Kitchen Cabinet Build - Pricing

[Snipe Hunter]

I did my kitchen in the last house. I followed Udo Schmidt's book.

I still have the book and would be happy to send it to you.

[Cabinet Monkey]

Correct-
Build the toe kicks separate
it will take A LOT longer than you think

If you want to save even more time , forget building toekicks altogether and use these:


https://www.hafele.com.au/en/product/bas...-00869871/

[vernonator]

If you want to save even more time , forget building toekicks altogether and use these:


https://www.hafele.com.au/en/product/bas...-00869871/

I was just going to add that - skip the toe kick and use adjustable feet. I did that for the office remodel I did in our last house. Made install/leveling a breeze, and while plastic they are STONG, I used them on 8' book shelves that were FILLED with hard bound books and no issues at all.

[brnhornt]

Thank you all for the input so far.  One thing to note that I should have stated in the OP...but I am completely aware of the time involved with attempting to do this myself.  My only saving grace is that if we go the route of me doing it...I have at least 8 months to a year before we actually get started.  My wife and I are in the planning and budgeting phase now.  We did use an interior designer to get us to where we are.  We have the appliances picked out, and a working floor plan.  So my idea is that if I build 2-4 of the cabinets a month, and I have place to store them in my basement, I'd be hopefully in good shape by the time we start the tear out...and, hopefully...not burn myself out trying to build out an entire kitchen's worth in one or two months.  I have RFQs out to several cabinet companies now based on the floor plans from the designer so we'll see what they come back with...but it sounds like for most of you the material costs were around 50% of commercial price.  I'll have to give it more consideration, but that's really close to "forget that, I'll buy a couple of specialty tools to help this process go smoother, and do it myself" territory


One quick question...we're going to go with white cabinets.  I'm sure the pros spray for speed and results...but do they use a special "paint" for cabinets?  For lack of a better word...something that is two stage, hard as a rock sort of thing?  One of my larger concerns is if I paint them myself with a paint from Sherwin Williams, is that still considered consumer grade and I'll be dealing with finish issues the life of the cabinets?

[joe1086]

Had a couple more suggestions...
 
It was just my wife and me for the install so I decided to do French cleats on the upper cabinets. A couple of runs were four and five feet long and it made it very easy to just lift the wide carcass onto the wall and set it in place. You do lose a little depth. Speaking of depth, today's dinner plates are wider than yesteryear if you do inset doors, check the measurements. 
 
It was more work, but I dry-fitted and scribed the cabinets before they were finished. That meant removing the existing cabinets, but they were simple enough to reinstall (I removed the countertops and used plywood temporarily)
 
Finishing is my weak spot so I found a local guy who had the expertise and all the gear to apply a conversion varnish finish. I thought I had prepped well enough for finishing, but he took a look at what I had done and shook his head. He prepped more, applied a toner to the cherry cabinets to even them out, and then the final finish. It was a couple of grand well spent as I could have never made them look that good. Once the finishing was complete install was a breeze.

[mound]

So my idea is that if I build 2-4 of the cabinets a month, and I have place to store them in my basement, I'd be hopefully in good shape by the time we start the tear out...and, hopefully...not burn myself out trying to build out an entire kitchen's worth in one or two months.  

Not to refer back to my own thread again, but depending on how organized you want to be, I built all the parts for all the boxes, organized in a rack unassembled, and essentially made all the boxes and many of the sub-components before assembling anything. Then, once the kitchen was actually demo'd and ready for cabinets, I basically put them together as I placed them, much like a RTA cabinet.  This approach also helped optimize the cutlist and execution in how it let me batch things out and solved the no-place-to-store-them problem.

[ajkoontz]

Thank you all for the input so far.  One thing to note that I should have stated in the OP...but I am completely aware of the time involved with attempting to do this myself.  My only saving grace is that if we go the route of me doing it...I have at least 8 months to a year before we actually get started.  My wife and I are in the planning and budgeting phase now.  We did use an interior designer to get us to where we are.  We have the appliances picked out, and a working floor plan.  So my idea is that if I build 2-4 of the cabinets a month, and I have place to store them in my basement, I'd be hopefully in good shape by the time we start the tear out...and, hopefully...not burn myself out trying to build out an entire kitchen's worth in one or two months.  I have RFQs out to several cabinet companies now based on the floor plans from the designer so we'll see what they come back with...but it sounds like for most of you the material costs were around 50% of commercial price.  I'll have to give it more consideration, but that's really close to "forget that, I'll buy a couple of specialty tools to help this process go smoother, and do it myself" territory


One quick question...we're going to go with white cabinets.  I'm sure the pros spray for speed and results...but do they use a special "paint" for cabinets?  For lack of a better word...something that is two stage, hard as a rock sort of thing?  One of my larger concerns is if I paint them myself with a paint from Sherwin Williams, is that still considered consumer grade and I'll be dealing with finish issues the life of the cabinets?

