How to estimate cabinet installation by the box, not by the room
To estimate cabinet installation, count the boxes by type, price each one, then add the parts a box count misses: fillers, toe kick, crown and hardware. Put loaded install hours on top, and get to the price by dividing the full cost by (1 minus margin). The 16 box stock kitchen worked out below prices at $8,961, about $560 a box installed. Countertops go on their own line as an allowance, because the fabricator cannot give a real number until the base cabinets are set.
Step by step
- Measure the room and find the high spot. Measure every wall, the ceiling height, and the exact location of windows, doors, plumbing, gas and the range hood duct. Then check the floor for level and the walls for plumb, because base cabinets are set from the highest point of the floor and everything else is shimmed up to it. A floor that drops an inch across the run is an hour of shimming and scribing nobody priced.
- Count boxes by type. List base, wall, tall and vanity cabinets separately. Stock units average $248 for a base, $188 for a wall cabinet, $472 for a tall pantry and $332 for a vanity, and semi-custom is usually quoted by the run at around $325 a linear foot. Those are allowances: door style, box construction and finish move them, so reprice from the supplier's order before you commit.
- Know the standard dimensions. Base boxes are 34 and a half inches tall and 24 inches deep, which lands the finished counter at 36 inches, and wall cabinets are 12 inches deep and normally hang 18 inches above the counter. Widths step in 3 inch increments, which is why almost every run needs a filler. When a customer wants 42 inch uppers or a counter-depth refrigerator, those numbers are where the conflicts show up.
- Add the parts a box count misses. Fillers at $22.50 each, toe kick at $4.35 a foot, cabinet crown at $8.60 a foot and pulls at $4.60 apiece are small lines that add up to several hundred dollars on a kitchen. Count pulls by door and drawer, not by box. Soft-close hinges at $5.35 and drawer slides at $14.75 a pair only belong on the bid if the boxes do not come with them.
- Keep countertops on their own line. Stone tops are priced by the square foot, $59 for quartz and $49 for granite as allowances, while laminate is sold by the linear foot at about $33. A top is roughly 25 and a half inches deep over a 24 inch box, so 14 feet of base run is about 30 square feet. Fabricators template after the bases are installed, so the estimate carries an allowance and the final number follows the template.
- Check the range and hood clearances. The model residential code calls for at least 30 inches between a cooking top and unprotected combustible material above it, unless a listed hood or microwave allows less. That decides the cabinet over the range, and getting it wrong means reordering a box. Confirm the appliance specs before the cabinet order is final.
- Figure install hours per box, then add the trim. A working number is about an hour and a half per box for setting, leveling, joining and fastening, and more for tall units and anything scribed to a wall. Crown, toe kick, fillers, end panels and hardware are a separate block of hours, often a full day on a kitchen. Tear-out of the old cabinets, if it is yours, is its own line with disposal.
- Divide by margin and stage the payments. Boxes, parts and labor are the cost. For a 30 percent margin the divisor is 0.70, so $6,272.70 of cost sells at $8,961. Cabinets are ordered weeks ahead and paid for before you set one, so take a deposit that covers the order and bill the rest at delivery and at completion. Write the lead time on the estimate so the customer can plan around a kitchen that is torn up.
The cabinet pricing formula
Boxes by type times their allowance, plus fillers, toe kick, crown and hardware, equals materials. Boxes times hours per box, plus trim-out hours, times the loaded rate equals labor. Divide the sum by (1 minus margin) for the price, and carry the countertop as a separate allowance line priced the same way. On $6,272.70 of cost, a 30 percent markup gives $8,154.51, which is only a 23 percent margin. Dividing by 0.70 gives $8,961, and the $806.49 between them is money you earned and did not charge.
