# kitchen cabinets



## Kelly's Painting (Dec 3, 2009)

Ok generally I paint new construction but with the economy ive been doing alot of repaints im going to estimate a job for kitchen cabinets that are going to require 2-3 coats of paint typically what would you charge per cabinet assuming the cabinet is 32x20 inches front and back of doors and face out the frame. location is in alabama i just want to double check my estimate to be sure im not selling myself short or over pricing


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## Workaholic (Apr 17, 2007)

You already posted this same question here If you have patience you will get more answers. Although pricing questions of this nature usually do not bring the answers one is looking for and many like myself will often ignore the thread altogether. 

Give your price and roll with it If you are totally unsure go with T&M


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## cut-n-run (Nov 18, 2009)

Kelly's Painting said:


> Ok generally I paint new construction but with the economy ive been doing alot of repaints im going to estimate a job for kitchen cabinets that are going to require 2-3 coats of paint typically what would you charge per cabinet assuming the cabinet is 32x20 inches front and back of doors and face out the frame. location is in alabama i just want to double check my estimate to be sure im not selling myself short or over pricing


It's not uncommon to charge a set fee per opening. Say there are 12 cabinet doors, charge $100 per. Whether or not you tell the customer this is how you are pricing your work is up to you, personally I wouldn't, but it might help you arrive at a price tht works for you.

It's interesting too that you start your post off by saying that you usually do new construction and that repaints are below that level. I do repaints almost exclusively, I've always found there's way more $$$ to be made doing repaints vs new construction.


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## Wolfgang (Nov 16, 2008)

Kitchen cabinets are and should be a great money-maker, we do quite a few every year. Pricing is up to you, and cut-n-run just gave you a good basis for estimating them. Keep in mind that if you havent done cabinet repaints before, the first few times will be a learning curve for you and will likely affect your net. Once you get a few under your belt, you'll know more about pricing them.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

What are you planning on painting them with? What's the finish on them now? Are you going to spray them? Do you have a system in place to do so? Where will you do the work? Do you have a shop or do you have to do them on site? What kind of prep do you need to do? How long will it take? What is your rate? How much will the materials cost? How much do you want to earn as profit? How much overhead will you apply to this job? These are all questions you have to know the answers to, to be able to come up with a price.


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## Kelly's Painting (Dec 3, 2009)

cut-n-run said:


> It's not uncommon to charge a set fee per opening. Say there are 12 cabinet doors, charge $100 per. Whether or not you tell the customer this is how you are pricing your work is up to you, personally I wouldn't, but it might help you arrive at a price tht works for you.
> 
> It's interesting too that you start your post off by saying that you usually do new construction and that repaints are below that level. I do repaints almost exclusively, I've always found there's way more $$$ to be made doing repaints vs new construction.


but repaints are come and go if you know a few builders they will keep you in more than enough work and the good thing about it is you can pay someone else to do the work all i gotta do is show up randomly through out the day to crack the whip


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## Kelly's Painting (Dec 3, 2009)

Rcon said:


> What are you planning on painting them with? What's the finish on them now? Are you going to spray them? Do you have a system in place to do so? Where will you do the work? Do you have a shop or do you have to do them on site? What kind of prep do you need to do? How long will it take? What is your rate? How much will the materials cost? How much do you want to earn as profit? How much overhead will you apply to this job? These are all questions you have to know the answers to, to be able to come up with a price.


no prep besides a little deglosser. im doing it myself plan on taking off the hardware and spraying them outside on a drop cloth the paint is $55 a gallon retail the contractor discount is $34 the difference is mine i just asked for a ball park figure im not talking about a 10 thousand dollar job there is maybe 20 - 25 cabinets im just saying that i have never exclusively priced cabinets before and need some sort of idea of what is the norm and by the way cut-n-run $100 a cabinet no one is going to pay over 2 grand to have their kitchen cabinets painted


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## Wolfgang (Nov 16, 2008)

Funny.... I always get more than 2 grand to repaint kitchen cabinets.


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## ProWallGuy (Apr 7, 2007)

Wolfgang said:


> Funny.... I always get more than 2 grand to repaint kitchen cabinets.


