One sheet, seven readings and three questions
Three quotes for one Georgetown kitchen routinely come back with numbers that differ by half, and the suppliers rarely say which line moved. The buyer is left holding three figures and no way to tell a real difference from a markup. The fix takes one sheet of paper.
The reader here is a homeowner or a contractor who is pricing custom kitchen cabinets for a house in or near Georgetown, Texas. The problem is not a shortage of quotes. It is that each quote was built from different readings, a different panel and a different hinge, so the totals cannot be put side by side as they stand.
The method is narrow on purpose. Take seven readings once and write them on one sheet. Ask three questions of every supplier, in the same words, and keep the answers with the figure. Send that same sheet with every request for a price. What comes back can then be laid out line by line, and the gap between the highest and the lowest figure turns into a list of named items.
Four things travel with every request for a price
A quote is only comparable when two suppliers were handed the same starting point. Four items do that work:
- Measure the run, the ceiling and the wall before any figure is discussed.
- Set the grade from the room, not from the budget.
- Put the delivery term on the page, so both figures cover the same distance.
- Send the same sheet to all of them, and keep a copy with the answers.
Custom kitchen cabinets near Georgetown TX: why the quotes do not match
A quote is a short document, and the total is the least useful part of it. The money sits on six lines: the panel, the core inside it, the front, the hinge and the drawer runner, the worktop, and where the delivery stops. Two quotes can agree on the front page and differ on every one of those lines.
The same room, priced twice, usually parts company in the places below. Ask each supplier to answer the right-hand column in writing, under the total.
| Line on the sheet | How two quotes differ on it | Question to ask before comparing |
|---|---|---|
| The panel | One names a grade and a gauge; the other names only a thickness | Which grade and which gauge is the body panel, and where is it written down? |
| The core | An aluminium honeycomb, a paper honeycomb or a foam fill, all sold as a honeycomb panel | What is the core made of, and will you show me a cut edge? |
| The front | A lacquered face over a steel body, or a bare brushed face | Is the face bare metal or coated, and what grade sits under the coating? |
| The hinge and the runner | A clip-on hinge on a factory insert, or a screw pocket cut on site | Are the hinge inserts pressed into the panel at the factory? |
| The worktop and the sink | A bowl welded into the same sheet, or a bowl dropped into a cut opening and sealed | Is the bowl welded into the top, or set into a cut hole? |
| Where delivery stops | One figure ends at a port, one reaches the driveway, one has duty inside it | Which term is this price quoted on: EXW, FOB or DDP? |
Two of those six deserve a sentence. A screw pocket cut on site is one of the easiest things for a supplier to leave out. An insert pressed into the panel at the factory is a part that has to be bought and fitted, and the difference stays invisible until a door starts to hang low. The delivery term is the other. A figure that stops at a port and a figure reaching the driveway are not the same price. Reading them as though they were is the mistake that wastes the most time in this trade.
Read plainly, the three terms run like this. EXW is collected at the factory gate. FOB reaches a Chinese port, with the sea leg still to pay. DDP arrives at the delivery address with duty inside it. Where a figure comes from is a subject of its own, and the lines that make one up are worth a look before the second quote arrives.
What a Georgetown address puts on the sheet
Georgetown sits about 30 miles north of Austin along I-35, in Williamson County, and the west side of town climbs into Hill Country ground. Rooms here are read against five things a sheet written for another state would not carry.
- Ground and level. The town runs along the North and Middle Forks of the San Gabriel River, and lots west of the interstate climb. Floors in older houses are rarely level, so the low point of the run is measured and written down instead of assumed.
- The swing in the air. Summers are long, and the humidity moves a long way between a dry August and a wet spring. Wood-based boxes swell and shrink through that swing. A steel box does not move at all.
- Where the water comes from. East of I-35 the city supplies the water; further west, wells and septic systems are common. Where a house runs on a well, the water can carry minerals that dry into a film on any surface, and a plain top wiped with fresh water is easier to live with than an applied finish.
- The historic district around the square. Part of the town is a protected district of limestone and Victorian buildings from the late 1800s, with its own approval process. A kitchen inside one of those rooms is measured to the room, not to a catalogue.
- Who arrives to install. The nearest fabricator is often in Round Rock or Austin rather than in town. Someone measures, someone fits, and the sheet should name both before a figure means anything.
Two of the five rows are worth more than a line. The historic district has its own calendar and its own reviewers, and reading those rules before a drawing is made costs nothing and saves a redraw. Distance is the other: a sheet is only useful if the person who measured the room is the person who has to answer for the fit.