A 16 box stock kitchen: seven base cabinets at a $248 allowance is $1,736, eight wall cabinets at $188 is $1,504, and one tall pantry is $472. Three filler strips at $22.50 is $67.50, 16 feet of toe kick at $4.35 is $69.60, 20 feet of crown at $8.60 is $172, 34 pulls at $4.60 is $156.40, and two bundles of shims at $7.60 is $15.20. Materials total $4,192.70. Setting 16 boxes at an hour and a half each is 24 hours, plus 8 hours for crown, toe kick, fillers and pulls, so 32 hours at a $65 loaded rate is $2,080. Job cost is $6,272.70. At a 30 percent margin, $6,272.70 divided by 0.70 is exactly $8,961, about $560 a box. The countertop is a separate line: 30 square feet of quartz at the $59 allowance is $1,770 at cost, or $2,528.57 at the same margin, confirmed after the fabricator templates.
Cost factors cabinet installers price for
Stock, semi-custom or custom
Stock boxes arrive in fixed sizes at $188 to $472 each on average, and semi-custom at around $325 a linear foot buys odd widths, better boxes and a longer lead time. Custom work is a shop drawing and a separate conversation. Install hours climb with the grade too, since inset doors and furniture-style ends leave no room to hide a gap.
Walls and floors out of true
Old houses rarely give you a level floor or a flat wall. Every sixteenth gets shimmed behind the box or scribed off a filler, and a long run makes it visible at the countertop. Put a level on it at the walkthrough and add hours when it is bad.
Tall units, crown and ceilings
Cabinets run to the ceiling need crown scribed to a ceiling that is never flat, and stacked uppers double the boxes on the wall. Crown at $8.60 a foot is cheap, and the labor to cope and fit it is not. A pantry at $472 also takes two people to stand and often has to go in before the bases beside it.
Site-built and modified boxes
Sink bases get cut for plumbing, an end cabinet gets a finished panel, and sometimes one box has to be built on site from cabinet grade plywood at about $3.90 a square foot. Each modification is shop time with a table saw set up in the driveway. List them one by one so the customer sees why two kitchens with the same box count are priced differently.
Countertop material and cutouts
Laminate at about $33 a linear foot and quartz at a $59 a square foot allowance can be thousands apart on the same kitchen. Sink and cooktop cutouts, edge profiles, seams and backsplash height are priced by the fabricator, not by you. Keep the top as an allowance and pass the fabricator's quote through at your margin.
Frequently asked questions
Should I price cabinets per box or per linear foot?
Per box is more accurate for installation, since a 36 inch sink base and a 12 inch spice pullout take about the same time to set but are very different lengths. Per linear foot is how semi-custom cabinetry is commonly quoted (around $325 a foot on average), and it works for a fast budget number. Build the bid from boxes, then divide by the run length if the customer wants a per-foot figure to compare.
What is a 10x10 kitchen price?
It is a comparison convention, not your customer's kitchen. Retailers price a standard 10 foot by 10 foot L-shaped layout of about 12 cabinets so shoppers can compare cabinet lines on equal footing. It usually leaves out installation, countertops, crown, fillers and hardware, so explain that before your full bid gets held up against a showroom sticker.
How high do wall cabinets go above the counter?
The standard is 18 inches between the countertop and the bottom of the wall cabinets, with the counter itself at 36 inches. Over a range, the number that matters is the code clearance: 30 inches from the cooking surface to unprotected combustible material, unless a listed hood or over-the-range microwave permits less. Read the appliance installation sheet before you order the cabinet that goes above it.
Who measures for the countertop?
The fabricator does, after the base cabinets are installed, level and fastened. They template the actual boxes and walls and then cut, which is why a countertop price on a first estimate is an allowance. Plan for a gap between cabinet install and counter install, and tell the customer the sink will be out of service during it.
How should I bill a cabinet job that runs in stages?
Bill it in milestones: a deposit at signing that covers the cabinet order, a payment at delivery and the balance at completion. In Staxen, Ivy sends invoices on a milestone schedule, takes card and ACH, and follows up on overdue ones, and Josie sends change orders the customer approves by text or email when the layout changes. Ivy alone is $59 per month, as is each of the other two AI employees, and the set of three is $149 per month, with the first 7 days in the app free.