Three cabinet factories quote the same kitchen and the numbers come back a long way apart. One is cheap, one is expensive, and the temptation is to assume the middle one is honest. In practice the gap is almost never about honesty. It is about what each quotation actually contains, and a buyer who can read a cabinet quotation line by line usually finds that the cheapest and the dearest are not describing the same kitchen.
This guide walks through a kitchen cabinet quotation from China in the order the lines appear, and explains what to check on each one before comparing anything.
Line 1: the carcass
The carcass is the box behind the door, and it decides how the kitchen lasts. The quotation should state the board type, the thickness and the grade. Moisture resistant particleboard and plywood are the common choices, with plywood costing more and holding screws better. Sixteen and eighteen millimetres are standard thicknesses, and eighteen is worth the small extra in a kitchen that will be used hard.
Ask for the formaldehyde emission class of the board. Low emission grades are widely available and some markets require them. If a quotation does not state the board, ask, because the cheapest way to lower a cabinet price is a thinner, lighter carcass that looks identical in a photograph.
Line 2: the back panel
A detail that separates quotations quietly. A thin hardboard back stapled on costs less than a full thickness back panel set into a groove, and the difference shows in how square the cabinet stays after installation. Ask what the back is and how it is fixed.
Line 3: the doors and drawer fronts
This is the visible part and the largest single cost. The quotation should name the material and the finish. Lacquered MDF, melamine faced board, PVC wrapped, acrylic, veneered, or solid timber, and for lacquer whether it is matt or gloss and how many coats. Two quotations that both say white doors can be describing a sprayed lacquer and a foil wrap, which differ considerably in cost and in how they age.
Ask for a door sample from each supplier and compare them side by side in daylight. This single step resolves most of the difference between quotations.
Line 4: edge banding
The edge is where cabinets fail first. A two millimetre ABS or PVC edge applied with a good adhesive outlasts a thin foil edge by years, and it costs a little more. The quotation should state the thickness and the material. Look at the edge on the sample under a low light and run a fingernail along it.
Line 5: hardware
Hinges, drawer runners and lift mechanisms are what the user touches every day, and they are a common place for a low quotation to save money. The quotation should name the make or the grade, state whether hinges and runners are soft close, and give the load rating for drawer runners. Ask to see the actual hardware fitted on a display unit and open and close it yourself.
Line 6: the worktop
Sometimes included, sometimes not. If it is, the quotation should state the material and thickness, quartz or sintered stone or laminate, and whether cut outs for the sink and hob are included. If it is not, make sure you are comparing cabinet prices without worktops across all suppliers.
Line 7: accessories and internals
Pull out corner mechanisms, internal drawers, cutlery inserts, bin systems, lighting. These can be a meaningful share of the total and they are easy to miss when one quotation includes them and another lists them as optional. Make a list of the internals you want and confirm every quotation has the same list.
Line 8: what the price is per
Cabinet quotations are given per linear metre, per unit, or per kitchen. All three are legitimate and they compare badly with each other. Ask each supplier to quote the same kitchen from the same drawing, itemised by unit, so that the totals are for identical scope.
Line 9: packing and delivery term
Whether the cabinets ship assembled or flat, how they are packed, and whether the price includes delivery to the port. Flat packing saves a great deal of container space and needs assembly at the other end. The delivery term decides which costs are inside the price and which are yours.
Line 10: lead time and its start point
From deposit or from drawing approval. The two can be weeks apart on a custom kitchen, and the quotation should say which.
Putting the quotations on the same page
Make a table with the ten lines above as rows and the suppliers as columns. Fill every cell from the quotations and from the questions you ask to complete them. Only then compare totals. It is common for the lowest quotation to move to the middle once its thinner carcass, foil edge and non soft close hardware are priced to match the others, and for the highest to come down once its included worktop and internals are separated out.
Then get door samples, in the finish quoted, and put them next to each other in daylight. The quotation you choose should be the one whose sample you would be happy to see in every kitchen of the project.
Frequently asked questions
Because the specification differs. Board, edge, door finish, hardware, internals and what the price is per all vary between suppliers, and a quotation rarely states all of them unless asked.
The door finish and the hardware, because they decide how the kitchen looks and feels, followed by the carcass board and the edge banding, because they decide how long it lasts.
For a project kitchen that will be used daily by many different people, yes. The cost difference is small and the rigidity is noticeable.
Yes, and you should. Give every supplier the same written specification and drawing and ask them all to quote to it. The comparison becomes simple.
Only for a rough budget. For a real comparison, itemise by unit from the drawing.
Working with our team in Foshan
When we collect cabinet quotations for a project we send every factory the same drawing and the same written specification, and we bring the door samples back to one table. If you have quotations already and would like a second pair of eyes on the lines, send them and we will tell you what each one actually contains.