What is a reasonable fee for a builder to charge to upgrade oak cabinets and laminate counter tops to maple cabinets and granite counter tops throughout a condo (including kitchen, and two bathrooms)?
Thanks!
The condo is brand new being built as we speak.
Hi Jimmy Cabinet,
Thanks for the thorough response! They want $2500 for the maple and $2500 for the granite for a total upgrade fee of $5000.
What do you think?
Best Answer:
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Tags: Cabinets, Countertops, granite, Maple, Upgrade
don’t worry about it, the cost, get them both, you’re unit will be more valuable later on.
Granite probably costs 4-5 times what laminate tops do. As far as oak to maple- shouldn’t be that much difference unless the quality of the cabinets changes.
Not knowing the size of the kitchen, it’s really kinda hard to guess what’s fair or not on the upgrade.
Happy new home!
Oak should be more expensive than maple and granite will be about 5X’s the price of laminate. Your builder should give you an upgrade price. If you just get to choose from a builder package, then he will have the prices.
If you’re up to the task, I’d suggest purchasing online cabinets and installing them yourself. Certain builders will go out of their way to take advantage of inexperienced home owners, unless you were given a personal referral by a friend, I would be cautious.
The easy alternative is to buy cabinets online and build them yourself. It’s so much simpler than you’d think.
Here is the truth. Let me start here. Oak is the least expensive, maple is about 15% more then oak, and cherry is about 40% more then oak. Hickory comes in at about the same price as maple.
Now…..builders have all their ducks right in place. They know what joe cabinet company charges or any other trade. The builder automatically doubles that price and that is what they build into the price.
Same works for upgrades. Lets say you want to upgrade your oak kitchen to maple. If the oak kitchen cost the builder $3000, to upgrade it to maple would cost about $450 extra. The builder should charge you about $900 for the upgrade.
These days granite has come way way way down in price. You can buy granite for less then laminate these days. We are selling granite for $26 SF and others are beating our price easily. Dont let the builder overcharge you for granite upgrade. It is likely costing him less for granite then the laminate.
I would not say what most builders charge for some upgrades are too out of line but some are of course.
The correct way to buy a new home is to buy it stripped to the balls. Then you hire trustable contractors to do your upgrades. Of course you can not do this with cabinets. This is the type of upgrade you have to pay for if you want it. Other upgrades you should never pay your builder to do is flooring and swimming pool. Upgrades you have to pay for are things that would be too expensive to add later like pre plumb for a laundry sink, entertainment system wiring, extra phone lines, things like that.
How much are they trying to rape you for the upgrade from oak to maple?