The seven readings to take once
Seven readings cover every decision that cannot be reversed later. They are taken with a tape, a level and a phone, and they are written down the same way for every supplier so that each figure is built on identical numbers.
- Run lengths in inches, wall to wall, including every filler position.
- The ceiling, read at both ends and in the middle, with the lowest number kept.
- The wall behind the run: concrete block, brick or timber frame, and where the fixings can go.
- The floor, checked along the whole run, with the lowest point marked on the plan.
- Where water, waste, power and extraction arrive, and at what height.
- The appliance list by model number, with the ventilation route drawn beside each one.
- Both doorways and the walkway, because a full-height block that will not go in is a problem found at the wrong end of a job.
Two of the seven are skipped most often. The ceiling gets read once in the middle and entered as a single number, and the low point at either end then has to be discovered by whoever fits the room. The floor gets assumed level, which is fair in a house built last year and wrong in most of the older ones.
Send the sheet as photographs of each wall with the numbers written beside them. A supplier who answers a sheet like that is pricing the room. A supplier who answers with a price per linear foot and nothing else is pricing a catalogue, and the two answers will never line up.
The three builds a Georgetown house is normally offered
Most figures describe the kitchen in one of three ways. They are not three points on a price scale. Each answers the same question: how much of the cabinet is stainless, and where does the steel stop.
| Build | What it is | Where it fits here |
|---|---|---|
| Full stainless with an aluminium honeycomb core | Two stainless skins over an aluminium honeycomb, chemically cured into a single panel of 18 to 25 millimetres | The whole indoor kitchen, and a covered run outside, with no change of material at the doorway |
| A stainless carcase with a lacquered front | A 304 body at 0.45 millimetre gauge behind a sprayed or pressed front | An indoor run where the colour of the front matters more than a bare metal face |
| Bare brushed or mirror stainless throughout | A 0.8 millimetre brushed face over the same body | A room where the finish is meant to read as metal, indoors or under a roof |
The first build is where most kitchens here land. It is the only one of the three that runs from the kitchen through to a covered patio without a change of material at the doorway. The second is the value answer indoors: a steel body that will not swell, delaminate or feed mould behind a front chosen for its colour. The third is the metal-only answer, and it is a real one as long as the grade is written down and nobody has to guess what sits under the finish.
Ask for a cut edge of any panel you are being sold, and put the photograph in the file. Every panel in all three builds has one, and the cut edge is where the core shows itself. A supplier who will not show one is describing a panel rather than building it.
Where the grade gets decided
Stainless steel is a family of alloys rather than one material, and the difference that matters in a kitchen is small in chemistry and large in behaviour. Both grades the kitchen trade uses are named in the same way, so the question is which one belongs in the room, not which one is better.
- 201. Chromium and manganese with little nickel. It has no place in a kitchen, including under a painted front, because rust starts at the cut edge where the coating stops.
- 304. Chromium at 18 percent or more, nickel at 8 percent or more. The default for an indoor kitchen, and the same grade the food industry puts on sinks and preparation tables.
- 316. 304 with molybdenum added, which makes chlorides less able to attack the surface. It belongs where a surface stays wet with salt or with pool splash, and it is wasted in a dry indoor room.
Grade is also the one thing a buyer cannot check by eye. A 201 front and a 304 front look the same on the day they are fitted, and the test liquid sold online is unreliable enough that genuine 304 can react to it. What holds up is paperwork: a mill certificate carrying a heat number, a third-party test report, and a spectrometer reading taken at the factory. Our own incoming sheet is spectrographed batch by batch, and the comparison of 304 and 201 sets out where each grade belongs.
So the grade goes on the sheet, and the room decides it. A dry indoor kitchen is a 304 job. A covered run that faces a pool or a sprinkler line is where 316 earns its place. The quality page lists what is checked against an approved drawing before a set is crated.
Three questions to ask every supplier
With the sheet written and the grade fixed, three questions turn three quotes into one comparison. Ask them in these words, of every supplier, and write each answer under the figure it belongs to.
- Which panel is this priced on, and what is in the core? The answer names a grade, a gauge and a core material. Anything shorter than that is a description, not a specification.
- Where does this price stop? Port, driveway or somewhere in between. Ask for the term in writing, and ask what the term leaves out.
- Who measures the room, and who answers for the fit? If the answer is the buyer, then the buyer carries the risk on readings that nobody checked.
The three answers sit under the total on the sheet. Put two quotes side by side that way and a gap usually turns into a named item within minutes. One included the worktop and the other did not. Another priced a lacquered front where the other priced a brushed one.
What is left over after those three answers is the part nobody at a cabinet factory should be deciding.
Who decides the rest
Four questions in a Georgetown kitchen belong to other people. It is worth naming them instead of answering across them.
