Exterior Doors in Ontario: Entry Doors, Patio Doors, Sidelights, Security, the Leaking Threshold and the Big Glass Walls, Priced and Explained

Windows & DoorsEntry & Patio Doors

Exterior Doors: What a Front Door and a Patio Door Really Cost, Which Material, Which Swing, and the Floor Under the Old One

The whole door system installed, not the slab in the flyer, with the wall it goes into and the rot it finds.

A front door is a $499 slab in the flyer and a $3,500 job on the invoice, and both are honest. The patio door is the biggest opening in the house and the one most likely to have been leaking into the floor for a decade. These pages price the door as a system, explain the two materials and the two swings, and spend more time on the sill than any brochure does, because the sill is where the money goes wrong.

Price my door The cost guide Steel or fibreglass?

The numbers

$2,200steel entry, basic, installed
$3,500fibreglass entry with glass
$3,2006-ft vinyl patio slider
$20the strike plate and screws that stop a boot

The guides

Exterior door cost in Ontario

Steel, fibreglass, sidelights, double and patio doors installed, with six real doors priced.

Steel vs. fibreglass entry doors

Dents, rust, sun, insulation, price, and the one wall where steel is the wrong answer.

Patio door cost

Sliding, French, 8-ft and triple glazed, installed, and the floor under the old one.

Sliding vs. French patio doors

Sealing, wind, space, screens and security, decided by the deck they open onto.

Front door with sidelights

One or two, transoms, the wider opening, and when the wall is bearing.

The leaking patio door threshold

Why it is always the patio door, the sill pan nobody installed, and the soft floor that tells you.

Door locks and security

The frame and the strike beat the lock: multipoint, smart locks, patio bars and laminated glass.

Large sliding and bifold door walls

What they cost, the header nobody priced, winter performance and snow.

The short version

  1. Buy the system, not the slab. Frame, sill, weatherstrip, lock, installed. What that costs.
  2. Fibreglass on the front and anywhere the sun hits; steel on the side door and the garage. Why.
  3. Ask what goes under the sill. Pan or sealant bed, or it is the door you are replacing now, again. The threshold.
  4. Sliders where the deck is busy or the wind is off the lake; French under a porch. Which.
  5. Three-inch screws in the strike before anything else. Security.
  6. Sidelights in a bearing wall are a permit and a header. Sidelights.

The calculators

Window replacement cost calculator

Every opening on its own line by type and size, vinyl or fibreglass, double or triple, retrofit, full-frame or new construction, doors on the same sheet, HST on the bottom. Writes the schedule for three quotes.

Exterior door cost calculator

Steel or fibreglass entry doors with sidelights, transoms, glass and locks; sliding, French and 8-ft patio doors; the wall, the floor and the finishing. The whole system, installed.

Have quotes or plans in hand? Let a builder read them first

For $99, I read your window and door quotes against your openings and send back what is missing, where the price is out of line with October 2026 Ontario rates, and the questions to ask before you sign. For a new build, $249 turns your plans into a checked window and door schedule three manufacturers can quote the same way. The quote review and the schedule takeoff.

Window and door quote review, $99 Window schedule takeoff, $249 Check the quotes yourself first