French Door Installation Cost in Los Angeles (2026)
A standard 6'0" French door pair installed in LA in 2026 runs $4,800–$7,000 in clad-wood (Andersen 400 Frenchwood, Pella Architect) and $7,000–$8,500 in premium wood (Marvin Ultimate). Fiberglass French (Therma-Tru Classic-Craft) starts around $3,000–$4,800. The pair price is the easy number — what moves the total are sidelites (+$900–$2,400), a transom (+$700–$1,800), opening-size changes that touch the header (+$1,200–$3,500), and the exterior wall material you're cutting through. Brentwood Spanish stucco patch alone runs $600–$1,400. Real example below: $11,860 to swap a 1990s slider for a clad-wood inswing pair with sidelites.
French door pricing in LA gets quoted three different ways by three different installers and homeowners can't tell why. One quote says $5,400, the next says $9,800, the third says $12,500 — and the doors look identical on the brochure. The number isn't the door. It's everything around the door.
This guide breaks the pair price out from the surrounding scope so you can read any quote you're handed and know which line is the panel, which line is the opening modification, which line is the wall remediation, and which line is somebody's margin. Every dollar figure in here is what we're actually charging in 2026, validated against what the working middle of the LA installation market is quoting on the same scope.
All prices below are all-in: labor, hardware, weatherstrip, sill pan, multi-point lock, Title 24 documentation, permit fees, sales tax, disposal of the old unit. The only thing not included is unforeseen header rot or stucco substrate failure, which we price as a written change order with photos if and when we open the wall and find it.
What you'll actually pay, by material tier.
Bands are LA-area, all-in for a standard 6'0" wide x 6'8" pair, no sidelites, no transom, like-for-like opening (no header work). Add-on math is in the next section.
- ✓Therma-Tru Classic-Craft fiberglass
- ✓Low-E glass, U-factor 0.30, SHGC 0.23
- ✓Astragal with flush bolt, factory multi-point
- ✓Schlage or Baldwin lockset
- ✓Stainless sill pan, lifetime install warranty
- ✓Andersen 400 Frenchwood or Pella Architect Series
- ✓Low-E² glass, U-factor 0.27, SHGC 0.22
- ✓Aluminum-clad exterior, pine or oak interior
- ✓Multi-point lock, full astragal sweep
- ✓Adjustable sill, between-the-glass blinds option
- ✓Marvin Ultimate French — true or simulated divided lights
- ✓Low-E³ glass, U-factor 0.22, SHGC 0.20
- ✓Mahogany or vertical-grain Doug fir interior
- ✓Custom hardware (Rocky Mountain, Emtek, Baldwin Estate)
- ✓HPOZ-grade historic profile match
Sidelites, transoms, and how the pair price scales.
Single pair, no sidelites. The base case in every tier above. A 6'0" x 6'8" pair fits the rough opening of a standard residential patio door — same nominal size as a 6'0" sliding door — so on most like-for-like swap-outs, no opening modification is needed.
Pair with two sidelites. Adds 12" or 14" of fixed glass on each side of the pair, taking the overall opening to roughly 8'0" or 8'4" wide. Adds $900–$2,400 to the installed price depending on tier — fiberglass at the low end, Marvin Ultimate at the high end. The sidelites themselves are the cheap part; the cost is the wider header (see below) and the additional flashing perimeter.
Pair with transom. A horizontal fixed window above the pair, taking total height to 8'0" or higher. Adds $700–$1,800 depending on tier and whether the transom is rectangular (cheaper) or arched (much more — and only available factory on Marvin Ultimate and Pella Architect). On Spanish revival homes with original arched openings, we've spec'd custom radius transoms that ran $2,400–$3,800 by themselves.
Two-pair configuration (multi-pair / four-panel French). Two active pairs hung from a center mullion, total opening 12'0". Adds $3,200–$6,500 over a single-pair price, and is mostly a header-work conversation — see below. We install about 14 of these a year, mostly on Hancock Park and Pasadena rear elevations where the original opening was already wide.
Inswing vs outswing — does it move the price? Marginally. Outswing units cost about $80–$200 more from the manufacturer (different hinge geometry, exterior-grade weatherstrip), and add $0–$150 in install time if there's a screen-door retrofit involved. The bigger reason to choose outswing is interior space (an inswing pair eats 30" of floor depth on the swing arc) and wind exposure on canyon-facing or coastal homes — covered in the service page in detail.
Six variables move the number more than the brand does.
- 1Opening size change ($1,200–$3,500)Going from a 6'0" slider to a 6'0" French pair is no-touch on the header. Going from a 6'0" slider to an 8'0" pair-plus-sidelites means cutting the existing header out, sizing a new LVL or steel header per a structural calc, re-framing the king and trimmer studs, and pulling a structural permit instead of a simple replacement permit. Brentwood and Beverly Hills jurisdictions also want a stamped engineer letter on anything exceeding the original opening width.
- 2Exterior wall material — stucco patch ($600–$1,400)Roughly 70% of LA homes are stucco. Cutting into a three-coat stucco wall means scoring the lath, removing stucco to a clean keyed edge 6" beyond the new opening, re-flashing, re-lathing, and applying scratch + brown + finish coat with color and texture matched to the existing wall. Spanish revival smooth-trowel finishes match easier than 1970s heavy-dash; the latter sometimes can't be matched perfectly and we'll tell you that up front.
- 3Exterior wall material — siding ($300–$700)Wood lap siding (Hancock Park Craftsmans, older Pasadena bungalows) is cheaper to patch than stucco — pull the affected courses back, install new flashing, weave new boards in, prime and paint to match. Fiber-cement siding (newer builds, ADUs) splits the difference around $400–$900 because the boards are heavier and the primer/paint match is fussier.
