cost per raised panel door

[jim sauterer]

anyone who has built raised panel doors for money .what did you charge per door assembled and finished.not including material cost.average kitchen size door.thanks jim.

[Joe Scarfo]

i charged what home depot would charge minus about 10%

Good Luck
Joe

[johnny means]

i charged what home depot would charge minus about 10%

Good Luck
Joe

I wouldn't try to compete with HD on price. Surely, being able to get exactly what you want, directly from the craftsman isn't worth less than off the shelf stuff.

[Frank Drew]

Geez, just for starters I'd ballpark twice or more what a big box store charges; no way they make as good a door as I would, and like Johnny I wouldn't try to compete in that end of the business, anyway. Not interested in a race to the bottom.

[Dennis Lopeman]

Awesome - so the answer here is, call the BORG stores - or go onsite and pose as a buyer - find out prices for various woods, sizes, finishes, etc.

Then multiply by 2

:D

This is actually cool someone asked. I JUST started re-doing all my kitchen drawer fronts and cabinet doors and was wondering in the back of my mind how much I was saving (or adding value to the house!)

Anyone have any numbers from the BORG!?

[Quinn McCarthy]

I charge $40.00 per door and $5.00 additional for finishing.

Quinn

[Joe Jensen]

I'm not a pro. It's my understanding that most commercial shops now outsource their doors to a specialist. In 2009 my father remodeled a home and he bought all the doors from a manufacturer on the internet. I think the price for solid red oak raised panel for anything up to 18" by 24" was $30 a door. After that is was like $5 a square foot more. He only purchased like 15 doors and this was his first purchase. The doors were very nice. Sanded to 120 grit, 1/2" deep mortises as a part of the cabinet door cutter, and the wood was nicely matched in the panels. I don't recall how much he paid for shipping, I think the supplier was in Texas.

I buy all my drawers for cabinet class projects from a local drawer box specialty manufacturer. The cost for dovetailed Prefinished Baltic Birch Plywood drawers is about 20% more than I can buy the BB Plywood for. Not worth my time to dovetail that stuff.

[Quinn McCarthy]

Some of the drawer and door providers out there have some quality issues. I know people who had some major issues with a few. Best to check them out first.

A friend sent some doors back 3 times to one place.

Quinn

[David DeCristoforo]

The cost for one door will be impacted by the number of doors you are making. The price for one door made as a "stand alone" will (should) be greater than the price of the same door made in a "run" of twenty or fifty doors. The set-up times are a significant part of the time needed to produce a door. Most shops use a "per square foot" price for a given door design and those prices vary wildly. You can be sure that any company that manufacturers doors in quantities sufficient to fill a boxcar will be able to offer a substantially lower price than a shop that makes doors in runs of a few at a time. It is suicide to attempt to compete on price with such manufacturers regardless of the quality of the end product.

[Steve Jenkins]

to kind of add to what David said, you have to look at how you make your doors. Do you use a router and router bits for everything or do you have 3 shapers set up ( cope,stick,raised panel, and a 4th one for the oustside profile). I imagine it is somewhere in between. It all impacts on how long it will take to do the job.I certainly wouldn't undercut H.D.'s prices.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Depending on wood species, between $10-$20/sq ft. is what I've paid from Walzcraft.

[Phil Phelps]

You gonna finish them? You need to make a high quality door to make any money. It's hard to do unless your set up to do it.

[jim sauterer]

a lot of great answers.this all came about when a friend of mine asked what i would charge to make new kitchen cabinet doors.i thought about it and told him 35.00 per door unfinished and that he supply the wood.well someone he worked with told him to try the internet.he did and got several different prices.well he thought i was too high.i told him i am a 1 man shop not a assembly line.well the doors he got were flat panel oak when he wanted raised panel.not so cheap anymore.thats what he had before.i am not thinking of making doors for a living.just some extra money to support my addiction to this hobby.it takes me longer to finish the door than to make it.thanks to all jim.

[David DeCristoforo]

"... try the internet.he did and got several different prices.well he thought i was too high..."

