I’m usually over at Cooks Talk, but they can’t help me with this one. I’ve been waiting for years for my husband to finish my kitchen. A few years ago he built the island, a beautiful bit of fine cherry cabinetry. It’s a source of pride for him. He built our house, but had never done a major project in fine woodworking like this. He’s been torn between wanting to finish the job and not wanting to commit to an undertaking that would take away so much time from what he really wants to do (oil painting). I’ve carefully suggested a few times that we could just have someone else do it. But the idea of having someone else’s craftsmanship in our house just doesn’t fly.
So we finally came up with what we hope is the perfect solution. We’ll have our son do it. He’s still at home. He just graduated from college with a degree in art, and doesn’t have the $$$ to be very independent yet. He’ll be here for the summer. My husband has all the tools, which our son is quite familiar with. We’ll supply all the materials, so that won’t be part of our cost to our son.
The job involves building custom cabinets, mostly with drawers (the kind that are set into the opening, so that the drawer has to fit precisely), deeper than standard (28 inches), 3 separate units that add up to about 15 feet of cabinet. We haven’t decided on the countertop yet (Corian or granite), but that will be done by someone else. I’m trying to figure out how to figure out how much to pay him for the job. This is a big splurge for us. We don’t have a lot of money to spend, but we want to give our son a fair price.
Replies
Syb
Come on, you come in here talking of this beautiful island and have no pictures! I'm dissapointed. :(
Your son just got done with college, who sent him there, I assume you, hell he should do it for free!
Seriously, if only half meaning it, why not just give him an hourly wage, dependent on how fast and skilled he is of course.
If this isnt something he's going to be doing for a living why make it a bid job? Who knows, maybe he takes after his dad and wont finish the job! I say that with jest, we carpenters are known to start these jobs and never finish them. I got two or three going on right now at my place and look what I'm doing today!
I'd say pay him by the hour, JMHO
Doug
We have no digital camera at this time and no scanner. I don't even have any good pictures of the island. I rarely take pictures in the kitchen because I can't keep the ugly elements out, including the small amount of foil-backed insulation that still is not covered.
Hourly wage??? He's very slow, but quite meticulous at anything he does.
If he starts the job, he'll finish it. In all fairness, his dad did finish the job. The kitchen was meant to be done in steps. When he built the island I hadn't firmed up my plans for the rest of the kitchen yet. When my husband starts a job, he's obsessed with it until the end. He knows he wouldn't have time to paint if he got into another project.
My son won't be doing this for a living, but it is certainly wonderful experience for an artist, or anyone else. Who knows, he may enjoy it and end up doing it for a living. He's very talented, but there aren't many jobs out there for people who want to spend 20 hours a day drawing, painting, and making bizarre ceramic sculptures.
Syb
I do custom cabinetry, thats my thing.
Without any drawings and really no idea of what your expectations are for the cabinetry I'll offer a ball park figure, and thats all it is, not really sure this is in the ball park, might be out in the parking lot, but my cabinets are anywhere from $200 to $6-700 a foot. Not going to help you much because I dont know the specifics.
You say that he's slow and meticulous, that all fine and dandy but of course you cant be paying him big money per hour so adjust it to go with his speed, pretty simple.
Here are a couple examples of work I did and the cost.
The unfinished one(walnut) which is about 10' of cabinetry was approx. 7-8K, thats as it sits there, no finish.
the second one(alder) is about 12' of cabinetry and and it was approx. 12K, as it is shown, finish, glass, but not the granite tops or the overpriced knobs!
Thats still not going to get you much of an idea because I'm in Tx and your somewhere else so prices are going to vary.
Have you and your son talked about what he thinks is a fair price, might be a good place to start?
Doug
damit to hell, gotta take my anti virus off to attach pics. they'll be in the next post.
Beautiful work. Thanks for showing it, and giving me a ball park/parking lot figure. That helps. We aren't doing upper cabinets now, if at all. Since your upper and lower are all one piece (at least that's what it looks like), are your figures for both? or do you count the bottom cabinets as 10 ft. for example, and the upper portion as another 10 feet?
My son has less of an idea than we have. I'm just trying to come up with some ideas, so we can talk about it, and come up with a deal before he begins.
Syb
I dont ususually give a per foot cost, those cost's were for what you saw. They were both part of much bigger projects but I know what I was thinking for the units.
I think those that do give per foot cost would count both upper and lower as linear feet, meaning double the lenght in these cases.
Doug
I don't know if this will help you at all, but I've got a Lowe's ad here by the desk, so I'll let you know about the cabinets in it: Per linear foot prices range from about $65 per linear foot to $225 per foot. The "10'x10' kitchen" prices are from about $1500 to $4000. That's just stock parts, not installed, of course. zak
"so it goes"
That's helpful. In the back of our minds we were thinking in the neighborhood of $2,000 - 3,000. He won't have to be in charge of installing, but he'll have to help.
I pay most laborers 10.00 per hour to start and depending on experence they can get to 15 .00 quite fast.
without knowing how good your son is at work in general and hes any good at woodworking id start at a fair 12.00 per hour and take into consideration that im probibly feeding him letting him do his laundry ,showers, watching TV / electric bills water bills etc. and think it is fair he has a chance to make some money gets grub a place to sleep and i get a kitchen that might be o.k. when its done.
I feel any more than that then he gets the best deal and not the fairest to you.
Dogboy woof .
Good point. That's something to consider.
Here are the two pixs.
Doug
Whats wrong with 3 squares and a dry bed?
If you're taking him away from an employment situation then just pay him the difference
I'll give odds dad will end up finishing the project
The trouble is, we're not taking him away from an employment situation. I have no idea what he'd be making if he got a real job. If he had hot prospects that interested him, I wouldn't think of taking him away from pursuing them. As I said, he'd rather be doing art than anything else. This will give him some flexibility to allow him to do that. He won't be obsessed like his dad.
I'm looking for a labor figure for linear foot of custom cabinet, or some other rule of thumb for estimating labor cost.
Typically cabinet jobs are bid based on the complications of the design, materials being used (which you don't have to worry about here), and the linear feet of the unit desired.
To be honest, I'm not sure what the price would if you are buying all the materials, because I think in terms of what to charge a customer for buying, building, and installing. To get some ideas of a professionals rate, visit a home improvement center like Home Depot or Lowe's and look at the prices for their cabinetry - they should be listed by the linear foot and maybe get you a bit closer to a fair price. Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderator
go to Home Depot or Lowe's and look at the prices for their cabinetry
Good idea. No HD or Lowe's here in northern northern California. There are a couple of smaller local places that are similar.
" No HD or Lowe's here in northern northern California"What a Godsend, that must be nice.
Dont say it to loud, they'll be right there!
" No HD or Lowe's here in northern northern California"
What a Godsend, that must be nice.
Indeed. Walmart and others have tried, but they got voted out.
Tell your son if he does a good job, he will be proud of his inheritance package. He should build with his future in mind to include appreciation of value.
Edited 5/20/2006 2:25 pm ET by txlandlord
That's another very good point. He and his sister will benefit from the quality of the job he does.