# Forum Home Renovation Kitchens  Relative costs of kitchen door materials

## rocketpants

Hello, 
I was wondering if anyone can help me out with a pricing query on different finishes for kitchen doors.  I am adding an extension to my house with a large builder and have been very unhappy with the pricing I have received from them.  The main issue is that I have found many errors in the estimation and as a result I do not trust much of what they say. 
My current concern is the kitchen panels.  The kitchen is 32 panels of varying sizes as shown in the pic.    
Our contract was priced to include laminated flush doors and fronts with ABS edges with allowance from Laminex standard range.  We thought to upgrade this and were told by the builder to choose from the polytec range. We initially went for Polytec Thermolaminated Vinyl Wrap Matt with Vienna profile and were quoted an additional $4,400 on top of the initial allowance.  I queried this and after declaring multiple times that this price was correct the builder all of a sudden reduced this to $3,500 with no explanation other than it was wrong in the first place. 
As I wasnt happy with the original $4,400 price I also asked for a price for Polytec melamine Sheen with the contemporary edge profile for which I was quoted an additional $2,400 over the initial allowance. 
It is difficult to get a reasonable cost estimate from the suppliers and I dont want to waste the time of a cabinet maker in asking for a quote when I know I will not use it.  Given that the installation and hinges etc were included in the initial allowance these additional costs should really only be for the materials. My query is: are these costs are reasonable?

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## jiggy

How much was the original allowance for the panels?

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## rocketpants

That's one of the problems I have with the builder.  They are unable (or unwilling) to adequately express the original allowance.

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## Gaza

get a quote for the doors as in contract with ABS edges from your own suppiler & then the upgrade door, print them off & hit the builder up, there is noway that doors alone are worth 4500 as an extra over, you can get 2pac poly for $70m2 plus the 18mm MDF cut to size as the substrate.

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## Pitto

i hardly think its "upgrading" from Laminex Melamine with abs edge's to Vinylwrap, let alone being slapped extra dollars for it. I dont care who tells you that Vinylwrap is better these days. its still a cheap finish, with nowhere near as good wear resistance to Laminex melamine board. 
Now if he had said upgrading to 2pac finish for that price, now thats an upgrade. 
I would tell said builder to give you the PC allowance, and go and hunt for a local cabinetmaker and get it done. You can guarantee the Builder has whacked a huge markup for emailing a dwg and making a phonecall. 
I was amazed at how much kitchens go for over in Perth.

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## rocketpants

@Gaza - Cheers. I'm doing that now and am pleased to see that others here think that the additional cost for the doors is just too much 
@Pitto - ~EVERYTHING~ in Perth is expensive.

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## Godzilla73

:What he said:  Vinyl isn't cheap nowadays, they've all jammed up the prices 'cos no one wants it, a pro applied 2 pac poly finish on flat doors ie. no face routing, with white melamine back is cheaper and better. You can have any colour you like too. So i'd either go 2 pac or stick with the melamine 1mm abs edge combo.  
Those prices seem high, you really need to deal with the Kitchen Mob/Cabinet Maker direct to get the best result in a number of areas. Price, Layout/Design and Spec level. If you can't get sense out of the builder now, wait till he tries to pass on your job details to the Cabinet Maker...

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## ringtail

I'd cut the builder all together and get a seperate contract for the kitchen with a cabinet maker - supply and fit.

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## Ken-67

I hope you are monitoring the builkding work very closely. This sounds like the type of builder who, once he has the job, starts cutting corners, and using lower grade materials, wherever he thinks the customer won't notice.

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