Six lines, one set of drawings, and the choices that actually move the number
Most quotes for custom kitchen cabinets in Bath arrive as a single figure, and a single figure tells a buyer almost nothing. Two rooms of the same length can differ by half, and the difference is rarely the cabinets themselves. It is the way the run is built out: whether the tall block is one column or three. Whether the worktop is a bought slab or a welded top with the sink formed into it, whether the interiors are fixed shelves or pull-out baskets on runners.
This guide takes a Bath quote apart into the six lines that make it up, then follows those lines through the programme, survey. Drawing, cutting, finishing, delivery, installation, so it is clear which of them is decided early and which can still move late. The figures below are ranges for a made-to-measure 304 stainless order in a domestic kitchen, before a survey and before any one-off work has been drawn, because a single number would be a guess dressed as a fact.
One caution before the numbers. A price that looks low is usually not a cheaper factory; it is a shorter list. Part of this guide is therefore about what is missing from a low quote, because that remains the part that reappears later as a variation.
Six lines, three of them moving, and one multiplier that is usually missed
A Bath quote is the sum of six lines: carcase, interior, front, worktop and sink, hardware, and the programme that carries survey, drawing, delivery and installation. Three of the six, the front, the worktop and the programme, carry most of the movement between two quotes for the same room. The largest single multiplier is the number of separate items, not the finish: a run priced as one set is cheaper than the same metres split into five cabinets with their own end panels.
Custom kitchen cabinets bath: the six lines behind the price
Every quotation we send for a Bath order is a total of six lines, and each of them can be shown on its own. Clients who ask for the six lines instead of the total tend to decide faster. This is because The trade-offs become visible: a lighter front against a heavier one, a welded top against a bought slab, a taller block against a longer run.
The table below is the shape of a quotation instead of a price list. The shares are what we see across domestic orders in a period room, on a run of roughly four to five metres with a tall block. The ranges widen with one-off work and narrow on a repeat of a standard set.
| Line | What it covers | Typical share | What moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Carcase | Panels, folding, service notches, the body of every unit, and the joining method used to make them one set | Around a quarter | The number of separate items instead of the metres; splitting a run into single cabinets adds end panels and joints |
| 2. Interior | Shelves, drawer boxes, runners, pull-out baskets, cutlery trays and corner mechanisms | Around a fifth | How much of the storage is movable; fixed shelves are the cheapest interior and pull-outs the most useful |
| 3. Front | Door and drawer skins, the finish, the edge detail, the handle or grip, and the return at each exposed end | Around a quarter to a third | Material and finish direction, and whether the front is flat, framed or curved |
| 4. Worktop and sink | The top itself, the upstand, the sink, and whether the two are welded into one piece | Around a fifth to a quarter | A bought slab against a single welded sheet; a welded sink removes a cut-out, a seal and a second order |
| 5. Hardware | Hinges, runners, soft-close, lifting mechanisms, push-to-open, and any powered drawer | Under a tenth | Load ratings and cycle ratings instead of quantity; a higher-rated hinge costs little more per unit |
| 6. Programme | Survey, drawing, crating, freight, access work, installation and handover | Around a tenth, more on awkward access | Distance, access route, whether the house is occupied, and how many visits the room needs |
Two of the six are stable enough to budget with confidence. The carcase changes very little between suppliers quoting the same construction, and hardware is a small enough share that upgrading it is rarely the reason a quote moves. The other four are where a budget is won or lost.
It is worth reading line six with particular care, because it is the one buyers most often assume is free. A quote that excludes installation and freight has not given a lower price for the same thing; it has given a price for a different thing.
The constructions this guide prices are the ones on the product tickets, from the Aarhus light grey run to the Copenhagen full-height pantry wall.
How the number changes with the size of the room
Length is a poor guide to cost on its own, because a long cheap run and a short expensive one can finish level. What follows is the pattern we see when the same specification is stretched or squeezed in a Bath house.
