How Door and Hardware Subs Bid Commercial Work

The first line of a door and hardware bid is what you are selling. Many door and hardware companies are distributors who detail, order and deliver; the doors are hung by the GC's carpenters or an install-only sub. Others furnish and install. Both are common, so say which one your number is.

Frames are built into the walls, so the framing or masonry sub usually sets them. The federal guide spec for steel doors and frames says to "build in or secure wall anchors to adjoining construction" and to set frames to the Steel Door Institute's erection standard, SDI A250.11 (UFGS 08 11 13). The framer's side of that line is in how drywall and framing subs bid.

A door bid is a count, not a measurement. Start from the door schedule and the hardware sets in the specification, and build one row per opening: door number, size and swing, frame type, door type and material, fire rating, and hardware set. Then check the two against each other. A door scheduled with a 90-minute rating and a hardware set with no closer, or a pair of doors with a set written for a single leaf, is a question to ask the GC before bid day, through the bid's questions so every bidder prices the same thing.

The hardware schedule the spec asks you to submit later is a good checklist for the takeoff now. The federal guide spec lists, for each hardware set, the "Hardware Set Number", "Opening Number(s)", the opening description, "Fire Rating", "Sound Rating", and each item's quantity, size and finish (UFGS 08 71 00). If your takeoff carries the same fields, the submittal is half written when you win.

This trade's submittals come in a set, and they gate every order. In the federal guide spec, the hardware section asks for manufacturer's detail drawings, the hardware schedule and the keying system as shop drawings, product data for each item, installation instructions, operation and maintenance data, and key bitting at closeout (UFGS 08 71 00). The steel door section asks for a schedule of doors inside the shop drawings, "identifying door number, door and frame types and construction, dimensions, thickness" and, where the spec includes them, fire ratings and hardware sets (UFGS 08 11 13). How to package them is in how to prepare a submittal.

Three spec details to plan for. Hardware is made to templates, and the spec says to "provide templates to door and frame manufacturers", so a late hardware schedule delays doors you have not ordered yet. Before the key shop drawing is submitted, the contracting officer, contractor, hardware sub, user and base locksmith "must meet to discuss and coordinate key requirements". And the key bitting chart asks for a "listing of 20 percent more key cuts than are presently required in each master system" (UFGS 08 71 00). Your project's spec may differ; read its keying article before you bid the keying line.

NFPA 80, the Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, covers "installing, inspecting, testing, and maintaining fire doors and other opening protectives" (NFPA), and the federal guide spec says to "install fire doors and frames, including hardware, in accordance with NFPA 80". It also says fire door and frame labels are "permanently affixed at the factory to frames and to the hinge edge of the door. Do not paint door and labels." (UFGS 08 11 13).

• Price labeled doors and frames prepared for their hardware before they ship; the guide spec has doors and frames drilled and tapped to receive finish hardware, so a late hardware schedule means a late door.
• Tell the painter, through the GC, to mask labels.
• List electrified hardware on rated doors in the hardware schedule so the rating covers it.
• NFPA 80 covers inspecting and testing as well as installing, so ask whether the owner wants an inspection report for the rated openings at turnover. The Door and Hardware Institute runs a Certified Fire & Egress Door Assembly Inspector credential for that work (DHI).

Door and hardware work arrives in waves: frames first, then doors, then hardware, then permanent cores. Give each wave its own line in the schedule of values so each can be billed when it lands. A fictional $243,000 furnish-and-install subcontract:

In the fictional period 2, the submittal line goes from 50% to 100% ($2,250) and the frames are delivered and stored on site ($38,200 stored). That bills $40,450; at 10% retainage $4,045.00 is held and $36,405.00 is added to the payment due. Checks: $2,250 + $38,200 = $40,450; $40,450 − $4,045 = $36,405. When the frames are set, line 2 moves from stored to complete with no new billing. Stored material and retainage on the form itself are covered in how to fill out a pay application as a subcontractor and how to calculate retainage.

Two quirks of this trade. On a supply-only purchase order, settle before you sign whether retainage applies at all and when it is released; your last dollars should not wait on someone else hanging the doors. And when the door schedule changes after frames are ordered (a swing, a size, a rating), price it right away as a change order request with the opening numbers listed.

• Keys: the spec may ask you to tag file and duplicate keys and give "complete instructions for setup and use of key control system", and to "demonstrate that permanent keys operate respective locks" (UFGS 08 71 00).
• The key bitting chart, delivered to whoever the spec names (the federal guide spec has it submitted to the contracting officer before the work is complete).
• Operation and maintenance data for the hardware schedule items.
• Manufacturer warranties; the federal guide spec, for example, asks for a 10-year manufacturer's warranty on door closers.
• Attic stock, if the spec calls for spare hardware.
• Final lien waiver and the retainage request.

Doors are among the last items finished, so walk every opening with the GC's punch list before you ask for retainage. Where this trade sits in the sub's whole job is in the subcontractor's guide, and the job's phases in the construction project lifecycle.

When a GC sends a door, frame and hardware package through Trade bids in Conflo, you read the scope, ask questions that are answered to every bidder without your name, acknowledge each addendum, and submit a base bid with each of the GC's scope items marked included or excluded, such as installation or electrified hardware, plus alternates, exclusions and qualifications. Attach your proposal and opening list as a PDF; there is no field for a per-opening or unit price.

After award, the hardware schedule and the door and frame shop drawings go through Submittals. You see only your own company's submittals; you can start one or fill in one the GC set up, with its spec section, type (shop drawings, product data, samples and others), package and the files attached. The GC reviews it, then the design team, and each returns approved, approved as noted, revise and resubmit, or rejected, with a note on anything but approved. A resubmittal opens as the next revision under the same number. Conflo keeps your hardware schedule as the attached file; it does not read it into hardware sets.

A door and hardware bid is a count of openings and a clear line on who installs and who sets frames. The job is won or lost on the hardware schedule: get it in early, keyed and matched to the door schedule.

Before your next bid, add the seven clarifications in the first table to your proposal template.

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1. UFGS 08 71 00, Door Hardware (February 2016, change 4) — Whole Building Design Guide (USACE, NAVFAC, AFCEC). Read October 22, 2026.
2. UFGS 08 11 13, Steel Doors and Frames (August 2020, change 1) — Whole Building Design Guide (USACE, NAVFAC, AFCEC). Read October 22, 2026.
3. NFPA 80, Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives — National Fire Protection Association. Read October 22, 2026.
4. Door and Hardware Institute (home page and credential list) — Door and Hardware Institute. Read October 22, 2026.