Millwork Takeoff Calculator

Material grade drives four separate cost tables in this calculator, not one: the per-linear-foot or per-square-foot material rate for cabinetry, paneling, and molding, but also the shop fabrication rate ($65/hr at paint-grade up to $120/hr at exotic) and the per-square-foot finishing cost. Exotic hardwoods take more skilled, slower shop and finishing work than a sprayed paint-grade cabinet box, so grade compounds across the whole project, not just the material line.

Shop Cost is fabrication labor performed off-site — estimated at 1.5 hours per linear foot of cabinetry, 0.15 hours per square foot of paneling, and 0.1 hours per linear foot of molding, billed at the grade-specific shop rate. Install Cost is separate field labor — 0.75 hours per linear foot of cabinetry, 0.08 hours per square foot of paneling, and 0.15 hours per linear foot of molding — billed at a flat $65/hour regardless of material grade, since installation skill requirements don't scale with wood species the way shop fabrication does.

It converts your linear-foot and square-foot inputs into board feet using fixed conversion ratios (12 board feet per linear foot of cabinetry, 1.2 per square foot of paneling, 0.8 per linear foot of molding), then adds your waste percentage on top. It's meant specifically to help with raw lumber ordering, and is calculated separately from the dollar-based Material Cost output.

The waste percentage represents raw material lost to cutting, defects, and grain or color matching across a run — straight, simple trim runs typically waste only 10-15%, while complex profiled millwork with more joinery and pattern-matching can run 20-25% or higher. The input is capped at 30% because the reference figures behind this calculator assume you'd get a shop-specific waste estimate for anything more complex than that.