The biggest single step in the table is not the first metre; it is the moment a layout needs a second element. One wall of cabinets carries one run of panels. A room with an island needs a second set, a second top and a second delivery position, and that second set is what turns a modest order into a large one.
| Room | What changes | Where the money goes | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galley, four metres, one wall | One straight run, no island, fridge and oven in the run | Front and worktop dominate; the programme is short | Access is easy, so installation stays near the bottom of its range |
| L-shape with a tall block | Two runs and one full-height column carrying ovens and a larder | The tall block is the largest single item and the interior line grows | Corners need mechanisms, and a mechanism is an interior line item, not a carcase one |
| U-shape in a period room | Three runs, two corners, a window worked around and a scribed wall joint | Carcase and programme grow; one-off work appears | Scribing and boxing are labour, and labour sits in the programme line |
| Island with sink and hob | A second set with its own carcase, top, sink and services | Worktop and sink jump; a second front set is priced | Services have to be decided before the cutting list is released |
| Full wall with display | Full-height fronts, glass, lighting and a lit niche | Front and lighting become the visible cost | A display front is a designed front, so it is drawn before it is priced |
As a rough check, a straight domestic run in Bath of four to five metres with a tall block typically lands in the region of USD 4,000 to 7,000 depending on the front and the interior. A room with an island sits at roughly one and a half to two times that figure. Those bands are in US dollars, ex-works from our Foshan factory, before freight, insurance, duty and any local tax; a delivered figure therefore adds the whole of line six and whatever the destination charges on top of it.
Finished rooms of the same type, with the drawings that produced them, are on the delivered projects page; they are the most useful comparison when a first budget is being set.
Where the money sits as the order moves through the programme
A price guide is only useful if it says when each decision is taken, so the table below follows the same six lines through the programme. Read it as a sequence of doors closing: the last column is the one that matters, because it names the point after which a change stops being a revision.
The pattern is consistent. Roughly a tenth of the order is committed at survey, most of the rest at approval, and almost nothing is genuinely open after cutting starts. This is why an early decision is the cheapest cost control available to a client.
| Stage | What is being priced | Who holds the clock | When the door closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survey and reading | Access, distances, obstructions, whether the room can be worked in | Surveyor | Nothing is committed yet; the survey is the cheapest stage of all |
| Drawing and elevations | Item count, one-off work, interiors, the front as a layer of its own | Drawing office | The drawing is still a document, so it can still be redrawn |
| Approval | The whole order, confirmed line by line | Client | This is the door: after written approval the programme is committed |
| Cutting and folding | Panel count, notches, housings, the number of separate items | Factory | Item count is fixed here; a change is a new panel |
| Welding and finishing | Tops, sinks, the fall, the sprayed front and its cure | Factory | The finish closes at curing; a change is a re-spray |
| Crating, delivery, installation | Access, crate plan, visits, handover | Factory, forwarder, installer | Access is decided at the survey, so it closes with the drawing |
One line in the table is worth repeating, because it is the most common surprise in a period room: a taller block is rarely the expensive part; the expensive part is the decision that arrives late. Our quality process records what is checked before a set is crated on the quality page, and almost every entry there is a check against the approved drawing instead of against the price.
The five choices that move a Bath quote most
Between two orders of the same size, most of the difference sits in five decisions. They are listed here with the direction each one moves and a rough sense of scale, so a shortlist can be built against a budget instead of discovered after the fact.
The list is ordered by how often it decides the outcome instead of by how much it costs at the top end, because the first two appear in nearly every conversation we have about a period kitchen.
- Choice: Cheaper. Dearer. How much it moves the total
- Item count: A run built as one set. The same metres split into separate cabinets. The largest single multiplier; each split adds end panels and joints
- Front construction: A flat pressed skin in one colour. A wood-grain or lacquer front, or a curved panel. The front is a quarter to a third of the order, so a change here is felt immediately
- Worktop and sink: A bought slab with a dropped-in sink. One welded sheet with the sink formed in and the upstand from the same sheet. Two lines become one, and the joint at the rim disappears
- Interior level: Fixed shelves in base units. Pull-outs, baskets and corner mechanisms throughout. Small per unit, large across a kitchen, because every unit carries the decision
- Programme: Straightforward access, one installation visit. Difficult access, two visits, trades sequenced around the order. Usually the difference between the bottom and the top of the programme range
If a budget has to be protected without changing the look of the room, the order of retreat is: reduce the item count first, keep the front, and use the interior as the adjustable line. If it has to be protected without changing the fit, the reverse works: keep the item count as a set and move the front towards a flat skin in a single colour.
