Why cabinet shops quote by the linear foot
A linear foot is a length of wall, not an area: 20 ft of lower cabinets along one wall is 20 linear feet. Most small custom shops quote kitchens this way, then add for drawers, pull-outs and other extras. A client can compare shops by it, and you can quote a kitchen from a sketch and a tape measure.
Count it wall by wall. A 12 ft sink wall with a 2 ft dishwasher opening needs 10 ft of base cabinets, and a 3 ft window over the sink cuts the uppers on that wall to 9 ft. Count bases and uppers separately, because uppers have no drawers, less hardware and no toe kick, and are usually priced lower per foot.
The foot price is what you quote. It is not how you should work the price out.
Check the foot price against time and materials
On any job that is new to you or more detailed than usual, build a second price from materials and time and compare it with your foot price. The time part needs a daily or hourly figure that covers the shop's overhead and pays you, not just the lumber bill.
If the two numbers are far apart, one of them is wrong. That second price is what the calculator builds: sheet goods, hardwood, doors, slides, hinges and finish per foot, plus hours at a shop rate. In the sample shop that rate is $58.80 per billable hour before machines and profit; how to set yours is on cabinet maker profit margin and shop rate.
A quick example of why the check matters. Say your usual foot price is $450 and a client wants a 15 ft run of inset doors with a lot of drawers. If materials and hours at your rate already come to $6,450 before profit, that is $430 a foot of cost, and $450 a foot leaves you $20 a foot, or $300 on the whole job. The foot price looked fine; the job did not.
Worked example: 20 feet of painted Shaker base cabinets
The sample job is 20 ft of kitchen base cabinets with paint-grade maple Shaker doors, plywood boxes, soft-close hinges and undermount slides, bought-in dovetail drawer boxes, delivered, install not included.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Part of the price | Amount |
| 2 | Materials and bought-in drawer boxes | $3,051.60 |
| 3 | Shop time, about 47 hours at the rate plus machines | $2,902.00 |
| 4 | Drawings, trim, delivery and other costs around the job | $1,456.66 |
| 5 | Price with markup, cushion and profit | $9,794.67 ($489.73 a foot) |
Three things stand out. On a drawer-heavy kitchen, undermount slides and drawer boxes can cost more than the hardwood, which is why drawers are worth charging for on top of the foot price. Five-piece doors and two coats of paint take more shop hours than cutting and assembling the boxes. And buying dovetail boxes in, instead of buying a dovetail machine, keeps overhead down; many small shops outsource them for that reason.
Everything above cost comes to $2,384.41, about 24% of the price, with the owner's wage already paid. Counting the hours around the build, the job earns about $97 per labour hour.
An 8 ft vanity or a 45 ft kitchen: how the foot price moves
Short runs cost more per foot, because the drawings, the site visit and the trip to the house are the same size whether the job is 8 ft or 45 ft. The same sample kitchen, priced at other lengths:
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Job length | Price per linear foot |
| 2 | 8 ft | about $643 |
| 3 | 20 ft | $489.73 |
| 4 | 30 ft | about $456 |
| 5 | 45 ft | about $433 |
One foot price for every job overcharges big kitchens and loses money on vanities. A minimum charge per job protects the smallest ones.
Per-foot prices some cabinet shops and sellers use
These come from single sources, not surveys, and some are sellers budgeting for homeowners rather than shops pricing their own work.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What | Amount per linear foot |
| 2 | Stock cabinets, from a cabinet seller's budget guide | $150 to $250 |
| 3 | Semi-custom, same guide | $250 to $350 |
| 4 | Custom, same guide | $350 and up |
| 5 | What some local custom shops charge | $400 to $500 |
One way new shops set a first foot price is to ask a few local custom shops for quotes on the same kitchen, average them and divide by the linear feet, then start at the lower middle of that range, around $400, until the job log shows what the work really costs. That is a starting point, not a method: the sample kitchen's $489.73 a foot sits inside the $400 to $500 range, but only because its own costs put it there.
Drawings, crown and a remade door: costs cabinet quotes miss
The costs that slip out of cabinet quotes are mostly hours around the build, and on the sample kitchen they come to about a fifth of full cost. Leave them all out and the same pricing rules give just under $8,000 instead of $9,794.67.
- Design, drawings and cut lists. You draw more kitchens than you build, so unpaid drawings on lost jobs come out of the ones you win.
- Site measure and client meetings. A picky client can mean three visits before a board is cut.
- Sending back bad lumber. A warped or checked delivery means unloading it, calling the supplier and loading it back up, often most of an afternoon. You can't bill that by the hour, which is one reason to price by the job and build that time into the rate.
- Pull-outs and inserts. Spice racks, blind corner units, trash pull-outs and extra drawers belong on top of the linear foot price.
- Crown, fillers, scribe and toe kick. Crown in particular costs more in both labour and material than it looks on a drawing.
- Remakes. You cannot predict which door or panel will be made twice, and you cannot charge the client for it, so budget for one.
- The colour sample board. A spray setup and drying time before the job has started.
- Shop cleanup. Sweeping, sorting offcuts and getting the shop ready for the next day is part of every job.
- Getting the cabinets to the house. Two people, a truck and a careful hour at each end.
- Emails and change requests. Each is five minutes; a kitchen can generate dozens.
- Bought-in parts. Ordering, checking and freight on drawer boxes or outsourced finishing are on you.
- Installation, which is best quoted as its own line and kept off the cabinet price.
Time each of these on your next three kitchens and you will have better numbers than anyone else can give you.
Ballparks, walnut premiums and chasing the low bid
Most cabinet pricing mistakes happen in the first conversation, before any drawings exist.
Giving a ballpark too early. The first number a client hears is the one they remember, even after the kitchen grows by a pantry and an island. If you do give one, say in writing that the quote sets the price; quote vs estimate covers the wording.
Charging a premium for nicer wood. Switching a kitchen from maple to walnut often adds only about $1,000 in total material cost, with the same build time. Charge that difference plus your markup on it, not a percentage on the whole job.
Having no pricing model. Plenty of shops that have been open for years still quote with no spreadsheet and no foot price they can explain. A written model is what lets you ballpark quickly and still stay close to the final quote.
Chasing the lowest number. Production shops will always be cheaper on the same box. Losing some jobs on price is normal for a custom shop; price the custom work you actually do.
Not tracking hours. Keep the hours each job took next to the hours you quoted, the way job costing lays out. A kitchen that runs well over its hours can lose money at a good foot price.
Put the drawings, extras and install in writing
Terms on the quote turn a forgotten cost into a priced one. For cabinets, the ones that matter most: the price covers the drawings and finish sample the client approved, inserts not listed are extra, install is quoted separately, and appliances and countertops are not included. Anything that changes after approval goes on a written change order. Adding a percentage for these instead? Check markup vs margin first, or set your rate in the free true hourly rate calculator.