Repair and replacement mix
A programme dominated by closer adjustment, seals and alignment is fundamentally different from one requiring several complete doorsets. The quotation should preserve that distinction.
Cost Guide
Fire Door Costs for HMOs: Budgeting a Whole-Property Programme
A useful HMO budget starts with the openings in the property, not a headline price per door. This guide shows how to turn an existing report, FRA action list or pre-works assessment into a written, door-by-door programme without inventing a figure before the scope is known.
Start With A Door-By-Door Schedule
Give every opening a stable reference and record its location, function, known specification, reported defects and proposed action. Bedroom and room doors, kitchen doors and common-parts doors should remain identifiable rather than being combined into one undifferentiated quantity.
A schedule exposes the real mix: adjustments and component renewals on some doors, frame or leaf repairs on others, and complete replacement only where it is justified. It also lets an HMO operator compare quotations against the same scope.
- Door reference, floor, room and whether access depends on an occupier
- Opening role: bedroom or room, kitchen, corridor, stair or service area
- Existing report item or FRA action linked to that reference
- Repair, investigate-first or replacement proposal stated separately
- Required rating and smoke-control requirement where already established
- Any no-access opening or unresolved specification recorded openly
What Moves The HMO Programme Cost
Occupied-room access
Bedroom doors may need notices, appointments and repeat access rounds. Work in common parts can usually be sequenced more continuously, so equal-looking items can carry different labour costs.
Frames and openings
A sound compatible frame may be retained where the chosen specification supports it. Damaged, distorted or unsupported frames change the product, labour and making-good scope.
Hardware and compatibility
Hinges, closers, locks, latches, handles, viewers and seals must suit the relevant door construction. A list that says only ‘hardware included’ is too vague for comparison.
Finishing and disposal
Decoration, architraves, floor finishes, perimeter making good and removal of old materials may be included or excluded. Either is workable if the quotation says which.
Records and handover
Door references, product information and completion records take time to assemble. They should be priced once as part of the programme rather than discovered as an omission at the end.
Allow For Access, Uncertainty And Contingency
An occupied HMO programme should state who gives notice, who holds keys, what happens when a room cannot be accessed and whether a return visit is included. Those arrangements affect the budget as directly as the components.
Contingency is most useful when tied to named unknowns. Concealed frame condition, missing doorset evidence and no-access rooms can be marked provisional. A blanket unexplained allowance makes it harder to control the final account.
- Separate confirmed work from provisional or investigate-first lines
- State the number of access rounds and treatment of no-access rooms
- Keep common-parts and room-access labour assumptions visible
- State whether making good, decoration and disposal are included
- Show the VAT basis on each quotation before comparing totals
- Record client-supplied information and assumptions that affect price
A Hypothetical HMO Budget Example
Consider a hypothetical six-bedroom HMO with six bedroom doors, a kitchen door, two doors on the stair route and one service-cupboard door. The correct budget is not ten times a generic door price. The schedule might identify closer and seal work on several sound doors, frame repairs at one opening and a documented replacement doorset at another.
The quotation should price those actions against the ten references, identify the bedrooms requiring appointments, state what happens if a frame defect is concealed and show VAT separately. This is an illustration of method only, not a Parsec project or price example.
How To Obtain Comparable Written Quotations
Issue the same door schedule, photographs, access information and required record output to every contractor. Then compare actions per door rather than totals alone. If one quotation replaces a door another repairs, ask for the evidence and reasoning behind each approach.
- Same door references and source findings issued to every bidder
- Repairs, replacements and investigation items separated
- Product, frame, hardware and finish assumptions stated
- Access, return visits, protection, disposal and making good stated
- Handover evidence and outstanding-item records defined
- Formal inspection cost separated from Parsec's works quotation
Related Pages
Use these pages to define the HMO works and compare the resulting quotation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Your HMO Programme Priced Door By Door
Send your report, FRA action list or referenced door schedule. We will separate repairs from replacement, state assumptions and exclusions, and provide a written quotation with its VAT basis clear.