Simple Cabinet Pricing

[Dave Mishler]

Hope I'm doing this right. I have a friend's father in law that wants a lot of simple 3/4" plywood cabinets for the extra room above his garage. They are 24 x 24 x 60 with exposed plywood edges, no finish, no drawers and euro style hinges. They will have simple plywood shelves sitting on 2 x 3/4 supports. As you can see they are very simple. My materiel cost will be $65/ cab. The question is what is a fair labor price to build and install these? First job since I retired so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Skymaster]

time it takes to bild times what u think is a fair price for ur labor AND time to get materials etc.
it all revolves around what u want for ur time. try 20 an hr build one cabinet,see how long it took do the math see if u r happy and the client

 

[JimD]

I like Skymaster's suggestion. I would do one, either don't charge for the labor or make up a charge (like $50) and then see how long it takes you. Or just say you want $20/hr to do it and you will either take a flat 2 or 3 hours or actual time. Comes down to what you and the client think is fair. You will probably be faster on subsequent cabinets, however, which is something to consider in pricing. For most things, there is a pretty steep learning curve, you see a significant change on the second repitition, less the third, etc.. I doubt you could get to half your initial cabinet speed on the 10th unit, however. My guess is you would cut your time by 1/3 or so (10th unit would take 2/3 the time of the first).

Jim

 

[Dave Mishler]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I kinda thought as much but wasn't trusting my own instincts. I do a lot of woodworking, just not much woodworking for hire. :wsmile:Have a great day and again thanks.
Dave

 

[eyekode]

This may not be a popular answer but if the cabinet is as basic as it sounds and is of a standard size you might be better off buying it from Lowes or HD. Note I have never sold a thing so I don't know what I am talking about .
Salem