- 4Exterior wall material — brick ($1,200–$2,800)Brick is rare in LA but shows up on 1920s Tudors and the occasional Hancock Park colonial. You're cutting brick with a wet saw, salvaging units for the patch, installing a steel lintel above the new opening, and tuck-pointing the joints. Almost always requires a mason subcontract. We've done four of these in the last two years.
- 5Threshold detail — ADA / wheelchair access (+$400–$900)A standard French door threshold is ~1" tall — a trip hazard for wheelchairs and walkers. ADA-compliant means a flush threshold with a sloped saddle and a sill pan that drains outward without an interior dam. Adds about $400 in materials and another $300–$500 in labor for the careful subfloor and waterproofing detail. We've installed about 30 of these for aging-in-place clients in the last year.
- 6Hardware grade ($0–$1,200)Factory-spec multi-point lock from Andersen/Marvin/Pella is included in every tier and is excellent. Upgrading to Rocky Mountain Hardware bronze, Baldwin Estate, or Emtek custom adds $400–$1,200 depending on finish (oil-rubbed bronze cheapest, hand-forged longest). On Marvin Ultimate pairs in Brentwood and Hancock Park, the hardware upgrade is the most common line item we see — homeowners want the visible bronze to match interior door pulls.
Where the money is committed at each step.
Knowing when each line is locked in lets you negotiate intelligently — and walk away cleanly if the scope changes.
Replacing a tired slider with a French pair in a Brentwood Spanish.
1932 Spanish revival on a quiet street north of Sunset, Brentwood. Original openings, but the previous owner had punched a 6'0" aluminum slider into the dining room wall sometime in the late 1990s — wrong material, wrong proportion, wrong everything. The current owner wanted to undo it: an inswing French pair with two narrow sidelites, hardware to match the rest of the house, and the stucco patched so you couldn't tell anything had changed.
The opening: existing 6'0" x 6'8" slider rough opening. Target: 8'0" x 6'8" overall (a 6'0" pair with two 12" sidelites). That meant pulling the existing header out, sizing a new 4x10 Doug fir #1 header per a structural calc letter, re-framing the king studs at the new opening width, and re-flashing.
The door: Andersen 400 Frenchwood inswing pair with matching narrow sidelites, true divided light pattern (8-light per panel) to match the original casement windows on the front of the house, mahogany interior, white exterior cladding, factory multi-point lock with Baldwin Estate handleset upgrade in oil-rubbed bronze.
The wall: smooth-trowel three-coat stucco. Patched with a 14" perimeter overlap, color and texture matched to the existing south elevation. We had to repaint the whole south elevation to disguise the patch — Spanish smooth-trowel won't accept a spot patch invisibly without a wider paint zone. That was a homeowner upcharge they signed off on at quote.
Quote breakdown: Andersen 400 inswing pair with sidelites: $7,200. Baldwin Estate hardware upgrade: $640. Header re-frame and structural letter: $1,840. Stucco patch and re-paint of south elevation: $1,290. New ADA-compliant threshold (homeowner planning for aging parents): $560. Permit, Title 24, disposal: $330. Total: $11,860 — three install days, 14 days from permit release to final inspection. Same scope quoted in Marvin Ultimate would have landed around $14,400; in Therma-Tru fiberglass around $8,900. The owner went mid-tier, which is what we steer most Brentwood and Hancock Park homeowners toward when the architecture is real but not landmark-designated.
Three cases where another door type is the right call.
- 1Multi-slide (LaCantina, Western Window Systems) — $14,000–$32,000When the opening is 12'0" or wider and the lifestyle goal is fully-open indoor-outdoor flow, a multi-slide stacks panels into a pocket and disappears. A four-pair French at the same width is cheaper but doesn't open as completely. Multi-slide is the right answer for canyon-view homes in Brentwood and Pacific Palisades where the patio is the room.
- 2Bi-fold (Kolbe Folding, Marvin Bi-fold) — $11,000–$24,000Folds against a side wall in a concertina. Opens wider than a French pair, narrower than a multi-slide, mid-priced between the two. Best for medium-width openings (8'0"–14'0") where you want full access without a multi-slide pocket. Common on Pasadena Craftsman rear additions.
- 3Sliding glass door — $2,400–$6,800If you don't actually use the patio, don't entertain through the door, and the architecture is post-1965 (no period detail to fight), a slider is half the price and zero swing-arc footprint. We'll tell you on the consult if your house is that house — most of LA's 1970s and 80s tract homes are.
0% APR for 24 months, and what it means on a $7,400 pair.
We finance through Service Finance Company (SFC) and GreenSky, both of which run 0% APR for 24 months on French door projects between $3,000 and $25,000, with no prepayment penalty. Approval is a soft credit check that doesn't ding your score; funded projects move to a hard pull.
On a $7,400 standard clad-wood pair installed: $309/month for 24 months, total cost $7,400 (zero interest). On a $11,860 Brentwood scope from the example above: $494/month for 24 months. On a $14,400 Marvin Ultimate equivalent: $600/month. Compared to the typical 18.99% credit-card carry, the 24-month 0% saves $1,400–$2,800 of interest depending on payoff pace.
The longer the term, the higher the APR — 60-month financing runs 7.99–9.99% APR depending on credit tier, which on a $7,400 project costs about $1,750 in interest over the life of the loan. We don't push the longer terms unless cash flow genuinely requires it. The 0%/24mo is the default we quote, and most of our French door customers take it.
What we won't do: bury financing fees in the project price to make a 0% offer pencil for the lender. The price you see is the price whether you finance, pay cash, or split it across a HELOC. Some installers add 4–8% to financed quotes to cover lender dealer fees — ours doesn't, and we'll tell you the dealer fee is something we absorb out of margin because we want the financing channel to be honestly priced.