Yeah, but I'd bet you aren't wiping them down and spraying them on a drop out in the yard either. :no:


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## NCPaint1 (Aug 6, 2009)

Kelly's Painting said:


> but repaints are come and go if you know a few builders they will keep you in more than enough work and the good thing about it is you can pay someone else to do the work all i gotta do is show up randomly through out the day to crack the whip


That IMO is the absolute wrong way to run a business, but to each his own...if it is working for you, awesome :thumbsup:

Most of the successful painters that I know do both. The new construction, and maintenance jobs ( large Condo jobs ) are great for keeping the wheels turning, but dont make any significant profit. They keep the crew busy and the money flowing while the residential jobs get lined up. When they're ready, just pluck a few guys from one of the big jobs and you're all set.


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## xr4ticrew (Nov 24, 2007)

Kelly's Painting said:


> $100 a cabinet no one is going to pay over 2 grand to have their kitchen cabinets painted


I don't think I've ever done a cabinet job for less than $2k, our last one was around $8500...of course, this is using lacquer in a $3M+ house, huge job to tape everything off, remove all hardware, label all the doors, take them to the shop, spray them all multiple times, spray all the boxes on site...

IMO this job requires a lot of prep and has to look Mint...cabinets are the feature of most people's kitchen right?


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## ewingpainting.net (Jun 2, 2008)

Same here, last one was over 5k


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## Wolfgang (Nov 16, 2008)

I just went through the last 2 years of kitchen cabinet repaints, counted only the ones that had faces, doors, and end panels. I recall the job because it was a small kitchen in an older home. $4800.00.

If you are familiar with kitchen re-do's, you'll know what the average cost is for that. Repainting cabinets, even re-facing, doors and drawer fronts, is a substantial savings to the customer. And if you know what you're doing, is a substantial money maker for the contractor.

If what you're charging is all the market will bear in your area, that's one thing. If it's all that you are comfortable with charging that's another. But the way it sounds, for how you are going about doing the job, the customer is probably getting what they paid for. Just my .02.


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## ewingpainting.net (Jun 2, 2008)

I know a guy that has a brother that is a cabinet maker. He charges just below what it would cost to replace cabinets. Great nitch to be in. There a pain to do, but you can make some good monies


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## DeanV (Apr 18, 2007)

I had someone call who is getting a 35-40 opening kitchen refaced (new doors, fronts, skin, etc) for $3-4,000! That is pretty cheap. Last time I was on a job that had the kitchen refaced, it was 10K for a kitchen that size, and it is the same company doing the refacing. I told him for that money, refacing is the way to go compared to having me paint it. Normally, I would guess that painting would fall around 3K, refacing 10k, and replacing at 30k and up.


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

DeanV said:


> I had someone call who is getting a 35-40 opening kitchen refaced (new doors, fronts, skin, etc) for $3-4,000! That is pretty cheap. Last time I was on a job that had the kitchen refaced, it was 10K for a kitchen that size, and it is the same company doing the refacing. I told him for that money, refacing is the way to go compared to having me paint it. Normally, I would guess that painting would fall around 3K, refacing 10k, and replacing at 30k and up.


I dealt with something similar recently. I quoted refinishing 3, 9' L x 32" deep x 30" high bathroom vanities. The HO rejected my bid saying she could get all brand new ones (3 of them) for $400 more than my bid. It was a fair bid, but she was cheap and kept trying to get me to price them at half of her so called price of 'new'. When I asked to see the quote she got from the cabinet guys, she refused. I wonder why? :blink:


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## Rcon (Nov 19, 2009)

Kelly's Painting said:


> no prep besides a little deglosser. im doing it myself plan on taking off the hardware and spraying them outside on a drop cloth the paint is $55 a gallon retail the contractor discount is $34 the difference is mine i just asked for a ball park figure im not talking about a 10 thousand dollar job there is maybe 20 - 25 cabinets im just saying that i have never exclusively priced cabinets before and need some sort of idea of what is the norm and by the way cut-n-run $100 a cabinet no one is going to pay over 2 grand to have their kitchen cabinets painted


20-25 cabinets, or 20-25 cabinet doors? There is a big difference. 

For 1, you don't want to be spraying outside, it's too cold. Plus, the wind will pick up dirt and junk and it will land in your finish. 

2: Choose your paint carefully. Regular trim paint will not work on cabinets. 

3: I bank on at least 1 hour per door and 45 mins per drawer. minimum 1 full day on frames. For a kitchen with 25 doors, count on 1/2 day for hardware removal/reinstall. You won't need a lot of paint in a kitchen, maybe 2 or 3 gallons of product, so get top-of-the-line. Expect to spend around $50 on cleaning materials like xylene, denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner etc. 

Bank on needing lots of paper, tape and plastic. You'll wreck a couple of dropsheets. 

Hope that get's you started.


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