A security door for a flat: what affects the price

What the total price of a security door is made up of

A steel security door quote is usually built from four separate costs: the door and frame unit itself, the lock, the fitting labour, and any work needed on the existing opening. Suppliers price the door and lock as a set with a few tiers, while fitting is priced separately because it depends on your specific doorway.

For a typical flat in Tallinn, a mid-range steel door with a reasonable lock and standard fitting into a Soviet-era panel building opening tends to land somewhere between 450 € and 900 € all in. Doors with heavier insulation, sound-dampening cores, or higher security ratings push that towards 1200 € or more.

Fitting itself, when the opening needs only minor adjustment, is billed from our door installation service starting at 120 € per job, with the final figure depending on how much shimming, sealing and hardware fitting is involved.

Lock class and its effect on the price

The lock is often the single biggest swing factor after the door leaf itself. A basic single-cylinder lock costs noticeably less than a multi-point locking system with several bolts along the door's height, which is what most security doors use to resist forcing at more than one point.

Higher lock classes also tend to need a heavier strike plate and reinforced frame section to match, which adds to both material and fitting time. If you are replacing only the lock on an existing steel door rather than the whole unit, that is a separate and much smaller job, priced from 60 € per job through our lock replacement service.

It is worth deciding on lock class before you get quotes, since two quotes for what looks like the same door can differ by hundreds of euros purely because one assumes a basic lock and the other a multi-point one.

The old frame: reuse or full replacement

Whether the existing steel frame stays in the wall or gets ripped out is usually the second big cost driver, after the lock. Reusing a sound frame and fitting a new door leaf and lock into it is faster and cheaper, since it avoids cutting into the surrounding wall and replastering.

A full frame replacement is needed when the old frame is bent, rusted through, or was never fitted square to begin with, which is common in older panel-building openings that have shifted slightly over decades. This adds demolition, wall repair, and a new frame to the job, and typically adds several hours of work.

Metal fitting work of this kind, cutting, welding or adjusting the frame and hardware to fit the opening properly, is billed from 45 € per hour, and a frame replacement job can run from two to five hours depending on how much the opening needs correcting.

What is usually included in the fitting price, and what is extra

A standard fitting quote usually covers removing the old door, fitting the new frame and leaf, aligning and sealing the gaps, and fitting the lock and handles supplied with the door. Call-out within Tallinn is 25 €, deducted from the final bill if the job goes ahead.

What is commonly extra: disposal of the old steel door, which is heavy and awkward to move; any plastering or painting around the frame if the wall opening had to be widened or repaired; and additional locks, spy holes, or letterboxes not included with the base door.

If we buy materials such as sealant, expanding foam, or replacement hardware on your behalf, a 10 % handling fee applies, or you can supply them yourself. For larger jobs a fixed quote valid for 30 days is given once we have seen photos or a description of the opening, and that figure is what you pay.

What to mention about your building when asking for a quote

The single most useful thing you can tell us before a quote is the measurements of the existing opening, taken at the top, middle and bottom, since panel-building openings are not always perfectly square even when they look it. A few photos of the current door and frame, inside and outside, help just as much.

Apartment associations sometimes have rules about which side the door may open into the corridor, or about matching the exterior colour to other doors on the landing, so it is worth checking with your korteriühistu before ordering. Some buildings also restrict working hours for noisy jobs like grinding or welding.

• Opening measurements: width and height, taken at three points
• Photos of the current door, frame and surrounding wall
• Whether the door opens inward or outward, and any korteriühistu rule about it
• Which floor you are on and whether there is a lift, since a steel door is heavy to carry up
• Any building restriction on working hours for grinding or welding
• Whether you want the old door removed and disposed of, or will keep it