Kitchen cabinet installation cost dataset

The four grades, on the 10x10

National figures, 20 linear feet, crown moulding, 24 handles, old cabinets taken out.

Look at the hours column next to the totals. Flat pack is the cheapest total and the most hours by a wide margin, because somebody has to assemble every box before any of it gets hung — about 16 extra hours on this kitchen. That work does not disappear when the price does; it moves onto a bill or onto a weekend. Assembling the boxes yourself and paying a carpenter only to fit them is the one genuine middle option on this page.

Six real kitchens, and their 10x10 equivalent

Stock grade. The labour column is the same job with the cabinets supplied by you.

Multiply any advertised 10x10 price by the third column and you can compare it with your own kitchen before anybody visits. That is the whole reason the 10x10 exists.

Why wall cabinets cost more than base cabinets

Base cabinets1.4 h per linear ft

Mostly shimming. A kitchen floor is never level and a run of base cabinets has to be, because the countertop will show every millimetre of what it sits on. Fillers, scribes and the toe kick are in here, and so is drilling for the plumbing and the outlets, which is done on site and cannot be done wrong twice.

Wall cabinets1.9 h per linear ft

About a third more, and it is not a markup. Everything happens overhead on temporary supports, and every cabinet has to be screwed into studs rather than into board. A wall cabinet full of crockery is heavy and it is held by a handful of screws, which is why this is the line where a cheap install eventually shows up — all at once.

On the default 10x10 the labour alone is $3,495, or $175 a linear foot across 54 trade hours. Those hours are our estimate; the wage behind them is official BLS data adjusted to your area.

What the extras add

Stripped of the crown moulding, the handles and the removal of the old kitchen, the same job is $6,364 rather than $8,295 — a difference of $1,932. Add two tall pantry units, two appliance panels and soft-close throughout and it is $12,384. Those two figures are the useful bounds when a quote arrives with no breakdown: ask which of the five it contains.

Line items

The reasoning behind each figure

Written out so a kitchen fitter can point at the exact assumption that is wrong.

Take out the old cabinets

• Half an hour a linear foot: unscrewing, lifting down and getting them out. Wall units come down first because they are over the base units.
• ⚠️ In a house built before 1978, cutting or scraping painted cabinetry and the wall behind it is above the federal lead threshold, so paid work has to be done by a certified firm.
• Old cabinets that are sound are worth offering to a salvage or reuse outfit before they go in a skip. It costs a phone call and it is a large volume of usable timber.

Skip and disposalestimated, ±49%

• A kitchen of cabinets is bulky rather than heavy, and it fills a skip faster than its weight suggests.

Ready to assemble (flat pack) cabinetsestimated, ±45%

• Boxes arrive flat and somebody builds them. Cheapest by a wide margin, and the assembly is real work: budget about forty-eight minutes a linear foot before anything gets hung.
• Priced per linear foot of run, counting base and wall separately, because that is how cabinets are sold and quoted. Twenty linear feet — ten base and ten wall — is the trade's reference kitchen, the "10x10".
• Cabinet boxes are usually particleboard or MDF, which are composite wood products under the emission standards the EPA administers following the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010. Compliant material is labelled.

Stock, assembled cabinetsestimated, ±43%

• Standard sizes in three-inch increments, off a shelf or on a short lead time. The commonest choice in America and the one every quote assumes unless told otherwise. Gaps get filled with fillers.
• Priced per linear foot of run, counting base and wall separately, because that is how cabinets are sold and quoted. Twenty linear feet — ten base and ten wall — is the trade's reference kitchen, the "10x10".
• Cabinet boxes are usually particleboard or MDF, which are composite wood products under the emission standards the EPA administers following the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010. Compliant material is labelled.

Semi-custom cabinetsestimated, ±37%

• Standard construction in your choice of size, door style and finish, built to order. Six to ten weeks of lead time, which has to be ordered before the demolition rather than after it.
• Priced per linear foot of run, counting base and wall separately, because that is how cabinets are sold and quoted. Twenty linear feet — ten base and ten wall — is the trade's reference kitchen, the "10x10".
• Cabinet boxes are usually particleboard or MDF, which are composite wood products under the emission standards the EPA administers following the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010. Compliant material is labelled.

Custom, built to the room cabinetsestimated, ±47%

• Made by a cabinetmaker for your walls, which are not straight. Worth it for an awkward room or an unusual layout, and an expensive way to fill a space that stock sizes already fit.
• Priced per linear foot of run, counting base and wall separately, because that is how cabinets are sold and quoted. Twenty linear feet — ten base and ten wall — is the trade's reference kitchen, the "10x10".
• Cabinet boxes are usually particleboard or MDF, which are composite wood products under the emission standards the EPA administers following the Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Products Act of 2010. Compliant material is labelled.

Carpenter: set and level the base cabinets

• 1.4 hours a linear foot. Most of it is shimming: a kitchen floor is never level and a run of base cabinets has to be, because the countertop will show every millimetre of what it is sitting on.
• Fillers, scribes and the toe kick are inside this figure. So is drilling for the plumbing and the outlets, which is done on site and cannot be done wrong twice.

Carpenter: hang the wall cabinets

• 1.9 hours a linear foot, about a third more than base units, and the difference is not a markup. Everything happens overhead, on temporary supports, and every cabinet has to be screwed into studs rather than into board.
• A wall cabinet full of crockery is heavy and it is held by a handful of screws. This is the line where a cheap install shows up, and it shows up all at once.

Assemble the flat-pack boxes

• Forty-eight minutes a linear foot before a single cabinet is hung. It is the work that makes ready-to-assemble cheap, and it does not disappear — it just moves onto somebody's bill or onto your weekend.
• It is also genuinely doable yourself, unlike the hanging. Assembling the boxes and paying a carpenter only to fit them is the one real middle option on this page.

Tall pantry or larder unitestimated, ±56%

• A full-height unit, counted per cabinet rather than per linear foot because it is three times the height of a base unit in the same two feet of wall.
• Pull-out internals are inside the upper half of this band and they are the difference between a pantry you can see into and a cupboard where things go to be forgotten.

Fit the tall units

• Two and a half hours each. A tall unit has to be plumb over its whole height against a wall that is not, and it is fixed top and bottom rather than hung.

Matching appliance panelsestimated, ±57%

• Doors in the same finish fitted to an integrated fridge or dishwasher. They only work with appliances built to take them, which have to be chosen before the cabinets are ordered.
• It is the detail that makes a kitchen read as one piece of furniture, and it is also the one that ties you to a particular appliance size for as long as the kitchen lasts.

Fit the appliance panels

• An hour and a half each, most of it adjusting the panel until its gaps match the doors either side. It is fiddly rather than difficult and it is the last thing done.

Crown moulding and light railestimated, ±52%

• Trim along the top of the wall cabinets and a rail under them to hide the under-cabinet lighting. Priced per linear foot of wall run.
• It is what closes the gap between the cabinets and the ceiling, and without it a wall run looks like it was delivered rather than fitted.

Cut and fit the moulding

• About twenty-one minutes a linear foot. Crown is mitred at compound angles against a ceiling that is not flat, and it is the item that most clearly separates a carpenter from a fitter.

Soft-close hinges and drawer runnersestimated, ±49%

• Where they are not already included. Priced per linear foot of run because that scales with the number of doors and drawers better than anything else available here.
• On semi-custom and custom cabinets they are usually standard, so this line is mostly a stock and ready-to-assemble question.

Knobs and pullsestimated, ±69%

• Priced per piece, because that is how they are sold and because the count is what surprises people: a twenty-linear-foot kitchen typically takes about twenty-four.
• The band is more than five to one and it is entirely about looks. It is the cheapest place in a kitchen to spend money noticeably, and the cheapest to save it invisibly.

Drill and fit the handles

• About seven minutes each with a jig. Without a jig it is slower and one of them will be crooked, which is the sort of thing nobody notices until they do and then cannot stop noticing.

Adjust doors, fill and touch upestimated, ±53%

• Filler, caulk and touch-up paint, then every door and drawer set so the gaps are even. It is the last hour of the job and it is the whole of what people mean when they say a kitchen looks well fitted.

Final adjustment hours

• Three hours at the end, plus a tenth of an hour per linear foot. Doors settle after they are hung and a second pass a week later is normal on a good job.

Not included in this dataset

Countertops

Cabinets and countertops are bought, made and fitted separately, and the countertop cannot be templated until the cabinets are in and level. There is a separate calculator for it on this site.

Appliances, sink and tap

Bought separately and chosen before the cabinets are ordered, because their dimensions decide the cabinet sizes around them. Only the matching panels are priced here.

Moving plumbing, gas or electrical

A new layout means moving a waste, a supply, a gas line or a circuit, and each is a different trade. Fitting cabinets where the services already are is what this page prices.

Walls, floors and ceilings

Cabinets go onto whatever is there. Levelling a floor, straightening a wall or repairing the ceiling after old wall units come down are separate jobs, and the last one is more common than people expect.

Lead and asbestos in older houses

Removing painted cabinetry and disturbing the wall behind it in pre-1978 housing is above the federal lead threshold, and floor coverings from before the eighties can contain asbestos. Testing comes first and neither is priced here.