When you first time receive estimate for home interior design from a Contractor, its kind of a shock to see cost of civil work & furniture work. Probably you renovated home 15 years back. Or may your parents handled it & this is first time you have to pay for it. We spoke ot our team interior designers & asked them why is civil work so costly? why is furniture work so costly? Below are some points which they explained to understand it…

Why is Civil Work so costly?

Rates per Square feet

Floor Tiles, flooring, wall tiles these are calculated in sq feet style. Per sq feet rate is given by contractor & this is multiplied by total square feet area of work done.

Running feet

Any work / object that is max upto one & half feet calculated in running feet. For example your doorframe is calculated as per running feet. Total length of work covered multiplied by per running feet rate.

No Standard Rates

No two contractors will have the same rate. When a contractor gives you his/her rate chart, it should be mentioned what is included & what is not included in each rate. Depending upon how much material is included & type of material, rates vary. Flooring cost for tiles varies if tiles are bigger.

Photo frame Window frame

If there are double or triple running marble/granite for creating the frame of window or door, cost is calculated for each layer.

The Polish type also decides the cost of work. Edges of door / window frames come in different polish options. If edge style requires a lot of labour work, rates will go up.

Wall Plaster

Cost of Wall Plaster

Wall plaster cost is calculated per sq feet. Height & width of wall are multiple to calculate complete wall area.

After breaking old plaster, if the contractor finds out that the wall has a lot of internal plaster in poor condition, this will require him to break deeper. This will increase the cost of new plaster, because now the contractor has to do an extra thick layer of plaster.

Why is furniture work so costly?

When a homeowner is doing Home renovation work or Home interior work for the first time, there are a lot of surprises.

Civil work is costly, so is furniture work.

Furniture work mainly involves wood & wooden materials. Plywood, wood, laminates, veneer etc. It is important that you buy these items of the best quality possible within your budget.

When a homeowner sees the cost of furniture they get surprised that it costs so much.

You never expected a wardrobe to cost in lakhs, a bed to be so costly etc..

Below are some points that will help you understand why furniture costs so much..

Wardrobe costing

Cost of Furniture - Wardrobe rates - Bed cost - overhead storage cost and doors

Cost of wardrobe is generally calculated by multiplying the height of the wardrobe with its width.
For example – if you have a wardrobe which is 7 feet in height & 6 feet wide. Quantity calculated is 7 x 6 = 42 sq feet.

Every contractor / carpenter has different rates. They will tell you the rate for per sq feet. For example if the rate is 2500 per sq feet. For 42 sq feet cost will be 42 x 2500

Ask your contractor what kind of wardrobe is included in this rate. How many drawers & what kind material will be used. What kind of hardware will be used? Plywood & hardware are major cost incurring materials. Find out which material the contractor is going to use.

Bed Cost

Cost of bed making is calculated by multiplying length into width.

Box of bed & headboards are charged separately.

Drawers

Drawer making takes time. Hence when you ask for extra drawers inside the bedside or inside wardrobe or TV Unit or any storage. Rates/charge will go up.

Profile lights

Nowadays furniture is fitted with profile lights. When you open the wardrobe, automatically a LED profile light switches on. Profile lights are fitted near kitchen storage, bed inside, wardrobe, tv units. This requires some extra work & cost goes up.

Our suggestion is to keep it simple. When you buy a car with 100s of automatic features, at times it becomes painful when these items start malfunctioning one by one.

Surface decor material budget

corian solid surface material

Some of the decor materials options for covering the surface of your furniture are veneer, acrylic, solid surface (corian) , back painted glass.

Depending upon which material you select, the cost of your furniture will go up.