What Should Be in a Door Hardware Schedule Before You Request a China Quote?

A door hardware schedule that is ready to price from China needs six things on every line: the door mark it belongs to, the door’s size, material and fire rating, the handing, a hardware set code, the full item list inside that set with function and finish, and the performance grade each item has to meet. Without those, a Chinese factory will either quote a generic equivalent or come back with a list of questions — and both outcomes cost you two to three weeks. A hardware schedule is a specification document, not a shopping list, and it is the single item that most often holds up a door package quotation.

This is the hardware companion to the door and window schedule itself. If you are still at the stage of extracting quantities from drawings, start with the drawing-to-schedule takeoff process first, then come back to the hardware layer.

The Nine Fields Every Hardware Schedule Line Needs

Whether your schedule comes out of Revit, an ironmongery consultant’s spreadsheet, or a PDF appendix in the tender documents, a Chinese manufacturer needs these nine fields before it can price a set rather than guess at one:

• Door mark / opening number — the reference that ties the set back to a specific opening on the floor plan, so quantities can be verified rather than accepted on trust
• Door type, leaf size and thickness — a 45 mm hollow-core timber leaf and a 54 mm fire-rated steel leaf take different hinges, different lock backsets and different closer sizes
• Handing — LH, LHR, RH or RHR, stated per leaf; this is the field most often left blank, and it is the one that makes lever sets and closers non-returnable if it is wrong
• Fire rating and evidence route — EI30 / EI60 / EI90 / EI120 tested to EN 1634-1, or a 20/45/60/90-minute rating tested to UL 10C for North American projects
• Hardware set code — HW-01, HW-02 and so on, with each code defined once in a set schedule rather than retyped per door
• Item list inside the set — hinges, lock or latch, cylinder, lever or pull, closer, flush bolts, coordinator, seals, threshold, stop, viewer, signage
• Function — entry, office, storeroom, classroom, privacy, passage, exit-only; function drives the lock chassis, not the lever design
• Performance grade — ANSI/BHMA A156 grade for North America, or the EN classification code for Europe, Australia and the Middle East
• Finish — a BHMA finish number (626 satin chrome, 630 satin stainless, 605 bright brass) or a stated PVD / powder-coat reference, applied consistently across every item in the set

Why Does Handing Cause So Many Requotes?

Handing is a four-state field — left hand, left hand reverse, right hand, right hand reverse — and it is determined by standing on the outside of the door and observing which side the hinges sit on and which way the leaf swings. A schedule that says only “LH” without stating whether the door is reverse-bevel leaves the factory to decide, and levers, mortise locks and surface closers are all handed items.

On a 180-door hotel package, an unhanded schedule typically means one of two things happens: the factory quotes non-handed substitutes and the price looks attractive but the specification has quietly dropped, or the factory pauses the quotation and asks. The second is better, but it still costs schedule time. State handing per opening, and state it on the same line as the door mark so it survives being copied into a purchase order.

Performance Grades: What to Write So the Price Is Comparable

The most common reason two Chinese quotations for the same hardware schedule differ by a wide margin is that one factory read a grade requirement and the other did not. Write the grade explicitly on the schedule line:

• Cylindrical and bored locks — ANSI/BHMA A156.2; Grade 1 is tested to 1,000,000 cycles, Grade 2 to 800,000, Grade 3 to 400,000. Commercial corridors and guestroom entries should be Grade 1 or 2, not Grade 3.
• Mortise locks — ANSI/BHMA A156.13, with Grade 1 the normal specification for hotel and institutional openings
• Door closers — ANSI/BHMA A156.4 for North America, or EN 1154 for European-standard projects, where the power size runs 1–7 and fire doors normally require size 3 or above
• Lever handles — EN 1906 category of use and durability grade, or the equivalent A156.115 requirement
• Panic and emergency exit hardware — EN 1125 for panic bars on doors used by the public, EN 179 for emergency exit devices where occupants are familiar with the building; in North America the equivalent is UL/ANSI listed panic hardware
• Accessible openings — a maximum opening force of 5 lbf (22.2 N) applies to interior hinged doors under ADA, which constrains closer selection and spring size

Keying: A Separate Schedule, Always

Keying does not belong in the hardware schedule. It belongs in a keying schedule that lists every cylinder by door mark, its keyset group, and where it sits in the master key hierarchy — grand master, master, sub-master, change key. On hotel projects this also has to reconcile with the electronic locking system: which openings are on cards or mobile credentials, which are mechanical, and which mechanical override cylinders belong to the same hierarchy.

