Written Itemised Quotes

Every Line Named, So You Can Take It Elsewhere

A quote should let a stranger price the same job. That is the test we hold ours to. If you can hand our estimate to another company in Huntington Beach and say match this specification, and they can, then the document did its work.

Most estimates fail that test. They name a category rather than a product, and a category can be filled with almost anything.

What Goes on the Sheet

The door itself. Manufacturer, model, series, panel design, colour, and the glass option if there is one. A model number is a compressed spec sheet. With it you can look up construction, insulation value, wind rating and warranty in a couple of minutes, and you no longer have to take our word for any of it.

Steel gauge, as a number. Twenty four gauge is thicker than twenty five, which is thicker than twenty seven. Lower is heavier. Thin skins dent when a basketball hits them and oil can when the door flexes. This is one of the commonest places a low bid hides its saving, because the finished doors look nearly identical from the driveway.

Insulation, named and rated. None, expanded polystyrene board, or injected polyurethane. Polystyrene is a sheet dropped into the section. Polyurethane is foamed in and bonds to both skins, which stiffens the whole panel as well as insulating it. The quote should carry the R value the manufacturer publishes, not an adjective.

Hardware grade. Track gauge and width, hinge gauge, roller type and how many bearings are in each one. Nylon rollers on ten ball bearings run quieter and outlast plain steel by years. Two inch track in a light gauge is fine on a small single door and marginal on a heavy insulated double.

Galvanising, because of where we are. Within a mile or two of the water, zinc plated hardware gives up long before the door does. If we are specifying galvanised track, hinges and fasteners, that appears as a line with a price attached so you can decide whether you want it.

Springs. Whether they are new, what the cycle rating is, and confirmation they are sized for the new door rather than reused. Roughly one cycle is one open and one close. A standard spring is rated at around ten thousand cycles, which for a family using the door four times a day is somewhere near seven years. High cycle spring sets are rated well above that and are worth the upcharge on a door that gets heavy use.

This line matters more on a replacement than people expect. An insulated door is heavier than the uninsulated one coming down, so springs wound for the old weight will leave the new door badly balanced. That shortens opener life and makes the door dangerous to lift by hand.

Opener. Reused or replaced, and if replaced, the model. Any opener sold and installed in California since July 2019 has to have a battery backup, so a quote naming a unit without one is either wrong or selling old stock. If the existing opener stays, the quote should say the safety reversing sensors will be re set and tested, which is the UL 325 entrapment protection every residential opener has had to carry since the early nineties.

Removal and disposal. Who takes the old door and track away, and what that costs. It is a real line item and it belongs in the total rather than appearing on the day.

Permits. Whether one applies and who pulls it. Reskinning an existing opening is a different question from altering the header or widening the opening, and the second is certainly a permit item. We would rather write the answer down than let it surface halfway through.

Money. Total, tax, deposit, and when the balance falls due. The deposit on a California home improvement contract cannot exceed ten percent of the price or $1,000, whichever is less, and payments after that are not meant to run ahead of the work done. Our licence number and insurance details sit on the same page.

What You Can Do With It

Compare it. Argue with it. Take it to two other companies and ask them to bid the same door. If somebody comes back cheaper on an identical specification with the same spring rating and the same hardware, take theirs, and we will have lost fairly.

We hold a written quote for thirty days. No expiring discounts, no price that only stands while we are stood in your driveway.

Call (657) 585-4757.