Sticker Shock Re: Bathroom Fixtures--worth the cost
felines100
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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Ro Els
2 years agofelines100
2 years agoRelated Discussions
Cabinet sticker sticker shock
Comments (31)Old River Cabinets is a custom company like Geppetto is with pricing about the same. Old river does not have a book and is a pain to price on the fly because you have to know every little upcharge that is based in their computer system they only have. Geppetto on the other hand has a book with cabinets every 3" with countless modifcation charges that I can apply to any cabinet to make it what ever size I want as I stated in the original post of modifying depth width or height in any combination. If they do not have a cabinet I can start with I have to fax in what I want and wait for a quote back. 3" increments just gives you an easier way to arrive at an exact cost. I can stack them verticaly, I can join them horizontaly up to 8' long for a custom look when they are installed. I can change the doors add a drawer anything you can think of. I can custom color match the fireplace which we are doing. I can custom color match the door sample which has the perfect color wood she wants which she has looked for 2 years to find. She is very picky when it comes to color. Geppetto will make anything I can dream. They are custom just in a manner that is easier to price as a designer who is not a employee of theirs. My overhead excluding gas is $3,000 a month. This business is about competing with the prices of the next guy. Lowes and Home Depot who's cabinet companies they represent sell approx half of all the cabinets in the US are the largest competition. 50% markups on semi custom products are about what you have to do to compete on price but then you can not compete on being as established as as they are when you are self employed per say. A typical set of semi custom cabinets cost the dealer 4-6k so a mark up would be 2-3k per transaction. Now since most people want to go with the established to big to fail company they will only buy with you if you give them a deal they can not turn down. So you drop your margin to do it if it is possible. Or you have contractors that want to work with you where the end price to customer is close in price to Lowes and Home Depot but they want money the owner is not aware of which makes you cut your margin in half and share it with the contractor. So either way you slice it I sell cabinets for the average kitchen that are all plywood dove tail full overlay soft close full extension for 6k most of the time and make $1,200 if you are lucky! So a custom kitchen which takes about twice as much time to figure out as there are many more ways you can layout the kitchen so you do multiple layouts before you find the perfect one for the customer has 400% more profit in it then the semi custom prices of the big box stores. And according to multiple posts on here the competition in supposed "custom" is 50k and up! Where I would be a total price of half that! I was not trying to make this about me I was more agreeing with the title of the thread of sticker shock shock. I have other people who buy fix and sell condo's and town houses here in the dc area where the cabinets cost me 900 - 1200 and I mark it up the same 50% to stay competitive. That translates to 450 profit. But wait.... that customer comes from a granite company that wants money for referring the business. So when you give them a 15% discount the profit on those kitchens goes to less then 200 including in home delivery costs. The industry forces you to work on percent markups. You spend as much time on a small job like that as you do on a semi custom kitchen which pays 1,200 or a custom one which takes a little longer that I doubled the price like other companies do I would make 25-50k on one kitchen? And people want to say that is the way you stay in business because you have overhead? Sticker Shock Shock. I agree. I must be to practical. I just wanted to give some context to the prices and point out that the orignial poster was correct to be shocked in my opinion and state some facts as to why it is true. Antss is right that it does take money to sustain a showroom. But you do not have to rip off your customer to do it by doubling the price of custom cabinets. How much money do you need to make on one job to stay in business when you are talking about profits upwards of 35k per transaction?...See MoreQuote Shock, similiar to sticker shock
Comments (2)Depending on the slope, this could be reasonable. Does the contractor have to build a small retaining wall to hold up the patio at the lower edge? This is where pavers stop being cheap. When doing brick or flagstone on a new concrete slab, the contractor can often make up the elevation difference with a turndown slab, then backfill around the edge and grade it off. With pavers you need to do something to hold in all that base material....See MoreSticker shock..shower wall surround and pan costs
Comments (17)This could have just as easily been a subway tile..... Sometimes its fun to take on a "sticker shock challenge" ( For only the right client!) Today with all the budget materials and Big box store sales you can get crafty and build a waterproof budget shower id say for around $4K. Shower pan/drain- Prefab insert ( would be around +/- $500 installed but we salvaged her old one) Fixture-Reused old valve/trim Waterproofing - Goboard and sitka sealant ( This stuff $20/board) Budget sale tile- Big box Ceramics/mosaic (2$-$3/sq.-ish) Glass- Prefab kit( $300-ish) This is what we here in the midwest call an upgraded Menardo's job ! This client blew up at sticker shock for a real shower. Since I was already Rebuilding their staircase and working onsite I took it as a challenge to meet a price point. Client bought all the materials I specified (she chose tile and did some driving around and procuring of materials) and the labor was kept at $2750 flat rate(demo to finished). This is my version of A budget job but I think it came out OK for a Price point and so did my clients....... it meets TCNA /ANSI specs..... Its waterproof ! There was no budget for lippage tuning glad i can float..... Not bad for a budget rush job ! It is very hard to build an Tile industry compliant waterproof shower with tiled pan for under $5-6 K you will find handyman that will attempt it but you may end up here on the forums crying in a few weeks time......See MoreSticker shock for new bathroom vanity - thoughts?
Comments (13)I know my comment is going to elicit some "cheap chinese crapola" comments. But I'm a realist and I would not spend $2600 for a 48" vanity cabinet from a local fabricator (particularly since I needed 2 and then needed to add the tops). Total would have been about $7k. I could afford, it just didn't seem a wise use of money. I did a lot of online window shopping, read lots of reviews, learned that companies brand the same vanity under many names (and a huge spread in price points) and ultimately picked one that is solid wood and had many, many positive reviews under every brand name it was sold under. I selected the vendor with good delivery reviews as well as price. I was VERY nervous buying this without seeing it but I am so happy. It arrived in perfect condition, is well built and between the sale and a 10% coupon, I paid $760 a piece with a top and sink. Every contractor who has been here is amazed at the quality and price. What did I compromise? I wanted a quartz top. I got a marble top. I wanted top quality drawer boxes. I got dovetailed with lower sides than I'd like. I wanted a Kohler Archer sink. I got a regular rectangular vitreous china sink. Trade offs were well worth it to me in order to have $5500 to put into other elements in the bathroom. Here is the vanity I got. It comes in black, white, grey and cherry. Good luck in whatever you choose....See MoreJulie R
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoJake The Wonderdog
2 years agoRo Els
2 years agoJ Hack
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agofelines100
2 years agoJ Hack
2 years agocpartist
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agocubby14
2 years agoHelen
2 years agofelines100
2 years agojust_janni
2 years agoJeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
2 years ago
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