- Permits and inspection. Whether a kitchen change needs a permit, and what the inspection covers, is settled by the City of Georgetown and by Williamson County. A supplier can draw to an approved layout; the approval is not a supplier's to give.
- Historic district review. For a house inside the protected district around the square, exterior and some interior changes pass a review before work begins, and that review has its own timetable.
- Structural and site questions. Whether a floor needs work before a heavy run lands on it, and how a west-side lot drains, belong to a licensed Texas engineer and to the local building department.
- Duty and classification. What an imported cabinet attracts at the border, and under which classification, is a customs broker's answer. An EXW or FOB figure does not include it. A DDP figure does.
A supplier who names those four boundaries is easier to work with than one who answers all of them.
Eight questions about a Georgetown order
These come back most often once a sheet has been opened and the room has been read.
Why do three quotes for the same kitchen come back so far apart?
Because they are rarely pricing the same thing. One figure may end at a port and another at the driveway. One may include the worktop and another leave it out. One may name a panel grade and another only a panel thickness. The work is not being compared until each figure is split into the same six lines.
Does a house in Georgetown need anything different from a house in Austin?
Not by city. It is decided by the room: the age of the house, how level the floor is, whether the run continues through to a covered patio, and whether the water comes from a well. Two houses on the same street can end up with different answers.
Is 304 stainless steel good enough for a kitchen here?
Yes, for an indoor kitchen. 304 carries at least 18 percent chromium and 8 percent nickel, the same grade the food industry puts on sinks and preparation tables. The upgrade to 316 is worth paying for where the surface stays wet with salt or pool splash, and it is wasted in a dry room.
What is a honeycomb core, and how do I check one?
It is a sandwich: two steel skins bonded to an aluminium honeycomb and cured into a single panel 18 to 25 millimetres thick. Ask for a cut edge of any panel you are being sold. The core should read as aluminium honeycomb, not as paper or foam, and a cut edge is the only place that shows it.
What does the price leave out?
On an EXW term, everything after the factory gate: inland haulage, sea freight, insurance, clearance and duty. On FOB, the sea leg and everything after it. On DDP, the figure reaches the delivery address with duty inside it. Ask which term sits on the page before two figures are compared.
How long does an order take, and what arrives with it?
Standard production runs about 35 working days from the approved drawing, with the fastest series at about 25 days, and sea freight sits on top of that. Each set leaves with a mill certificate naming the heat number, a third-party test report, and a crate or reinforced carton with corner protection. The body carries a ten year warranty written into the contract.
How far can a stainless kitchen run continue onto a covered patio?
As far as the roof goes, and not past it. Under a roof the cabinet is resisting humid air, sun and splash, which 304 handles for a long time. Out in the open it is sitting in rain and spray, and at that point a kitchen cabinet is the wrong article. A welded freestanding unit with open shelving is the honest version.
What sizes can the order be built to?
To the local standard instead of the Chinese one: 30 inch base cabinets and a 36 inch counter height, with heights, depths and filler widths taken from the drawing. There is no minimum order, so a single room is a normal order.
Where to go next
If the sheet is filled in, send it with the photographs. The reply comes back as a drawing and a figure, with the grade named, the core named and the delivery term written on the page.
The product tickets show the constructions those figures are measured against, from a full indoor run to a welded sink workstation. Rooms built from the same class of reading are on the delivered projects page, and the quality page lists what is checked against the approved drawing before a set is crated.
Three further pages pair with this subject. The breakdown of a made-to-measure order covers the build itself. The cost lines inside a quote show where the money sits, and the four gates for vetting a supplier cover the call after the figures arrive.
Related pages
What a price contains before a coastal market is priced in
Three delivery terms, the items a salty address adds, and one worked figure for a four and a half metre room.
The three layers of a made-to-measure cabinet
Carcase, interior and front taken apart, with the drawing set an order needs before it can be priced.
Four gates to put a supplier through
Documents, a live video audit, a paid sample and the terms to fix before the balance moves.
304 against 201, and where a saving on grade becomes a cost
Where each grade belongs in a kitchen, and why the cheaper one shows up at a cut edge first.
Content record: Written by the Bogeqi content team and reviewed by the Bogeqi export sales team on October 14, 2026; last updated October 14, 2026. The build specification, the grades and the production timings come from our own drawing files, order records and incoming-material testing at our Foshan factory. The location of Georgetown, its position on I-35 and the river forks through the town are published facts about the area. Any question about permits, historic district review, a floor's structure, drainage or import duty belongs to the city, the county, a licensed Texas engineer or a customs broker. Naming those boundaries is part of the job; answering across them is not.