Practically, a factory can quote hardware without keying detail but cannot manufacture without it. If keying is not resolved at tender stage, say so on the brief and ask for cylinders to be quoted as a provisional line, with the keying schedule to be issued before production release. That keeps the quotation moving instead of stalling the whole package.

Electrified and Access-Controlled Openings

Any opening with card access, a magnetic hold-open, an electric strike or a delayed-egress device needs three extra pieces of information the mechanical schedule does not carry: the voltage and current draw, whether the device is fail-safe or fail-secure, and how power reaches the leaf — electric hinge, power transfer loop, or concealed wire harness. Electromagnetic hold-open devices on fire doors also need EN 1155 compliance so they release on alarm.

Electrified hardware also changes who supplies what. The door leaf may need factory preparation for a wire raceway, which means the door manufacturer and the hardware supplier have to work from the same schedule revision. Where FBM Sourcing handles both the door and the hardware package as a sourcing partner, that coordination sits in one place; where they come from different suppliers, the schedule revision number becomes the control document.

What a Complete Brief Looks Like Before It Goes to a Factory

A hardware brief ready to send to China contains: the hardware set schedule keyed to door marks, the door schedule it references, elevations or plans marked with door marks, the finish standard, the grade standard, the keying intent, the destination market so certification can be matched, and quantities including a spares allowance. A 2–3% spares allowance on high-cycle items such as closers, cylinders and lever sets is normal on hotel and student accommodation projects, because replacement in year one is far more expensive after the container has shipped.

State the destination market explicitly. Hardware that is compliant for a project in Melbourne is not automatically compliant for one in Florida, and a factory that has never shipped to your market will not raise the question on your behalf. This is the same discipline that governs a good RFQ package for any category — the brief carries the market, not the assumption.

How FBM Sourcing Handles a Hardware Schedule

When a hardware schedule arrives, our team first reconciles it against the door schedule and the plans to confirm quantities and identify openings that appear in one document but not the other. Gaps get listed and returned to you as questions before anything goes to a factory, because a schedule that quietly resolves its own gaps produces a quotation you cannot compare against anyone else’s.

The factory version of the schedule is issued without your project identity on it. Quotations, invoices and shipping documents are issued by FBM Sourcing on our own documents, and inspection is carried out by our own team on the factory floor, with a full inspection and photo and video records before shipment. Our commission is 5% on packages above USD 50,000 and 8% below, and orders are quoted on a full-container basis rather than as loose consignments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a factory quote without handing on the schedule?
It can, but the quotation will be for non-handed substitutes or will carry assumptions you cannot see. Handing determines lever sets, mortise locks and surface closers, so a schedule without it produces a price that is not comparable to a properly specified one.

Should the hardware schedule and the keying schedule be one document?
No. Keep them separate. The hardware schedule prices the ironmongery; the keying schedule assigns cylinders to a master key hierarchy and usually resolves later. Cylinders can be quoted as a provisional line so the rest of the package is not held up.

What grade should I specify for hotel guestroom doors?
For guestroom entries and corridor doors, ANSI/BHMA A156.2 Grade 1 or Grade 2 is the normal commercial specification — Grade 1 is tested to 1,000,000 cycles. Grade 3 is a residential-duty rating and is not appropriate for hospitality traffic.

How much spare hardware should I order with the package?
A 2–3% spares allowance on high-cycle items — closers, cylinders, lever sets and door seals — is normal on hotel and student accommodation projects. Ordering spares inside the original container is far cheaper than sourcing single replacement items after handover.

Related Reading

• How a door and window schedule is built from drawings
• Top door and window hardware manufacturers in China
• Fire-rated door hardware: why hinges and closers need matching ratings