High Price For Carpentry In Bedroom

[Richb2004v2]

This is a slightly strange and wide open post to add and to ask advice about, but never the less I will post it.

I am looking to have some work done in my master bedroom. This involves adding a partition to produce a walk through wardrobe. For this I need a sliding door, a shelving unit for a TV and other equipment, a dressing table and various shelves and cupboards. All this will be going from floor to ceiling and all in wood. Inside the walk in wardrobe will be various shelves and hanging areas for cloths. Anyway, I had a company in and they quoted me 130,000 baht. I thought this was quite a lot for the work. This outfit was a professional seeming company and I figured that if I go to a one man carpenter I would get it cheaper. So a guy came around and then went away and penciled a design for me. He quoted me today three prices depending, on the wood used. The price was from between 300,000 to 700,000 baht! I can not get my head around this price. I could probably buy a very modest house for 700,000 baht. That’s 11,000 uk pounds! Needless to say I won’t be getting the work done with him.

So I am just wondering if any of you have had similar work done by a carpenter what kind of outfit do you get to do it, and does this price seem high to you? I know that it is difficult to judge on my description but to me even if I had been having the entire bedroom kitted out it would be high.

[jonniebkk]

od course, it all depends on the size of the unit you are looking to have built and the wood used but those prices seem aweful high to me. Are you set in stone in for using hard-woods? Using plywoods and veneers would be much more economical (as well as more environmentally friendly - unless you find some wood to recycle). What you describe, in veneers, would probably cost B 30,000-B 60,000.

[Fantasteak]

My friend just bought a 53sq m condo in Central CM and had the electrics renewed and burried in the wall. New shower ,toilet tiles etc. Basically he had the whole place renovated and he now owns it. Just under 700 000 baht. It took 2 men 2 weeks to do it. So unless you are using Burmese Teak or Carbon fibre to build your units and wardrobe I would say your man has mistakenly added an extra 0 on the price.

Tell him to "Jog on"

[malcolminthemiddle]

Built in floor to ceiling internal carpentry units 10,000 - 15,000 per meter depending on quality of wood.

[Richb2004v2]

Built in floor to ceiling internal carpentry units 10,000 - 15,000 per meter depending on quality of wood.

He quoted between 35000 and 70000 per meter. I did ask him if he didn't mean 3500 to 7000 but no he was adamant.

I just can not believe it. I don’t know much about wood but the samples didn’t strike me as being particularly luxurious. They were all light in colour and certainly weren’t teak or anything.

I think I will look for another quote and check out alternatives to solid wood.

[lopburi3]

Are you sure it was not teak? That is what they normally use here and if solid would be very expensive. These days most teak is not the stained dark type of several decades ago and a much lighter color.

[Khun Jean]

I have a wardrobe 2.4m wide and 2 m high made of solid rosewood. 120.000 baht.

And no flimsy locks and hinges

It will last a lifetime.

I have abnother wardrobe, same size in my rented house. About 2000 baht. It will last a few days before it already starts to close difficult or locks not work proper. You get what you pay for.

I would say the 300.000 quote is in the right range when using real solid wood. All the way to 700.000 is probably teak.

Edited April 7, 2008 by Khun Jean

[soundman]

Just to keep things in perspective.

You can build a mediochre 2 story 8 room house for about 350,000 Baht.

No teak custom made furniture of course.

[Cuban]

Just for comparison: I believe the price of 400,000 Baht was the total cost including transport to dismantle an old Thai Teak house from somewhere up in Chaing Mai and have it cut, shaped and sanded down on site as raw material for a friend's new Issan build.