Pre-hung vs slab doors: what should you import?

The same door can leave the factory as a finished set or as a bare leaf. The choice changes your freight cost, your site labour and how much can go wrong on installation day.

Definitions

A slab door is the leaf only: no frame, no hinge preparation unless requested. A pre-hung door is a complete set — leaf, jamb, hinges, and often the lock bore and strike — assembled and packed as one unit.

Container efficiency

Slabs pack tight; pre-hung sets are bulky because the frame adds length and requires careful stacking. If your priority is the lowest cost per door delivered, slabs win. If your priority is a predictable installation, pre-hung wins.

Site labour and quality risk

Pre-hung sets move the difficult operations — hinge and lock preparation, framing square — into the factory, where jigs and repeatability make them consistent. On a hotel or apartment project, that can remove days of site carpentry and a whole class of callbacks.

Packing and transport

• Pre-hung: corner protection on both sides, cardboard or foam between sets, strapped on pallets; expect a taller stack and more volume
• Slabs: shrink-wrapped bundles with edge protection, laid flat or on edge depending on thickness and finish
• Both: mark handing and room numbers on the carton — it saves site time and errors

How to decide

Ask yourself three questions: Does the destination market expect a ready-to-install set? Is site carpentry expensive or scarce? Can I accept fewer doors per container? If the answers are yes, yes, and yes, order pre-hung.