Need help bidding a large job

Rennie Heuer

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Location
Constantine, MI
I’m putting together a bid for a contractor friend of mine – the same fellow I built the linen closet for. This is a kitchen and serving area in an apartment complex clubhouse. He has asked me to build all the cabinets because the customer wants something custom that does not look like anything from Home Depot. She showed me her office furniture and told me she would like it to look like furniture, not kitchen cabinets. The kitchen area can be seen from most anywhere in the common area.

This is the design I’m working with. Some background:

  • All plywood that shows, inside and out, is ¾” premium grade alder.
  • All face frames are all select grade alder.
  • Drawer boxes are ¾” hard maple with full extension slides.
  • The cabinet backs are also ¾” alder.
  • Glass is ¼” tempered and frosted
  • I will be doing all the finish work. They want a dark stain (coffee like in color) and I’ll be spraying everything, inside and out, with lacquer.
  • The two full height doors next to the refrigerator house a pull out trash can and a pull out double shelf.
  • I will be supplying the pull out hardware in the kitchen. The pull out trash in the service area will be on a custom made drawer with bottom mount slides due to the shallow depth of the cabinet.
  • I will not be doing the install.
  • Per the contractor’s request, these are being built in only 6 sections; the service counter, the sink base, and 1 unit each for the two upper and two base sections in the kitchen. The longest section is 91”.
  • The stiles on the face frame are ¾” thick, the rails (in most instances) are 13/16”. The customer wants the joint lines rounded to emphasize the joint line rather than have it flush.

I’ve estimated about 14 sheets of ply @ about $110 each. Maple and Alder total about 50 bf. The doors are all plywood with solid alder banding. Since I want to match grain on all the adjoining door and drawer fronts I’m calculating 20% waste to play it safe.

Time line is 8 to 10 weeks. (I'm really slow):D

So, I’d like some help in pricing this job out. PLEASE – if you have some guidance on how to calculate the price, pitfalls to watch out for, etc., please share them here. However, since this is a public forum, and I’d rather not have past, present, or future customers Googling me and stumbling across this thread, if you have any suggestions on actual pricing please feel free to drop me a PM.

Thanks and have at it!

The existing set up in the service area
DSC_0008.jpg

My design for replacement
Clubhouse 2.jpgClubhouse 1.jpg

The current kitchen
DSC_0013.jpgDSC_0020.jpg

My design
Kitchen 1.jpgKitchen 2.jpgKitchen 3.jpgKitchen 4.jpg
 
Last edited:
The customer turned down the idea of a lazy Susan so, yes I'll be using deep blind corners. If I get the job I'll post lots of progress pics!
 
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