If you have had two quotes for a new internal door and one is a lot cheaper, the difference is almost always the door itself. Here is what the two types are, what each one costs, and why we only fit one of them.
What is a hollow core door?
A hollow core door is two thin skins of board over a cardboard honeycomb, with a strip of solid timber around the edge to take the hinges and latch. It is light, cheap and quick to hang. It costs about £30 to £50 to buy.
What is a solid core door?
A solid core door has a dense engineered core all the way through, faced in the same way. It is heavy, it feels solid when you knock on it, and it costs about £70 to £80 to buy. It comes primed, ready for painting.
What is the difference in the finished job?
Sound. A solid door takes the edge off noise between rooms. A hollow one does not, which you notice most on bedrooms and bathrooms.
Feel. A solid door closes with a soft, definite sound. A hollow one rattles in its frame and sounds like a cupboard.
Damage. A hollow door dents when something catches it, and once the skin is broken it is replaced rather than repaired. A solid door takes a knock and gets filled and painted.
Hinges. This is the one people do not see. The hinge screws in a hollow door only have a thin timber strip to bite into. Over a few years they work loose, the door drops, and it starts catching on the frame. A solid door holds its screws. We fit three hinges on every door, not two, because a solid door is heavy and the third hinge is what stops it dropping.
Locks and handles. A solid door will take a proper mortice latch or lock. A hollow one limits what can be fitted and how well it holds.
What does each one cost fitted?
A solid core door, supplied and fitted into your existing frame with new hinges, latch and lever handles, is around £205 to £225 with us. The fitting is the same either way, so the whole difference between the two is the £40 or so on the door itself. On a door you will open and close every day for twenty years, that is not much.
If a quote you have is well under £150 for a door supplied and fitted, it is almost certainly a hollow door on two hinges.
Why do you not fit hollow core doors, even if asked?
Because we would be fitting the same door twice. A hollow door on two hinges is the job that comes back: the drop, the catch, the dent. We would rather do it once. It is a deliberate choice about the standard of the work, not an upsell, and the price difference is small against a return visit.
When is a hollow core door fine?
A cupboard. A door that is rarely used and never knocked. If that is the door you are replacing, tell us and we will say so honestly, but we will still hang a solid one, because the fitting is the same and the door is only a little more.
What about fire doors?
Neither of these is a fire door. A fire door is a certified product with seals and specific fittings, needed between a garage and the house, for example. We quote those separately and never describe a solid core door as one.
Want a proper price?
We visit before we quote, because the photo does not show whether the frame is square or the opening is a standard size. Book a visit at mendwell.co.uk/book and you get a fixed price in writing. The full breakdown is in what it costs to replace an internal door.
Mendwell is property maintenance for homes and businesses, based in Nuneaton and working across Warwickshire. If you are outside the towns you see us mention, ask anyway.
Prices reviewed September 2026.