Kitchen Cabinet Cost per Lineal Foot?

[Bill Space]

Hi,

I was reading a thread today about the value of a kitchen cabinet installation…

Several posts in that thread mentioned lineal foot prices for Cabinet installation. I assume that would include the base cabinet in the upper cabinets above it (and not the counter top). But I don’t know!

I seem to recall the price of $300 per lineal foot as being considered extremely cheap. Is this truly the case? I assume that is for custom cabinets of some type. As compared to the box store type of cabinet.

I’m really curious about what these costs represent. Would cabinets made from plywood boxes, with solid doors and drawer fronts command more than $300 per lineal foot? I assume so, because in the other thread I read people seemed to laugh at the $300 Per lineal price (my impression right or wrong ).

I know now the answer is “ it depends”. But in the general sense, for plywood cabinets faced with basic wood like cherry, red oak or ash, maybe maple, what would one expect to pay?

Is there a general basic charge per lineal foot, on top of which the cost of exotic materials would be added?

I suppose this is just intellectual curiosity, I build my own cabinets and what it costs other people to install them doesn’t really matter to me. But I’m really curious about it! I only have two houses to worry about anyway…

i just feel feel like I need educated!

Bill

[Martin Wasner]

I'm about $700/ft for bases, and about $350 for wall cabinets. Those are quick and dirty numbers that don't include finishing or installation, and can end up wildly different depending on options and specie.

I charge per foot for the different sized cabinet. That's just the cabinet and the standard amount of shelves. Everything adds something. Door, drawer, paneled end, finished end, then an upgrade percentage depending on the specie, which is weighed out by yield, cost, and workability of the specie.

[Andrew J. Coholic]

Never understood the per foot pricing thing...

As long as we’ve been in the cabinet business (early 70’s) we’ve priced as a job. I price the boxes, guts (drawers and trays, any specialty hardware like euro garbage, special corners, etc) doors and fronts, finishing panels, slides, hinges, decorative hardware, any lighting, trim, etc.

Then there is materials and style... is it a melamine boxed frameless? Or wood face frame (specie makes a huge cost difference) or hybrid? Stained and clear coat or solid colour/paint grade?

So many options, per foot price is meaningless.

[Steve Milito]

Never understood the per foot pricing thing...

As long as we’ve been in the cabinet business (early 70’s) we’ve priced as a job. I price the boxes, guts (drawers and trays, any specialty hardware like euro garbage, special corners, etc) doors and fronts, finishing panels, slides, hinges, decorative hardware, any lighting, trim, etc.

Then there is materials and style... is it a melamine boxed frameless? Or wood face frame (specie makes a huge cost difference) or hybrid? Stained and clear coat or solid colour/paint grade?

So many options, per foot price is meaningless.

The only thing that 'per foot' pricing could possibly do is provide a ball park number to weed out people that don't want to spend what it cost to remodel a kitchen so you don't waste time working on a real quote.

[Andrew J. Coholic]

The only thing that 'per foot' pricing could possibly do is provide a ball park number to weed out people that don't want to spend what it cost to remodel a kitchen so you don't waste time working on a real quote.

I understand that, but if you’ve been in the business a while you should be able to estimate within several grand just by seeing the space and getting an idea what they are after. Guesstimate I guess would be more accurate. I get a pretty good feel for people after 20+ yrs at the helm of our business, and can usually gauge how serious people are by talking initially to them. We don’t get every job, but I feel if they are shopping around, they should have a reasonably accurate estimate (without going into great detail) to compare to the other shops.

I’ve worked out the per foot price on several completed kitchens we’ve made ( just for fun) and they are all over the place. Too broad a spread for me to use as an estimate in my case. On the kitchen were currently just completing, that would be about $650/ft not including the counters. But we’ve been twice that, and cheaper too.

In my case sometimes its as simple as asking what their budget is... if in my head its already much lower than what I think it will cost, I turn down the opportunity or just say we cannot accommodate the schedule, etc.

[jack duren]

I price by the foot... In commercial bidding by the foot is common..

[Bill Space]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I posted this question because until I read, in a recent thread, about pricing cabinets per lineal foot, it had not occurred to me that one would do that. But it seemed like it could be a logical approach.

