Alcove cupboards and shelving

suisidevw

Had a quote off someone who had been recommended by a friend for similar to the below picture. I asked how long it would take for the lot and he said 2/3 days. Now maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick, but surely all that would be less than £100 of MDF/materials which means he's taking £800 for 2/3 days work.

BTW, This is based in S Wales, not London. I'm aware my Father pays his highly skilled chippies around London £200 a day.



SUPPLY & FIT
To construct fitted alcove cupboards with 2 panelled doors.

Internal shelving, bookshelves above, complete with moulded pilasters, cornice and skirting.

Softwood
£ 600.00
per alcove

MDF
£450.00
per alcove

Thoughts?

LEJC

I have to say I would happily pay that if the finished result looked like the picture....and if I'm really honest I would even opt for the more expensive soft wood option....

Sorry if its not the response you wanted...but to me its a fair price.

Meadows

You are paying for then job more than the materials used.
Skilled craftsmen don't come cheap, this won't be a two minute job he will have estimated man hours.
http://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/150/what-is-the-local-hourly-rates-for-carpenters
What is the local hourly rates for Carpenters
£150 to £180 per day
Good carpenters are on around the £18 to £22 per hour depending experience.

That is where your cost lies, as with all jobs shop around get several quotes as to see past work so you know if you are getting some one who will do a good job.

I would not opt for MDF!

IanChippie

A bit late but stumbled across this thread whilst wasting the day away.

I would say you've got a pretty good quote there. Although he said 2/3 days remember there's prep work involved beforehand so the time it takes isn't limited to what you see being done on site. I assume that doesn't include painting - you'll need at least two probably more coats to get a good finish.

MDF will be fine apart from the shelves in the upper bookcase bit - for that you need at least "Pine" (although what's sold as Pine isn't actually that anymore).

The main thing here is that you were recommended by a friend.
As said shop around if neccessary but don't automatically go for the cheapest quote.
£200 a day in London is about the norm (usual caveats apply - longer job lower daily rates etc.) - how that compares with elsewhere I have no idea although I would guess outside the south-east it's going to be a lot less.
Don't trust the reviews you get on the various Ratedpeople Checkatrade type websites. They cost the tradespeople a lot of money and they, as a result, need to generate work to cover these costs. These website companies are pretty relentless when it comes to getting Tradies to sign up and are pretty much worthless in terms of getting work.

How do I know all this? Check the screen name. Loads of people I know have been stung by their empty promises.

Hope you now have a lovely new front-room and had a pleasant experience and fed the chippie plenty of tea.

AlcoveMan

I just found this thread via a Google search and had to chip in.

I make my living from building alcove cabinets just like this and it is clear that the OP has got the wrong end of the stick.

Installation of a pair of cabinets like this will take 2 days, but that follows at least a week's work off-site in the workshop actually making the things.

Ideally the cabinets will be spray painted (or at least primed) before delivery as getting a decent finish in situ from scratch is nigh on impossible. All this entails having a well-equipped specialist workshop which is a major overhead that has to be covered before the carpenter earns his first penny. As a rule of thumb he will need to charge around £250 a day to cover his costs and to earn a reasonable profit.

To replicate the cabinets in the photo I would be charging between £2000 and £2500 for the entire job including painting. I know this is competitive because my order book is always full.

The price quoted of £800 is absurdly cheap for work of the quality shown in the photo. My suspicion is that the finished job, while adequate, would bear no more than a passing resemblance to that shown.

Oh, and moisture resistant MDF is the ideal material for work like this. It paints beautifully and there will be no ongoing problems with wood movement. Avoid pine completely for all painted furniture - it will warp, twist, and cup, and the knots will bleed through the paint no matter how well they are treated.

Rgds
Duncan

thealcoveman.com

boochie

Suzie,

Did you go with the quote in the end and what was the work like. We are just in the process of buying a house and we would like to put some shelving in the Alcoves just either side of the fire place like you were planning to do.

PS we are moving to Barry, if anyone else knows of anyone that does a quality finish for a decent price then please let me know.
Stephenthomas500@hotmail.com

Regards

Steve

bluebaron

My mate recently paid £600 for something similar all in MDF, looks great might be a tad smaller than the photo above.

£800 seems about right. £2k+ seems very high end.

DRP

AlcoveMan wrote: »

I just found this thread via a Google search and had to chip in.

I make my living from building alcove cabinets just like this and it is clear that the OP has got the wrong end of the stick.

your website has pictures of the exact room and alcoves that are in the original post of this thread (but not the exact same picture).

Is this one of your jobs? Where did OP get the picture?

olimain

Looks to me like the exact same picture as the home page but mirrored/flipped horizontally!