What should one see before hiring a cabinet maker or carpenter?
Creating cabinets for your kitchen or any other part of the house, always involves a mammoth task of selecting the right cabinet maker. First things first, the cabinet maker you choose, must have a relatively good experience with his craftsmanship of cabinet making or furniture making. The second most important detail is that he should demonstrate transparency in telling you the kind of material he intends to use for your job and why.
Modifying your closet goes far beyond having measurements to fit the size of your space. To build a design from scratch, that lasts as long as your house stands. Kitchen cabinets & furniture should be sturdy, they should be strong, and of course, they should uplift the décor and beauty of your house.
Designing your cabinet is an everyday affair for your cabinetmaker, but he should be able to provide some good references for his previous jobs.
So, without further ado here is a list of things that you should look for in
What kind of experience should a cabinet maker have?
Without being said, you wouldn’t let a newbie carpenter, with no experience in making cabinets do any job. It has to be a crafty carpenter who has been in Perth’s industry from ages or even has some overseas experience. You are looking for a craftsman who is friendly and generally a person who has experience and references from diverse cultures. This is because it exposes him to various styles and though processes, which increases his scope of imagination and craftmanship.
You are looking for somebody who is willing to accept your reasonable requests. A flexible person, who has contingency plans for anything that might happen. Who knows he might have a few suggestions to improve your cabinet designs and ideas further.
If he has experience with custom cabinet making, this means you do not have to worry about anything.
Does your carpenter demonstrate passion?
Let’s be honest, money is the main reason why anyone works hard in his or her trade. Everyone has their own personal reasons when it comes to making money e.g. mouths to feed & mortgages to pay etc., but a real professional will show consistent signs of passion, creative ideas and will display excessive pride in finishing his or her work. This is who, we are looking for. There are always a few diamonds in the rough that consider reputation as their primary and cash as their second priority. Finding a craftsman that loves talking about his work and his experience happens very rarely but, it’s always a welcome quality to look for.
How important in Transparency of pricing, when selecting a carpenter?
A good custom cabinet maker is always willing to discuss and show how he intends to work by discussing all the intricate details of the materials he is about to use. He understands your requirements as per your brief and suggests how he or her will approach the project, to give you the desire cabinets or furniture. He will be enthusiastic in showing you what he is going to do and the steps he is going to take to make your dream cabinet a reality. The craftsman who is insecure about making mistakes is not a good craftsman at all. We all make mistakes; it happens all the time. If he admitts making a mistake and is reasonable in getting you the best deal for extras, then he deserves some respect.
Of course, before you start the project, you are going to have to talk about the pricing.
Stating your budget is essential since it will tell your cabinet maker on what areas he should focus. Being reasonable with prices on both sides of the party will result in a beautiful creation that will make the both of you proud. Here, you have to make sure that transparency is practiced by your carpenter with itemised costs & stages of payments. A good cabinet maker will have an open pricing structure for you to review and in some cases will be reasonably bargaining.
There you have it- the qualities of a great craftsman whether it be cabinets, chairs, tables, and others. Making sure that the craftsman has these qualities ensure great solutions.
Is it important to do a background check, on the cabinet maker you plan to hire?
Vendors often share contact details of their best work or references of project owners they want to show case. If you decide to call & take a feedback, your carpenter or cabinet maker will only take that as a positive sign, since he is being considered for the project. Ask these references for their reviews, about their experience and materials been used and the place in the house the carpenter was best at. Make the effort of trying to see the project with your own eyes which will give you an idea of the carpenter’s capability.
Do not forget to ask, how the finish and functionality of the build is performing. Don’t be shy to ask for pictures or go take them yourself. Why? Because, a kitchen cabinet maker sometimes specialises in only delivering the best results with kitchen cabinets and not your study teak wood table. whether they were happy with their projects or not. Knowing this, you will be able to understand and weigh things in. Although it is true that you cannot please everyone, taking a look at their previous works and creations will give you an understanding of what he can achieve.
Thus there are many parameters of trust, reliability and skill which are required to be checked before one finalises a carpenter or a cabinet maker for their housing or commercial projects.