§ Sheet LP / 06 · For St. Louis, MO door contractors

St. Louis, MO
DOORS ESTIMATING.

St. Louis door contractors: go from walkthrough to sendable bid in 8 minutes. Local labor rates, permit data, and AR measuring built in.

§ St. Louis fast facts

QUICK ANSWERS.

Do I need a permit to replace an exterior door in St. Louis?

In the City of St. Louis, replacing an exterior door in kind (same size, no structural change) typically requires a building permit. St. Louis County municipalities vary — some require permits for all exterior door swaps, others exempt direct replacements. Always verify with the specific municipality before starting work; bidding without confirming permit requirements exposes you to stop-work orders and re-inspection costs.

§ Built for St. Louis

LOCAL FACTS.

AVG DOOR INSTALLER LABOR RATE – ST. LOUIS METRO.

Approximately $28–$38/hr for journeyman-level door installers in the St. Louis MSA, per 2023–2024 regional trade wage surveys. Specialty work (fire-rated, ADA hardware) commands the higher end.

CITY OF ST. LOUIS BUILDING PERMIT FEE – RESIDENTIAL DOOR REPLACEMENT.

The City of St. Louis charges a minimum permit fee of $50 for residential door replacements; larger commercial projects are calculated on valuation at roughly $10 per $1,000 of declared work value under the current City of St. Louis Building Division fee schedule.

MISSOURI CONTRACTOR LICENSING NOTE.

Missouri does not issue a statewide general contractor license. However, the City of St. Louis requires a City-registered contractor license for permitted work. Door contractors must register with the St. Louis Building Division and carry general liability insurance; registration fees are approximately $75–$150 annually depending on business type.

HISTORIC DISTRICT SCOPE IMPACT – ST. LOUIS.

St. Louis has more than 30 locally designated historic districts plus several National Register districts (Soulard, Lafayette Square, Cherokee-Lemp, among others). Work in locally designated districts may require Certificate of Appropriateness approval from the Cultural Resources Office, adding 2–6 weeks to project timelines and restricting certain door materials and styles — a scope and scheduling factor that must be reflected in your bid.

§ Why doors pros in St. Louis use Estimate.Pro

THE BID ENGINE.

## Door Estimating in St. Louis Moves Fast — Your Bids Should Too St. Louis has one of the more active residential replacement and commercial retrofit markets in the Midwest. Between the historic brick two-flats in South City, the commercial corridors along Olive and Manchester, and the constant churn of multi-family rehab work in neighborhoods like The Grove and Tower Grove South, door contractors here rarely sit idle. The problem is that a busy pipeline means bids piling up, and slow bids lose jobs. Estimate.Pro gets you from site walkthrough to a sendable bid in 8 minutes — median, not a best-case promise. --- ### What Makes Door Estimating in St. Louis Different **Historic housing stock adds scope complexity.** A large portion of St. Louis's housing predates 1950. Rough openings in older frames are rarely standard. Masonry openings in brick veneer or full-brick construction require different prep line items than a wood-framed new build. When you're quoting a door job in Soulard or Compton Heights, you need to account for shimming, jamb extensions, and potential lintel assessment — not just door unit cost. **Commercial work on the Illinois side has different code requirements.** Many St. Louis-area contractors bid work across the river in Madison and St. Clair counties. Illinois has adopted the 2021 IBC with local amendments. If you're quoting fire-rated assemblies or ADA-compliant hardware on commercial doors, the label requirements and hardware specifications differ from Missouri-side jobs. Estimate.Pro lets you note jurisdiction per project so your scope-of-work language stays accurate. **Material lead times matter here.** St. Louis sits at the edge of a major distribution hub, but custom door units — steel, fiberglass, and wood entry systems — still carry 4–12 week lead times through regional suppliers. Building lead time into your bid notes protects your margin when material costs shift before installation day. --- ### How Estimate.Pro Works for Door Contractors **AR measurement on supported devices.** Point your phone at an opening and Estimate.Pro's ONNX-assisted live AR measurement gives you dimensions without a tape measure. For photo-based measurements on older walkthroughs or client-submitted images, results are flagged as estimates so you know exactly what to verify on site. **AI scope-of-work generation.** Walk the job, capture notes and photos, and the AI drafts a line-item scope: door unit, hardware, weatherstripping, threshold, jamb prep, disposal, and any ancillary framing work. You review and adjust — you don't start from a blank page. **Your material cost workspace.** Lumber prices, Therma-Tru pricing, Pella unit costs, lockset and closer hardware — you store your actual supplier pricing from distributors like Huttig or ProBuild St. Louis locations. Your estimates reflect what you actually pay, not national averages. **Stripe Connect payments on Pro+ plans.** Send the bid, get it signed, and collect deposit or final payment without a separate invoicing tool. Pro and Elite tiers run 0% platform fee on Stripe Connect transactions. --- ### Pricing That Fits a Single Crew or a Growing Shop - **Free forever** — no credit card, no expiration. Enough to run real bids. - **Pro** — $39/seat/month. Full AI scope drafts, AR measurement, saved cost data. - **Elite** — $79/seat/month. Adds Stripe Connect invoicing and invoice exports. - **Crew** — $399/month flat. Every seat your team needs, no per-person math. --- ### Built for 25 Trades, Including Yours Estimate.Pro supports 25 trades. Doors is one of them — not a workaround or a generic construction template. The scope categories, line-item defaults, and code references are built around door and frame work specifically. If you're a St. Louis door contractor bidding residential replacements in the city's historic districts, commercial installs in Clayton's office corridor, or new construction in West County subdivisions, Estimate.Pro gives you a consistent, fast, professional bid every time. Start free. No credit card. First bid in under 10 minutes.

§ Equip the crew

Bid faster in St. Louis.

14-day Pro trial, no card. Free forever fallback. Built for door contractors.

Start free — no card Doors overview