At that point, you need to politely suggest that he buy his doors from the internet vendor (or the BORG or wherever else he got his lower price) and be grateful that you avoided a trap that all too many fall into.

[Leo Graywacz]

When I am building doors for cabinets (that I am also building) I charge $100 per door. That includes no finish. That is materials (normal species), sanding, drill for hinges and mount and adjust on cabinet, it includes Grass Euro hinges. Finishing usually runs about 20-30%.

[jim sauterer]

his wife told me 15 doors that were wrong cost them 650.00 shipped unfinished.so not such a great price anymore.i did not see the new doors but she told me he hates them.were still friends.

[Chip Lindley]

Jim, sorry your friend was bent on proving you over-priced. It backfired on him. One usually gets what one pays for. Buying from the internet leaves much to be desired, with the chance of mis-communication, and delay (or refusal) in remedy of any problem. I am interested to know if your friend could return his doors for a full refund, or not!

A great selling point of buying doors/cabinetry made locally, is that any defective doors can be returned and re-made quickly. Satisfaction is virtually assured, once the client *signs-off* on the particulars of the contract/agreement.

IKEA (et al) can produce really cheap stuff. But, if it is not right, you have to wait for the next ship to sale from China!

As a part-time, money making proposition, you can charge what you feel comfortable with. Cover your every cost, plus a profit for time consumed.

Costs for a a kitchen-full of doors may include:
-time and travel: on-site measuring, calculating
-material plus 20% waste
-hardware
-consumables: glue, nails, staples, carbide resharpening
-utilities: lights, heat
-time: (every operation from rough lumber to hung door)
-planing/jointing
-panel glueup, sanding, shaping
-rail/stile shaping, cutoff
-door assembly
-final sanding, prep for finishing
-spray or brush finish
-attach hinges/pulls
-hang doors in customer kitchen

(Only to name a few! Many many more overhead costs can be involved)

Commercial ventures have all this down to a science. But, you are enjoying the art of woodworking, and making something nice for a friend at a small profit. My first couple of cabinet jobs were done for friends at a price agreeable to both. The price covers my actual costs of materials, but my labor was whatever it took to get the job done by much trial and error. (a great learning experience!) In the end, the profit was used to buy more shaper cutters and accessories (for the next cabinet job)

[Dave Schreib]

I asked the retailer who sold me my kitchen cabinets for a price on four small (15" x 18"?) unfinished cherry doors. His price was $100 each. I decided to save up for a router table and plan to make them myself.

[jim sauterer]

no return he ordered on the internet and printed out a copy.his wife said he ordered flat panel as described by the recept.a lot of people dont have a clue what real wood cost as opposed to ply or particle board.oh well.

[Kevin Godshall]

The cost for one door will be impacted by the number of doors you are making. The price for one door made as a "stand alone" will (should) be greater than the price of the same door made in a "run" of twenty or fifty doors. The set-up times are a significant part of the time needed to produce a door. Most shops use a "per square foot" price for a given door design and those prices vary wildly. You can be sure that any company that manufacturers doors in quantities sufficient to fill a boxcar will be able to offer a substantially lower price than a shop that makes doors in runs of a few at a time. It is suicide to attempt to compete on price with such manufacturers regardless of the quality of the end product.

Here, here. I used to work for the supplier of the RTA doors sold at HD. To give you some perspective: when we made "F" doors, that is 12x30", solid maple with either a veneered raised center panel or a flat plywood center, we ran them in runs of 2400 at a time. The more popular the size, the bigger the run was.

Since all the doors were either 30" or 24", the stiles were cranked out big time.

Everything is automated, so as fast as 2 guys can feed the machine, edge profiles and hinge holes are cut and the doors are dropped on the TimeSaver belt where they are sanded, face and back to 220 grit in one pass.

The finish line took 64 minutes to turn a raw door into one that was completely finished and ready to hang in the home. The F door mentioned above, could be fed 4 across the finish line belt (56") and with the right loaders could be run, start to finish in under 3 hours.