The construction behind the front decision, and the load figures behind the hardware line. Are set out in the hinge and handle ratings guide, which pairs with this guide when a quote is being read line by line.
How a low quote is built, and what it leaves out
A quote that comes in well under the others is not automatically wrong, but it is usually describing less. The five patterns below account for almost every case we have been shown, and each one has a signature that can be spotted before the order is placed.
None of them is dishonest on its own. The problem is always the same: the missing line does not disappear, it moves to a later stage, where it is a variation instead of a fixed price.
- What looks cheaper: How it shows in the quote. What it costs later
- Cabinets only: No worktop, no sink, no installation in the figure. Two extra orders, and a cut-out made on site instead of formed in the factory
- A dropped-in sink: A top line without the sink welded in. A sealed rim to maintain, and a second supplier in the programme
- Fixed shelves everywhere: A low interior share. A retrofit of pull-outs later, which costs more than specifying them once
- Standard widths with fillers: A neat run with a filler panel at each end. A run that reads as bought instead of made, and dead corners that cannot be used
- Installation excluded or assumed: A programme line far below the rest of the range. Site-day costs, access equipment and installation labour arriving as extras
The check takes a few minutes. Ask for the six lines, ask which of them the figure contains, and ask what the room needs that is not in it. A supplier who can answer on the same page is a supplier who prices the same object twice.
Putting a budget together that survives the survey
A budget set before the survey is an estimate; a budget that survives the survey is a plan. The difference is whether the number was built from a drawing or from a memory of a room.
There are two ways to hold a budget in a period house, and they suit different projects. The first fixes the total and treats the specification as the variable, so the front and the interior absorb whatever the survey finds. The second fixes the specification and treats the total as the variable, which is safer in a listed building where the read of the room can change the scope of the work itself.
- Approach: What is fixed. What is adjusted. Best where
- Fixed total: The budget, the room and the item count. The front, the interior level and the worktop construction. The room is understood and the layout is not in question
- Fixed specification: The construction, the front and the interior. The total, as the survey reveals what the house requires. The house is period or listed and the room has still to be read
- Staged order: The set is priced as base first, tall block second. The second stage follows once the first is installed. Budget is firm but the order cannot wait for the whole room
Whichever route is taken, four things should be on paper before the order is placed:
- The six lines, each with its own figure, instead of one total.
- The point at which the price stops moving, which should be written approval of the drawing.
- The payment split, which on our orders runs at fifty percent with the order and the balance before shipment by T/T.
- The one-off work, drawn and priced, because anything undrawn is the part a quotation cannot hold.
A budget built on those four is one that a survey can be measured against. Send the room readings, the appliance schedule with model numbers and the access notes in one message, and the reply comes back as a drawing with the obstructions already resolved and the six lines already separated. Written up in full on the seven cost lines page, which covers the same ground for a standard order.
Eight questions about what a Bath quote contains
These are the questions that come back once the six lines have been shown separately and the total has stopped being the only number on the page.
Why does a quote for the same room come back so differently from two suppliers?
Usually because the two quotes are not describing the same object. One may be pricing cabinets alone with the worktop, the sink and the installation excluded, while the other is pricing a finished run. Before comparing totals, ask each supplier to list the six lines separately, to say which of them is inside the figure and which is not. To state the trade term the figure is quoted on, because an ex-works number and a delivered number are not the same price.
Which of the six lines moves most between two quotes?
The front, the worktop and the programme. The front moves on material and finish, the worktop moves on whether it is a bought slab or a welded sheet with the sink formed in. The programme moves on access, distance and how many separate items the run is split into. The carcase and the hardware are the two most stable lines.
Is stainless more expensive than a timber cabinet for the same room?
The carcase is comparable and the front is usually more, because a stainless door is formed instead of cut from a board. A lacquer or wood-grain finish is applied in a spray booth instead of bought as a sheet. Where stainless wins the comparison is the worktop: one welded sheet with the sink in it replaces a slab, a cut-out and a sink purchase.
