Custom joinery: deposits, drawings and approvals

A cabinet maker buys sheet material, cuts it to one customer's dimensions, and owns something nobody else can use.

Every commercial habit in the trade follows from that. The work cannot be resold, so the money and the approvals have to come first.

The deposit covers materials, not goodwill

A deposit sized to cover the sheet goods, the hardware and the first days protects the business from a customer who changes their mind.

Explaining it as the materials makes the figure obvious rather than negotiable, and most customers accept a reason far more readily than a percentage.

Drawings get signed before anything is cut

A verbal agreement about a drawer bank becomes a dispute on the day the kitchen arrives. A signed drawing ends it in seconds.

The signature is not about mistrust. It is the moment both parties look at the same thing and agree it is right, which rarely happens otherwise.

Measure the site, never the plan

A builder's drawing describes intent. The room describes reality, and the two differ by enough to ruin a benchtop.

A check measure after the wall lining goes on, and before the cut list, is the single most valuable hour in the whole job.

Name the point where changes stop

A customer moving an appliance after the cut list has gone to the machine is asking for new material, not a small adjustment.

A stated cut off date, with a rate for changes after it, turns that into a decision. Without one the customer assumes the change costs nothing.

Appliances and fittings arrive late, and stop everything

A cabinet built around an oven nobody has seen is a cabinet built around a specification sheet, which is usually close and occasionally wrong.

Holding the appliances, or at least their confirmed models and dimensions, before cutting removes the most expensive remake in the trade.

Stage the payments against visible progress

A deposit, a payment when the carcasses are built, and a balance at installation gives the business its money as it spends it.

Our guide to deposits and staged payments covers tying each stage to something the customer can see.

A photograph at handover settles the later argument

Joinery goes into rooms other trades are still working in, and damage after handover is a common argument.

Pictures at completion settle it. They also record the finished work, which is the best marketing a joiner produces.

Hardware decides how the job feels

Runners, hinges and handles are what the customer touches every day, and the difference between ranges is obvious within a week of use.

Quoting a named brand and series, rather than a vague description, protects the maker from a comparison against a cheaper quote.

Benchtops follow their own trade

A stone fabricator templates after the cabinets go in, makes the top off site, and installs it on its own date.

That gap belongs in the programme, along with the plumber and electrician who return afterwards to finish the room.

Delivery and access are part of the quote

A finished island bench that will not fit up a staircase is a problem discovered at the worst possible moment.

Checking the path in, at the same visit as the check measure, is a five minute habit that occasionally saves the whole job.

What to change first

• The deposit covers materials and hardware, explained as such
• A signed drawing precedes any cutting
• A check measure happens on site after lining, before the cut list
• The quote names a change cut off and a rate beyond it
• Appliance models and dimensions get confirmed before cutting
• Payments stage against carcasses built and installation complete
• The access path gets checked at the same visit as the measure