I mean, if one were to analyze costs involved with producing cabinets, it seems like the labor would be about the same regardless if low or high end materials were used. And the board feet of materials would be about the same. And so on. Granted the number of drawers and doors would differ in each case. And hardware costs could differ significantly. But baselines could be established it appears.

Anyway, none of this matters to me because I am never going to be doing any of this as a way to make money. Being retired and doing what I like as a hobby suits me perfectly.

My impression from the input above is, if one were to use a dollars per lineal foot number, that $500 per lineal foot of cabinets (upper and lower) installed would be a very low end installation. I do understand the amount of generalization included in such a statement!

Glad my labor is free and I have a nice amount of kiln dried ash that I harvested from a tree on my property, for a net cost per board foot that many would consider as being free!

Thanks again for your input!

Bill

[jack duren]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I posted this question because until I read, in a recent thread, about pricing cabinets per lineal foot, it had not occurred to me that one would do that. But it seemed like it could be a logical approach.

I mean, if one were to analyze costs involved with producing cabinets, it seems like the labor would be about the same regardless if low or high end materials were used. And the board feet of materials would be about the same. And so on. Granted the number of drawers and doors would differ in each case. And hardware costs could differ significantly. But baselines could be established it appears.

Anyway, none of this matters to me because I am never going to be doing any of this as a way to make money. Being retired and doing what I like as a hobby suits me perfectly.

My impression from the input above is, if one were to use a dollars per lineal foot number, that $500 per lineal foot of cabinets (upper and lower) installed would be a very low end installation. I do understand the amount of generalization included in such a statement!

Glad my labor is free and I have a nice amount of kiln dried ash that I harvested from a tree on my property, for a net cost per board foot that many would consider as being free!

Thanks again for your input!

Bill

This would all depend on the what and where your bidding on and the price...Every cabinet or commercial has it's way of bidding. A successful shop doen't care if anyone approves of there method of bidding, only that it is profitable. Commercial shops bid and must be in the middle between 1-10. If your not between 3-7 your already out..

Different set of rules and equipment for commercial and residential...

[Rick Potter]

I asked a friend over 20 years ago, who did cabinets as a second job, what he charged. I was interested because I had recently finished my own kitchen. He said he did about one kitchen a month, and charged $200 a foot for them. That seemed to me at the time as pretty cheap, and a lot of work for a side job, so he explained how he did it.

He used all Red Oak, no particle board. When I asked why not, he said it was too heavy for one man. He used plywood cases, face frame construction, standard hinges, and only a few stains to choose from, shot with polyurethane finish. Insides were unfinished. He had only two sets of shaper cutters to choose from, and made raised panel traditional style doors. They looked good, and were much better made than the ready to buy cabinets at the home centers.

His price did not include installation (had an installer available), or counter tops. He had stacks of pre-made rails, stiles, and door parts which he could cut to needed size quickly which he made in his spare time. His 16 year old son did some of this work for him. I got some lumber through him at the local hardwood supplier, at a discount. This work was all done in his garage.

He always seemed to have work. He made money at it because he standardized with two styles of cabinets in only a few colors of stain. Like I said, nice cabinets, but absolutely no bells or whistles.

Like I said, it was over 20 years ago.

[Edwin Santos]

Different set of rules and equipment for commercial and residential...

This has been my experience also on the commercial side. There is far less in the way of variables when compared to residential. Unless there is a project spec that calls out for something exotic, you can safely assume the requirements will be standard dimensions for uppers and lowers, p-lam (cabinets and countertops), euro hinges, wire pulls, full extension side mount slides and shelves/pins in the cabinets. Especially in medical and standard office installations. All the architect ever cares about is the p-lam selections. When you know those are the conditions, you can price by the foot with a few disclaimers, like Jack probably does.

I've heard of sophisticated residential contractors who have a sales process that is rather like "building" a car purchase online where you start with the base model and add options, each at a cost, and sometimes deduct features for credit also. Naturally, the final price comes only after a meeting or two where all these options are selected and finalized. The starting point could be on a price/foot guideline and modified from there. I guess there are lots of ways to skin the cat.