Just for some insight.

[Gene Crain]

...for us it depends on wood species, as all types have a different $/bd ft....we also stain if required and seal the panel before glue up...don't forget the spaceballs. What are the stile/rail widths? panel thickness and panel type...door thickness? 13/16, 7/8 1inch or greater...lots of variables :rolleyes:


Gene Crain
plantasymaderas dot com
cnczacatitos dot com

[Gene Crain]

Here, here. I used to work for the supplier of the RTA doors sold at HD. To give you some perspective: when we made "F" doors, that is 12x30", solid maple with either a veneered raised center panel or a flat plywood center, we ran them in runs of 2400 at a time. The more popular the size, the bigger the run was.

Since all the doors were either 30" or 24", the stiles were cranked out big time.

Everything is automated, so as fast as 2 guys can feed the machine, edge profiles and hinge holes are cut and the doors are dropped on the TimeSaver belt where they are sanded, face and back to 220 grit in one pass.

The finish line took 64 minutes to turn a raw door into one that was completely finished and ready to hang in the home. The F door mentioned above, could be fed 4 across the finish line belt (56") and with the right loaders could be run, start to finish in under 3 hours.

Just for some insight.



...and that's what it looked like...an automated door :p


Gene Crain
plantasymaderas dot com
cnczacatitos dot com

[Glen Butler]

The door shops in the area start at $28 for your more rustic grades (alder and knotty cherry) and go up to . . . well . . . a lot. They cap the door size at 24X36 and charge $6 plus a square ft. price if you go over that. Certain profiles cost more, too.

I built doors for hire once. The customer wanted to buy the materials and I just charged him $20/ door - sanded to 180 grit on the wide belt.

[Ramsey Ramco]

I have a small cabinet shop and I build doors and drawer fronts for a local refacer as well i charge $15/bd ft plus cost of material/ bd ft included is the hinge boring but no hinges. hopefully this helps.

[J.R. Rutter]

I charge per sq ft, not per door. It is easier on my end and pressures us to continually improve. My process, tooling, and machinery is dialed in so we are pretty efficient. Our end product is 13/16" thick with 1/2" groove depth wide belt sanded to 180 grit, no hinge boring. While it varies for species and style, I charge roughly (per SF) $10 + raw material for flat panel and $13 + raw material for raised panel. That is for the narrowest frame, price goes up from there.

[jim sauterer]

never thought i would get this many responses.surely is a big gap between cost.i just wonder what the big boys pay per sq.ft. of wood must be really low.thanks again i guess give a price and take it or leave it.thanks again jim.

[Leo Graywacz]

When you are manufacturing doors you go out and by a couple thousand bd ft or more of a species. You can get very good discounts with quantities as high as this. Where you are spending $4/bf they are spending $2.20/bf. So right there their material costs are half of what yours are. They have the machinery to chug this stuff out. And the labor pool is probably close to minimum wage with minimum benifits because it is working on the line.

Then you start making doors, you make a couple at a time, hand sand and assemble, each door is handled many many times.

[jim sauterer]

some beautiful work leo.

[Leo Graywacz]

Thanks, I assume you perused my website?

[jim sauterer]

yes i did looks like some high end kitchens.that cherry armoire for towels is beautiful.you should be proud of your work.has the economy effected your business.

[Leo Graywacz]

Slowed down quite a bit a while ago. Talked it out with my wife and I almost packed it in. But then the phone started to ring and I found some new contacts. So right now I am pretty busy.

But as per usual, I am twiddling my thumbs or working 7 days a week. Never a nice steady flow.

But I will take being busy to sitting around watching my bank account getting drained any day.

The shop is quite a monthly expense.

[Kurt Cady]

Found this - has prices

http://www.walllumber.com/cab.asp

[J.R. Rutter]

Found this - has prices

http://www.walllumber.com/cab.asp

Maybe I'm not charging enough?

My 2 SF cherry raised panel = $36.20

Wall's 2 SF cherry raised panel = $54.00