Field note
Doors, frames, and hardware in the drywall package
On a commercial wall-and-ceiling bid, doors, frames, and hardware (DFH) are either inside the drywall number or they land in every partition you frame. Hollow-metal frames go in with the stud wall. Grout, wrap, and punch are where shops donate labor. Directory: doors / frames / hardware.
This page is for the sub that sells DFH, installs frames only, or has to exclude the package. Not a hardware catalog and not residential prehung. Fire-rated openings follow NFPA 80 and the labeled set on the schedule. Throat still has to match the stud plus the board.
What “DFH in the drywall number” actually means
Three different contracts hide under the same letters. Read the invitation.
Furnish and install the opening. Frames, doors, and hardware — hollow metal, and often wood doors in HM frames. The W&C shop buys from a DFH supplier, sets frames with the stud wall, hangs doors after finish, and punches. Map it from the company website; do not guess a shop into the DFH directory.
Frames only. GC or a door shop furnishes doors and hardware. You set hollow-metal frames in metal stud, maybe grout, maybe wrap. Your punch is plumb, throat, and anchors — not closer speed.
Exclude DFH; still coordinate. Frames arrive from others and land in your walls. You still own jack studs, headers, wrap, and the gypsum return. Write the exclusion so you do not inherit furnish.
Knocked-down (KD) vs welded frames change labor. KD ships flat; welded arrives as a unit and needs a path into the bay. Throat must match the wall type plus the board you are actually hanging (Type X, abuse, extra layers). Wrong throat is a rip-out.
Residential production is prehung in wood. A townhouse with hollow metal at the unit entry is a commercial-adjacent opening. Do not send the house hang crew to set welded HM.
Anchors, studs, and sequence
The frame is part of the metal-stud wall, not a finish item you lean in after tape.
- Layout. Opening width is the frame throat-to-throat detail plus the clear the hardware needs — not “a 3-0 door and a guess.” Confirm hinge side, swing, and fire label before the track is shot.
- Jacks and header. Light-gauge king/jack equivalent and the header as drawn — not a wood 2×12 habit. Compression, strap, or welded anchors as the frame shop and the wall spec named.
- Set, plumb, spread. Spreaders stay in until the wall is boarded enough to hold the throat. A racked frame is a door that never latches. Floor anchors to slab; head to the header, not to a loose soffit.
- Board and wrap. Gypsum returns into the throat or stops on the face depending on the detail (applied stop vs integral stop, wrap vs butt). Fasteners still follow C840 / GA-216. Do not starve the return of screws and expect the bead to hide a hollow.
- Doors and hardware after finish (when they are yours). Hang, swing, closer, strike, seals. Paint and ACT both hate an early door that gets used as a job-site gate.
ACT grid at a door head is a coordination item: wall angle, hold-down, and a closer that does not hit a main tee. Gypsum bulkheads over openings are not “the grid will miss it.”
Grouting
Grout in a hollow-metal frame is specified for stiffness, for some fire-listed masonry openings, and sometimes for acoustics. In masonry it is ordinary. In a metal-stud wall it is labor and weight the drywall shop has to price when the spec says so.
Follow the spec and the listed opening. Do not grout every frame because the last job did, and do not skip grout on a labeled opening that requires it. Foam-in-place is not a silent substitute unless the documents named it. Grout before the finish face is closed; do not pump onto Level 4.
Acoustical demising walls care about the opening as a flanking path — see STC vs fire rating. Grout, door seals, and a labeled closer are different products. An undercut for return air will erase an STC number no matter how many layers you hung.
Wrap and the gypsum return
“Wrap” is the gypsum that turns the opening: three-sided, four-sided, borrowed lites, sidelights, transoms. It is hang and bead labor, often missed when DFH is “by others” and the estimator only counted wall square footage.
Sidelights and borrowed lites are frames with glass stops. The drywall return still has to land. Fire-rated lites are labeled glazing in a labeled frame — not leftover 1/4-inch from the trailer. If glass is not in your number, say so; the wrap still might be.
Rated corridors want the opening to match the wall rating (NFPA 80): labeled door, labeled frame, listed hardware and glazing, listed clearances. A non-labeled slab in a labeled frame fails the opening. Type X layers do not make a residential door a fire door.
Punch
DFH punch is not drywall punch. Budget time for:
- Frame plumb, spread, and floor clearance
- Swing, latch, and strike alignment after the building moves
- Closer speed and backcheck; coordinator on pairs
- Seals, sweeps, and thresholds that the acoustic or smoke spec named
- Hardware missing, wrong handing, or painted over
- Keys / cores if they are in your contract (often they are not — exclude them)
GC occupancy punch will walk every door. A Level 5 corridor with a racked frame is still a failed opening.
Bid notes
Price as separate lines even inside a lump-sum W&C number:
- Frame type (KD / welded), gauge class as specified, throat, anchors
- Doors (HM vs wood) and hardware sets by opening, not an allowance you invented
- Grout only where specified
- Gypsum wrap, beads, and extra layers at rated openings
- Borrowed lites, sidelights, transoms
- Install sequence with stud and board
- Punch and hardware adjustments
- Fire-label documentation
If DFH is not yours: exclude furnish of frames, doors, and hardware; include stud openings and wrap only as shown; require frames on site before board. Do not invent unit prices from another market.
Commercial vs residential
Commercial W&C. DFH is a common add-on to metal stud, board, and finish. Some shops live on it; some never touch hardware. Keep prehung language off the commercial opening schedule.
Residential production. Prehung units, wood jambs, residential hardware. Hollow metal at a garage or a multifamily corridor is the commercial product sitting on a production site — bid it as DFH, not as a 20-minute prehang.
Related directory
Openings: Doors / frames / hardware. Walls the frames sit in: Steel stud / framing. Ceilings that meet the head: Acoustical ceilings (ACT). Board at the return: choosing drywall type.
FAQ
Is DFH usually in the drywall sub’s number?
Often enough that you have to ask. Interior metal stud usually is. Frames, doors, and hardware are a separate yes/no on every bid.
Do I grout hollow-metal frames in metal-stud walls?
When the spec or the listed opening says so. It is not automatic, and foam is not an automatic substitute.
Who owns the gypsum wrap if doors are by others?
Usually the drywall sub, because it is board and bead. Confirm. Count the returns.
Can I hang the door before taping?
You can, and it will get wrecked. Sequence doors after finish unless the opening has to close for temporary heat — then protect it.
Does a fire-rated wall make any door in it a fire door?
No. The opening needs the labeled assembly NFPA 80 is talking about. See STC vs fire-rated partitions for the wall; the door is its own listing.