Joinery Cost Calculator

Use this free joinery cost calculator to work out what a job actually costs and what to quote. Enter your materials, labour, overhead, profit and VAT, and it shows the full breakdown and your quote price instantly. Everything is worked out in your browser — nothing is saved or sent.

How to Cost a Joinery Job

A reliable quote is not a single guessed figure — it is a stack of costs with margin added on top. The calculator above follows the same order any accurate quote should: materials, then labour, then overhead, then profit, then VAT.

Materials

Everything the job physically consumes — timber, sheet goods, glass, ironmongery, adhesives, finish. The most common mistake is counting the obvious timber and forgetting the small items (hinges, screws, seals) that quietly add up across a whole job.

Labour

Labour is where most workshops underprice. Be honest about the hours: machining, assembly, finishing, fitting and the setup between them. Multiply by a realistic shop rate — not just a wage, but a rate that reflects the true cost of an hour in your workshop.

Overhead

Rent, power, machinery, insurance, software, the time spent quoting and ordering — none of it bills directly to a job, but all of it has to be paid. Spreading overhead across jobs as a percentage stops "busy but broke" workshops from working flat out at a loss.

Profit and VAT

Profit is not overhead recovered — it is the margin that lets the business grow, replace a machine or survive a slow month. Add it on top of recovered cost, then apply VAT to the net price. The calculator keeps these separate so you can see each clearly.

From a Calculator to a Real Quoting System

A calculator is perfect for a quick check or a single job. But a real workshop quotes dozens of jobs, each with many items, and needs to track which quotes are out, which were won, and whether the price actually held once the job was built.

That is what Joinery Core does. Instead of one figure, it builds a quote item by item — every window, door or unit with its own materials and labour — pulls items from a reusable priced library, applies your markups and VAT automatically, and exports a branded PDF. A won quote then becomes a live job on the workshop floor, so your estimate is connected to what the job actually consumes.

Estimate Faster With AI

Joinery Core also includes an AI estimate assistant — though it never prices on its own. You attach the client's enquiry, schedule or drawings and it pulls out the rooms, items, dimensions and quantities into a draft for you to price. It uses only your own pricing guide or figures you give it, marks anything it works out as "suggested", and invents nothing. Without your guidance it produces no prices at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this joinery cost calculator free?

Yes, completely free with no sign-up. It runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

What overhead and profit percentages should I use?

It varies by workshop, but many small joinery businesses use roughly 10–20% overhead and 15–25% profit as a starting point. Review your own accounts to set figures that reflect your real costs rather than a generic number.

Does it handle a whole multi-item job?

This calculator costs one job as a single total. For a detailed item-by-item breakdown across many rooms and units — with a reusable library and a branded PDF — that is what the Joinery Core estimating module is built for.