Originally Posted by
Mark Bolton
Sadly, if you build them yourself, with less than production equipment, and pay yourself and your shop a mere $5 an hour, you'll be in for far more than the cost of home center cabs. It may be fun, and rewarding, but even with $5 an hour in labor it'll cost a fortune.
It's just weighing the fun vs the time away from your family and the fact that it will take perhaps 10x as long. Not to mention but picking all the things you'll wish were different or better.
That depends... I have priced the box store cabinets and compared them to the cost of building cabinets myself. DIY for me is far cheaper and the quality of the materials is better. One time I priced my labor and IIRC it was over $25/hr. against the box store price, which had MDF in it.
Right now I'm building a highly customized kitchen island. The "design team" can't make up their mind so it's taking forever. As for material costs, it's about $1300 and labor is through the roof. But if I had it made by a custom shop, the cost would probably be prohibitive.
Of course if you factor in tools, you'd have to make a lot of cabinets and put in a lot of hours before breaking even.
In the end, a love for woodworking and the satisfaction gained from it can make DIY cabinets seem extremely cheap.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain