I'm about to roll out yet another price list update, and was wondering if anyone would be willing to share what you are paying and general geographic region. I'm in the Pacific Northwest and have a highly local clientele. My biggest and best customer complains about any increases (of course) but I'm really hoping to be able to keep them while also getting back to making a decent living. I'm sure everyone else here is feeling the material cost and associated higher labor and energy costs... Thanks for any insight.

It uses to be that materials were 1/3 of our cost labor 1/3 which left 1/3 for profit and overhead .

Now we are at 1/2 of job cost materials and 40% labor leaving 10% for profit and overhead, overhead is 15-20% so we are loosing money now,

Denver metro

Doors are 17.00 per SQ foot for shaker pg and about 18.50 for select Alder

Its been brutal... Thanks for those data points. Hope you are able to get your pricing up to where it needs to be and still have enough business.

JR, Happy to help if you can tell us what you are trying to price out. Maybe your two most common doors? I'm just across the Cascades from you and will shoot you what I've been paying. Might help to share yours also.

Mdf doors, $10/square foot.
Raised panel, $87.35/door
¼" panel, $71.48/door
Engineered slab, $52.25

Drawer fronts are less, but not a ton. They take just as long to make as a average sized cabinet door

That is a base price, paintable, plain sliced red oak or similar costing specie. A percentage is added after that. That does include hinges, which you don't care about.

My prices are up 40% from where they were end of May 2020. It is not enough.

Just wanted to follow up on this because something interesting happened to me since posting.

I met with my biggest client and they said my price increase was too much . Mind you we are doing walnut kitchens with dye stains and Sirca natural effect finishes . Also Hard white maple with 6 step glazing and Sirca natural effect topcoats and sealers.

Avg kitchen is 65 k and has all paneled appliances , range hood , lots of pull outs , rev a shelf etc...

I was not making any money on these jobs.

So I said fine we are done I guess and declined the next four jobs.

Got a call from one of my other contractors who needed two kitchens with salt product and mirlux product , slab fronts , no finishing .

I bid the prefinished kitchens and was at a 50% profit margin. Got the jobs no problem.

I think that what I am seeing is in my area people do not value the time consuming hard work jobs but are willing to pay a lot for euro prefinished "modern" looking kitchens with a lot less labor required.

Salt is about 4.00 per SQ ft and most are happy with slab banded doors .

Go figure!

My current pricing is up about 12% from this time last year (it was overdue for an increase even back then) I mostly do 2 1/4" frame with flat veneer panel. Priced per SqFt with 1.5 SqFt min. This is rounded off pricing.

PG Maple/MDF $14
Alder $15
Cherry $16.50
Sapele $19.50
Walnut $23.50

Add $3 for solid wood flat panels
Add $5 for raised panels

JR,
Our WA state door shop after a 20% price increase a couple months ago is at $13.25 for the paintgrade shaker door and $14 for the alder. Hope that helps even if it isn’t what you were hoping to hear.

I sell doors by unit, because I'm putting them on cabinets typically. If I ballpark guess the average door size as being 16"x30", that's 3.3 ft². Granted, I get hosed on bigger doors, but I kill it in little ones, so I figure it all comes out in the wash. But that is $47 for a door that I am charging $71.48 for. I'm not saying you should flat charge for doors, but I think you are under selling yourself.

I've built drawer boxes for a couple of other shops for years. Originally I was just charging by volume. But I had one shop that was always ordering little drawers, and all drawers take about the same amount of time to build, large or small. When I sell a drawer for my product, I just do it by unit. If it's something whacky I'll charge extra, or if it's an over width I use a heavier slide and charge for that. But for the most part, my drawers going into my cabinets are the same price.
A few years ago, I went through a years worth of jobs, found the average size for the job, then the average size for the year. Subtracted the cost of slides, locking devices, and a little labor for installing them. Then I had a number for what I want to make on a drawer. I ended up charging two ways. A unit cost, and then a volume cost. I monkey'd with the inputs until I felt I was happy on the small drawers, but not screwing anyone on the big drawers.

Perhaps a multi layered approach for doors is something that makes sense as well?

JR, I think your prices are low. Im in midwest selling to cabinet shops and contractors at over $16.50/ sq. ft. for poplar 2.25 frame and .25 MDF
$19.20 paint grade maple with a B1 veneer panel
Raised panel add 25%
I raise prices or ill just go on a vacation.