Trade Cabinet Pricing Guide for Designers, Builders, and GCs

Trade pricing is only comparable when the cabinet teams receive comparable information. Send the project location, room list, plans or elevations, appliance schedule, target design direction, finish references, and the stage of the job. If field dimensions are provisional, label them as provisional rather than implying that an order-ready measure has happened.

Include the commercial context too: who is the client-facing contact, who approves substitutions, what the installation window depends on, and whether the cabinet scope is part of a larger remodel. Those details help the pricing conversation stay aligned with the real project.

A front sample or door price does not describe a kitchen. The package should account for boxes, shelves, drawers, finished ends, fillers, toe kicks, tall panels, appliance panels, valances or other architectural parts, and any open shelving or specialty storage.

Ask the supplier to identify what is included, excluded, and carried as an allowance. This makes a designer’s finish selection useful without hiding the construction and installation decisions behind it.

Hardware should be named by system where the choice affects function: hinges, runners, drawers, lifts, pull-outs, and handleless opening mechanisms. Drawings and revisions should be listed as deliverables, along with field verification, delivery, protection, installation, adjustment, and closeout responsibilities.

For a San Diego project, access, staging, parking, occupied-home protection, and coordination with flooring or counters can affect the installation scope. Those conditions belong in the request for pricing, not in a last-minute email after the package is approved.

A strong trade quote shows the assumptions behind it: dimensions, finish direction, edge, interior color, hardware family, appliance panels, counter support, site readiness, and the installation boundary. Request alternates when a different finish, drawer system, or layout would change the design decision.

Alternates are most useful when they preserve the same room and measurement basis. That lets the designer compare a surface or hardware change without accidentally comparing two different scopes.

Trade work moves through many hands, so the approval set needs a single revision, named decision-maker, and documented changes. The record should connect the drawings, finish samples, hardware, appliance information, and installation responsibilities.

A complete brief connects the client’s direction to a measured, reviewable cabinet package. Keep the approved drawings and specifications together so everyone prices and builds from the same information.