Sherwin Williams ProClassic Waterborn Interior Acrylic Enamel is what I used and am very happy with it. You can roll it (or brush) and it looks pretty good, but it looks FANTASTIC when you spray it. It's 35% off right now and around $60/ gallon, so if you go with SW wait for a good sale and save some $$. For a sprayer how about this one- Titan Sprayer on sale @ HD. It's on sale for $100 right now. I bought one but haven't used it yet. I have used a Graco TruCoat, which I am very happy with and get good results. A little airless sprayer like this is perfect for kitchen cabinet sized projects. A big airless sprayer will work well too but a lot of mess to clean up to do smaller projects like cabinet FF. You'll have to fiddle around with thinning and getting all the settings just right but you'll get good results after about 1-2 hours use and great results after you've used it a dozen or so times. Can't stress enough what a game changer an airless sprayer makes to your painting results, plus a time saver.

Just to be clear- I believe the Titan I linked to is an HVLP sprayer, not an airless but it appears it will do thinned latex paints and I don't think you can go wrong for $100. But I am certain the Graco TruCoat is an airless and it WILL do un-thinned indoor or outdoor paints, but the VS model (which is the one you want) is around $300.

[rwe2156]

I went with frameless cabinets and melamine. Adjustable feet with clip on toe kicks. The clip on toe kicks have proven to be very useful, like when we needed to run an electric cable and when we had a new floor put in.

Personal taste, but for me face frame kitchen cabs are for the birds unless you're either an extreme traditionalist or do inset doors. No dividers between the doors, and drawer installation is easier. Use the system holes to mount the slides.

I used Danny Proulx's book as a reference. The whole System 32 makes so much sense once you get familiar with it.

If you use melamine you can build the boxes way cheaper than buying. You should shop the doors and drawer fronts, that may be worth hiring out especially if you don't have much experience or are getting them painted.

I just did a reface and went with painted. I am a novice at spraying and I will tell you it was a VERY time consuming and often frustrating experience. I used Target Coatings pigmented lacquer in an off white color and within a month some were turning yellow.

So, if you're not well versed in spraying paint, I suggest you go with natural wood.

I use CutList for material estimates and cut layouts. If you're not familiar with Sketchup its not worth the time to learn it.

[fredhargis]

Not to refer back to my own thread again, but depending on how organized you want to be, I built all the parts for all the boxes, organized in a rack unassembled, and essentially made all the boxes and many of the sub-components before assembling anything. Then, once the kitchen was actually demo'd and ready for cabinets, I basically put them together as I placed them, much like a RTA cabinet.  This approach also helped optimize the cutlist and execution in how it let me batch things out and solved the no-place-to-store-them problem.

^^^^^^What he said....you would be amazed at how much space assembled cabinets can take up. Keeping the parts un-assembled until the last minute will really help unless you have a very large storage area to keep them in.

[jteneyck]

Thank you all for the input so far.  One thing to note that I should have stated in the OP...but I am completely aware of the time involved with attempting to do this myself.  My only saving grace is that if we go the route of me doing it...I have at least 8 months to a year before we actually get started.  My wife and I are in the planning and budgeting phase now.  We did use an interior designer to get us to where we are.  We have the appliances picked out, and a working floor plan.  So my idea is that if I build 2-4 of the cabinets a month, and I have place to store them in my basement, I'd be hopefully in good shape by the time we start the tear out...and, hopefully...not burn myself out trying to build out an entire kitchen's worth in one or two months.  I have RFQs out to several cabinet companies now based on the floor plans from the designer so we'll see what they come back with...but it sounds like for most of you the material costs were around 50% of commercial price.  I'll have to give it more consideration, but that's really close to "forget that, I'll buy a couple of specialty tools to help this process go smoother, and do it myself" territory


One quick question...we're going to go with white cabinets.  I'm sure the pros spray for speed and results...but do they use a special "paint" for cabinets?  For lack of a better word...something that is two stage, hard as a rock sort of thing?  One of my larger concerns is if I paint them myself with a paint from Sherwin Williams, is that still considered consumer grade and I'll be dealing with finish issues the life of the cabinets?

If you want bulletproof, then consider General Finishes 2K White Poly.  It's a catalyzed waterborne finish that is about as durable as you can get.  SW's ProClassic is good stuff, but not in the same class.  And you can spray the GF product with a standard HVLP gun, whether a compressor based conversion gun like I use, or a turbine unit.  ProClassic only sprays well with an airless rig.  ML Campbell, ChemCraft, and others make 2K products, both solvent and waterborne, that can be sprayed with an HVLP gun.  I recommend you stick with waterborne products and not have to worry about blowing yourself up and/or burning your house down.  You'll still need good PPE to use any catalyzed finish, but the waterborne ones don't contain the flammable solvents of the others.   

If you have never sprayed you have some learning to do because paint is much harder to spray well than clearcoat.  It's very unforgiving of showing physical defects, which is mostly a prep thing, but any defect in your application will show up, too.  

Another option is to build the cabinets and have a pro spray them.  Still another option is to build the boxes and buy premade and prefinished doors and drawer fronts.  Lots of options.  One more thing, I would use melamine or prefinished plywood for the boxes.  No finishing required.  It's a big deal, too, because there is so much surface area in all those cabinets and assembled cabinets are much harder to spray, even with clearcoat and even with the backs off, than doors and drawer fronts.  

Good luck.  

John