I'm not sure any of this answers what the OP was seeking. If you're doing it for yourself for fun, satisfaction, personal savings, then it's a radically different perspective altogether from a business owner doing it professionally.

[Martin Wasner]

I've heard of sophisticated residential contractors who have a sales process that is rather like "building" a car purchase online where you start with the base model and add options, each at a cost, and sometimes deduct features for credit also. Naturally, the final price comes only after a meeting or two where all these options are selected and finalized. The starting point could be on a price/foot guideline and modified from there. I guess there are lots of ways to skin the cat.

That's pretty much how I do it. Each cabinet comes out of my software with a number. From there I just fill in cells in a spreadsheet to get my final price for that cabinet and it totals up the cost of that cabinet, and then all of the cabinets combined. It's been modified and tuned a zillion times over to get it dialed in, or make things easier. A per foot is just getting you in the ballpark, and like Andrew said you can usually walk into a room and know it'll be X amount give or take.

I try not to get put on the spot and spit out a number though. I hate being way off, and that happens. I usually say "Let me get back to you" Then my number is dead on for what is drawn. If the price changes, that's because something changed.

I used to just clump everything together, but most of my builders want a break down of what each individual room costs. Sometimes if there's actually a budget involved, they'll want separate pricing of something specific that they know will be expensive and their client might not have the funds. Like doing a $1800 curved hood enclosure, vs a $600 square box for the hood liner. Most of the time they want things broken down by room. Not a big deal with a few rooms. A small pain in the rear when there's close to 20 rooms with cabinets in them on a really big project.


I envy the commercial world as a business owner. It's a bit more cut throat, but a whole lot more straight forward. I've got nothing to base this on, but I feel like the margins are way better. You certainly can get away with far less equipment. The nicest shops/buildings around here are commercial. With a few exceptions, most of the residential are dirty, poorly lit, run down buildings.

[jack duren]

Commercial...Bidding comes and goes on a fax machine. Now disks or downloads are available for inspection and bidding on the net. A job worth serious bidding you'll have prints made. I think they were $10 a sheet. Detail,detail,details...

Residential...Your my first bid but I like you. You get the job....Take a personal recorder and record the conversation...

Word of advise....Never assume anything...........

[Martin Wasner]

I stopped having those problems in 2012 when I started using Cabinet Vision. If you peruse the sets and different build styles (overlay, inset, etc) changing is simple. I export my door lists to excel and edit them to match WalzCraft's order form. I've messed up twice in 4 years and both times I didn't ordered 1 instead of 2 of something.

If you're building doors wrong sizes, I'd take a look at your screen-to-shop exporting/reporting because if you have the program dialed in to your processes the doors and drawers will always be correct. I can talk for days on that end of the spectrum.

I'm running an ancient version of Cabnetware. All it does is make drawings, I manually figure the doors, drawer fronts, and drawers and punch the sizes into a spreadsheet. I've spent $45,000 on equipment this year and I keep promising myself I'll upgrade software, but it always seems there's something else more important to acquire first. Those days are coming to a head though. If I want to add a CNC, I'll NEED to drop $25k on a fresh version of Cabinetvision. I better have the software sorted before the hardware hits the floor.

[mreza Salav]

Justin I 100% agree with you about Walzcraft. The raised panel mitered doors I got from them had zero sap wood (walnut) and I had to look really really hard to find the different pieces in the raised panel. Unbelievable attention to grain orientation. I couldn't find a single little flaw in all pallet it was delivered.
I have made many raised panel mitered doors and I have yet to see that many doors in a batch job in that quality. BTW, all sanded and finish ready.

[Warren Lake]

its not to do with flaws or even sap wood there are so many details thought wise that can go into a door from material selection to material selection again to layout to construction to finishing. Door makers do volume start with lesser materials, they simply cant put the attention into making the best door. They are very good value for the money and turn around etc. Ill stick to that as its what ive seen in the last 40 years looking at every stick of furniture I come across. I remember one magazine where the cover proudly showed a shop that made some huge number of cabinets per week. I emailed them to tell them all the doors were on upside down. Im microscopic like an ameba compared to them in fact I would not even register on their scale. I dont call it nostalgic just doing my best work at the time and always trying to get better.