# Price Per Foot for Custom Cabinets?



## Sailor (Jun 17, 2009)

I have a family member who's house has flooded and ruined his cabinets apparently and is asking me for a general estimate of the cost of cabinets. He doesn't want to get screwed.

So, do any of you have guese for what you would charge for kitchen cabinets-

-all oak front
-raised panel oak doors
-solid oak drawer fronts
-slide out drawers in the bottom cabinets
-one lazy susan cabinet in a corner
-stained and sealed

Also, how much do you typically tack on for installing?

Does anyone know what they might charge (per foot) for just staining and sealing the fronts of oak cabinets?

Thanks! Your time is much appreciated!


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

I have been told that the total of the cost of materials times 2 would be a good starting place, but, know that this doesn't include your labor.


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## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

Custom built cabinets around here (western NY, buffalo/niagara falls) go around $250 a linear foot installed. That's for uppers and lowers. They can be lower than that but a lot has to do with the hardware/drawer material, etc. The $250 figure has all dovetailed drawers.

If you need to go fast, consider the Blum Tandembox drawer system. It's about 33% more per drawer for the hardware, but it's very fast and very slick. You cut a bottom and a back and you have a drawer. Make a drawer front and it clips on. Done. It sounds cheap when I read that back but they are VERY sturdy. I have a 35 inch drawer loaded with dishes. Glides like it's empty.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

He's unlikely to get screwed by going with a skilled cabinetmaker,
but there is some range of pricing because there are a lot
of qualitative variables some people appreciate and some people
don't.

If his wife gets a look at all the crazy new pullout hardware 
available (some of it borderline sci-fi) she'll want it…. and it's
not cheap. All the euro stuff installs in "system" holes drilled
on 32mm centers. That said, it doesn't play too well with
face frame designs.

Your friend may have face frame cabinets, but should be made
aware of the advantages of frameless. $250/lf is a good 
starting figure for either style. You can outsource the drilled
and edgebanded carcase parts pretty affordably if you don't 
want to set up to do it. If you go with face frames, the 
system holes become mostly useless.


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

It is a regional thing. I think $250 is the going price in the central USA. I have a door place I use that doesn't charge any extra for drillin the holes for the Euro hinges. On the other hand maybe he doesn't discount for not drilling them. He also sells the hinges at a very reasonable price. Thos hinges are nice because they are adjustable. I think if they get a price in the $225 to $250 range they will be getting a good price. Now pick a good contractor. Get references and talk to those people.


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## Sailor (Jun 17, 2009)

Thanks everyone, great replies!


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## huff (May 28, 2009)

Sailor,

This is really a tough question to answer. I'm sure if you checked with every cabinet shop that would be willing to build and deliver cabinets to your area and you gave them detailed drawings with all the spec. that you require for the kitchen, you would see such a wide range of pricing.

Cabinet Maker Magizine does a pricing survey every year; getting price quotes from cabinet shops from all across the country. I participated for a number of years until I retired. They would send out a set of drawings for 4 or 5 different projects, with specific materials and hardware to be used. They asked us to quote a price just as we would if we were quoting it to a customer. It usually consisted of a couple different style kitchens, a home entertainment center or wall unit, a commercial project and usually a smaller piece of furniture. We were able to bid on any or all of the projects, but had to quote it just the way we would in our business based strictly on the spec. they gave us for each.

They also asked how long we were in business and how many employee's we had. It was amazing to see the results. The wide range of pricing was wild and it usually had nothing to do with where they were located, how long they where in business or how big they were.

The typical kitchen would vary in price by thousands of dollars. Each project that was in the survey was actually built by a shop and they would share what they sold that project for when the magizine posted the results of the survey.

I've designed, built and installed custom kitchen cabinets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. I've designed and built custom cabinets for a customer from California and delivered and installed the project in Myrtle Beach, SC.

My pricing was always based on my same rate and by no means was I the lowest price out there. The main thing your friend should do is make sure they check out each cabinet shop very carefully, ask for a lot of references and make sure they actually check out the references and check out the better business bureau to see if any compaints have be filed against them. If they find a big price difference from one shop to another, make sure they are comparing apples to apples and they where very clear on what materials and spec. they expect.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

$250.00 per linear foot lower cabinets.
$150.00 per linear foot uppers cabinets.
Average west coast prices in Southern California.


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## MarionTPennington (Nov 5, 2012)

Hard to say. When doing a custom job it will depend on the level of customization. Plus different cities different prices, location will produce different prices.


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## cabmaker (Sep 16, 2010)

Sailor, thats not arelly tough question, however without having specs. or you not knowing anything about what caliber cabinet your soliciting pricing on it may be meaningless. I know precisly what it cost me to build what I typically build and also know how long it will take me. A pretty close average for me today in my region would be:

base cabs. 220l/f
standard uppers 97 l/f
full hgt uppers (43 inch) 115 l/f

These rates include a few bells and whistles and using one of 3-4 dominat species.(would not include exotics)
Includes 32mm hardware and BTW these are full faceframe cabs, trimmed and installed.
Finishing runs from 35-45 L/F of cab. (not wall run)
Oh and no particle board ! And raised panel doors in house/raised panel ends where needed.


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## OggieOglethorpe (Aug 15, 2012)

One thought…

Think hard and long about the pros and cons of shelf pullouts.

In some cases, say with tall items like large soup pots, they can make sense. In many cases, drawers make a lot more sense. Who wants to open a door to pull out a drawer, when they can simply open the drawer?

In recent kitchen remodels, I've replaced several base cabinets, that were going to include pullouts, with chests of drawers. The feedback has been 100% positive.

Don't blindly go where big box "custom" cabinets go.


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

Here in San Antonio custom cabinet pricing is a little less then maybe what the average is across the country. I agree with JB, my prices are similar but we are only 5 hours apart from each other. The one thing I would add, you mentioned that the base cabinets are drawers. In kitchens where all base cabinets are full of drawers, the prices will be a little higher, especially if using costly undermount slides. A common base would have 1 or 2 doors and one drawer, which to me typically cost less than a whole stack of drawers.


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## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

I have all drawers in my full depth lowers. MUCH more efficient and we don't lose stuff at the back of a cabinet and have to get down on hands and knees to find stuff.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

When I sold custom cabinetry a few years ago, we were getting at the tops about $90 per linear foot for upper and base cabinets. Lot of options with cabinets.  Seriously look at the previous posts and suggestions.


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## cabmaker (Sep 16, 2010)

Knothead62 I dont know how long yu have been retired but my out of pocket is now 63.00 l/f for the standard line I build. Frameless is near half that !


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## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

Though Dothan isn't too far off from me as the crow flies, it's way outa the way, the way the road drives. Sorry :/

Knot, if you've been out for about 7 or 8 years, the price of plywood has gone from about 20 dollars a sheet to danged near 50, depending on what part of the country you are in, and depending on species. If you did a job for that now, you'd either have to do a poor job, or lose your backside. I learned from someone who priced as you do now, and learned a harsh reality that those prices are no longer viable.

However oak plywood is about 55-60 bucks for 3/4, 1/4 is approximately 45 bucks, half dunno, not readily available. 4/4 red oak about 2.50 a bf 3.50 for the 6/4 to make crown. white oak is a lil more dunno, but these are reasonably close to what materials would be looking in your area, I think. You might have to have Georgia prices where you are at though.


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## Bumpy (Jan 30, 2017)

Start at 3.5x the material cost for paint grade, 4.5 5 x the material cost for stain grade then add accessories such as lazy susans etc. This has been my pricing structure for over 20 years and works well.


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