What is the cost of a run that is not straight?
It depends on where the bend is. A run that turns through ninety degrees is priced as two straight runs with one joint, which is a small addition. A curved end, a radiused door or a shaped counter is one-off work, and one-off work is drawn and priced item by item at the drawing stage: an undrawn curve cannot be given a number.
How much of the total is installation?
For a straightforward domestic room, installation is usually around a tenth of the order. It rises where access is difficult, where the house is occupied and the work has to be split into two visits. Or where the surrounding trades have to be sequenced around the cabinet programme instead of the other way round.
Do pull-out interiors add much?
Less than most buyers expect on a per-unit basis, and more than they expect in total, because interiors are multiplied across every unit in the run. A pull-out basket in the base of one tall unit is a small line; the same decision applied through a whole kitchen is one of the four or five largest lines in the order.
What should be left out of a first quote to keep the number honest?
Handleless fronts, one-off curves and a one-off tall block are the three that most often move a first figure. Ask for them as named options with their own line, then decide. A first figure that already contains everything is easier to trust than a low figure that will grow at the drawing stage.
When does the price stop changing?
At written approval of the drawing. Everything above approval is still a drawing revision; everything below it is cut metal, and a change after that is a remake instead of a revision. This is why a low quote with a late decision is more expensive than a complete quote with an early one.
Where to go next
If the room has been read and the shortlist has reached two quotes, send both quotation texts instead of both totals. The reply comes back as a comparison with the six lines set against each other: what each figure contains, what it leaves out, and which of the five choices is responsible for the gap.
The product tickets show the constructions these numbers are measured against, from the Magellan display kitchen to the Helios sink workstation, where the welded top and the sink are one article. The delivered projects show the same lines on finished orders, and the quality page records what is checked before anything is crated.
Two pages that pair with this one: the Bath period rooms guide for the readings that decide a period room, and the made-to-measure build page for the order in which those decisions close.
Send Both Quotes, Line by Line
Related pages
A Bath guide to period rooms and what they ask for
The four house types, the five readings, and the specification worth comparing before an order is placed.
How a made-to-measure Bath build runs, step by step
The nine steps of a period order and the point at which each decision becomes expensive to change.
The cost lines inside a standard custom quotation
The same six lines on a straight order, with the three that carry the movement between suppliers.
The same figure read on a salt-air coast
Three delivery terms and one worked Cape Coral number, set beside a long period-room programme.
Content record: Written by the Bogeqi content team and reviewed by the Bogeqi export sales team on October 6, 2026; last updated October 6, 2026. The six lines, the shares and the stage table come from our own quotation files and order records at our Foshan factory. Not from a survey of published price guides, and the ranges are budgeting bands instead of fixed prices. The conservation and listing questions that arise in Bath remain matters for the local authority and for a specialist adviser. The build these numbers describe is a food-grade 304 body with the grade named part by part, a grade of 18/8 carrying chromium at 18 percent or more and nickel at 8 percent or more.
The core is an aluminium honeycomb bonded under a polyurethane chemical cure. It finishes at 18 to 25 mm, and it lands about a third lighter than a comparable timber-core door: about 8 kilograms per square metre against about 12. A 0.45 mm body gauge with a 0.6 mm pressed door skin and a 0.8 mm natural brushed door. A lacquer front sprayed electrostatically and cured at 220 degrees Celsius for thirty minutes at a coating of 60 to 120 micrometre and a surface hardness above 6H. Wood-grain transfer over a pressed profile on a 201 skin for the patterned range.
Formed front returns with a closed edge, pre-embedded hinge inserts with a copper core and six-sided 304 nuts, and multi-point clip-on hinges rated around 20 kg through 100,000 cycles over full-extension runners rated for the loaded drawer. Worktops are 304 with the sink welded in and the upstand formed from the same sheet. Material arrives with a mill certificate carrying a heat number, a third-party test report, and compliance with ASTM, REACH and RoHS. Standard production runs about thirty-five working days from the approved drawing, with the fastest series at about twenty-five. On fifty percent with the order and the balance before shipment by T/T, crated to sea standard with pearl wool and corner guards under a ten-year warranty on the cabinet body.