box are short
Long screwsOne or two per doorBought separately or not at all
Strike platesOne per latching doorUsually in the lockset box, sometimes not
StopsOne per swinging doorBought after the first hole in the drywall
SilencersTwo or three per jambCome with prehung units, never with slabs

The pattern is that everything supplied with a prehung unit is invisible on a take-off until the job uses slabs and existing jambs, at which point every one of those small items has to be bought on purpose. A remodel that reuses jambs is exactly the job where this list gets short.

The hinge count is a manufacturer figure, not a rule of thumb

Three hinges on an interior door is a convention that works for the great majority of ordinary slabs, and this page defaults to it because you have to default to something. It is not a specification. Door manufacturers prepare their slabs for a particular hinge count and size, and they and the hinge maker publish what a given leaf needs based on its weight, height and thickness and on whether a closer is fitted. A closer in particular changes the picture, because it applies force to the door every time it operates rather than just carrying its weight.

The input that actually drives it is the weight of the leaf, which the door slab weight calculator works out from the size and the core, along with the moment it applies about the hinge line and how far a given screw reaches into the framing. Put that weight in front of the manufacturer table rather than guessing from the door size, because two 32 inch doors can differ by fifty pounds.

What a take-off must not decide

Two categories of decision sit outside any quantity list. The first is whether a particular opening needs particular hardware at all: closers, self-closing devices, panic hardware, lever versus knob, and where a lock may or may not be fitted are governed by the code your jurisdiction has adopted and by the occupancy of the building, and a house, a rental unit and a small commercial space can all answer differently. That is a building department conversation.

The second is fire-rated openings, which are not a hardware category but a tested assembly. The door, the frame, the hinges, the latch, the closer, the gasketing and the labels were tested together and the rating belongs to the combination. Swapping a hinge for a nicer finish, adding a kick plate, drilling for a different lockset or removing a closer can all end the rating, and there is no site-level judgement that puts it back. The manufacturer listing and the authority having jurisdiction are the only sources on what is allowed, and this page deliberately does not count rated openings differently, because it cannot.

Ordering, and the item you will be short of

Round up on everything small. Screws, silencers and hinges are cheap by the box and expensive by the second trip. Finish is the one that cannot be fixed by rounding: hinges, strikes, stops and lock trim all come in finishes that look identical in the aisle and obviously different on the wall, and a single hinge in the wrong finish on the one door everybody walks past is the kind of thing that gets noticed for years.

The rest of the door package lives on adjacent pages: jamb width if you are building jambs rather than buying prehung units, rough openings for the framing side, trim and molding for the casing footage and stick count, and clear width for what each opening actually leaves to walk through once the slab is in it.

Questions people ask

How many hinges does a door need?

Three is the usual count on an ordinary interior door and it is what this page defaults to, but the real answer comes from the door and hinge manufacturer for the specific slab, based on its weight, height and thickness. Tall doors, heavy solid slabs and any door with a closer on it commonly want a fourth. Work out the weight first — the door slab weight calculator does that from the size and core — and take that number to the manufacturer table rather than deciding from the door width.

How many screws come with a hinge?

A typical four inch butt hinge has four holes in each leaf, so eight screws per hinge, which is the default here. They are usually short, long enough to hold in the jamb stock and no further, which is fine for a light slab and is the standard reason a heavy one starts to sag. Most people replace one or two per door, at the top hinge, with screws long enough to pass the shim space and reach the framing. That count is a separate field on this page for exactly that reason.

Do dummy doors need hinges?

It depends what the dummy trim is on. A fixed inactive leaf of a pair, or a false door panel, is not swinging and takes no hinges from your count, which is how this calculator treats them. A bifold or a closet door with dummy pulls has its own hardware that came with the track kit rather than with your hinge order. If the dummy trim is going on a door that does swing but has no latch — occasionally done on a pantry — then count it as a hinged door and give it hinges and a stop, just no strike.

Why are all the price fields blank?

Because any default would be wrong. Door hardware pricing moves by supplier, by finish, by grade, by whether the item is builder stock or a specified commercial line, and by how many you are buying at once. A number printed here would be stale within a season and misleading everywhere. Put in what your supplier quotes and the calculator multiplies it out and totals it exactly. Lines you leave blank stay out of the total, which is why it is described as partial rather than as a budget.

Does this handle fire-rated doors?

No, and that is deliberate. A fire-rated opening is a tested assembly in which the door, frame, hinges, latch, closer and gasketing were listed together, and the rating belongs to that combination rather than to any one part. Counting hinges for it the way you would for an ordinary door invites a substitution that quietly ends the rating. Take the hardware schedule for any rated opening from the manufacturer listing for that assembly and from the authority having jurisdiction, and keep it out of a general take-off.

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