A custom kitchen is usually paid in three or four stages, not one. The pattern in most Vancouver cabinetry studios, including ours, is a design stage first, a deposit when you approve the drawings and place the order, and the balance around delivery or installation. Your contractor, your counter fabricator, and your appliance retailer each run their own schedule alongside that. The exact split is written on each quote, and the point of this post is to explain what each stage is for, so the numbers on yours make sense.
Custom cabinetry is built to your measurements in your finish. Once it is in production it cannot be sold to anyone else. The deposit at order pays for the materials and the shop time that start the moment you sign off, and it is why the design stage matters so much: you are approving the drawings, the finish samples, and the hardware before any money goes into production. On a project in the $30,000 to $50,000 range, which is where most of ours land, that deposit is a meaningful sum, and you should know exactly what it buys.
The first meeting is free, at the showroom or on site. The design stage that follows produces the drawings, the 3D renderings, and the finish selections, and it ends with a signed design and a firm cabinetry quote. Some studios charge a design fee that is credited against the order and some fold it in. Either is fair. What is not fair is a design fee that vanishes if you do not proceed and was never explained. Ask before the first drawing.
When you approve the design, the order goes into production and the deposit is due. This is the moment the measurements are final, because a change after this point is a change order with its own cost and, often, its own delay. Our standard lead time from this point is about 4 weeks. Read the quote for what the deposit covers, what date or event triggers the next payment, and what happens if the site is not ready when the cabinets are.
The balance is usually tied to delivery, to installation, or split between them. Cabinets arrive pre-assembled and go in over one to several days. A fair schedule ties the last payment to something you can see, such as the cabinets installed and any deficiencies listed, rather than to a calendar date. If a studio wants the full balance before the truck leaves, ask why. A studio that is comfortable with you holding a small amount until the deficiency list is closed is one that stands behind its install.
Cabinetry is one contract. Your contractor has a separate one, usually a deposit, progress draws at milestones such as demolition, rough-in, and drywall, and a final payment. In BC, the Builders Lien Act requires a 10 percent holdback on contractor payments for 55 days after the work is substantially complete, and a good contractor raises it before you do. Counters are templated after the cabinets are installed and paid to the fabricator on their own terms, usually a deposit at template and the balance at install. Appliances are paid to the retailer, often in full before delivery. None of those come through us, and the whole-project planning ranges we publish are for the room as a whole, so leave space inside them for each of those contracts.
One page is enough. The total for the cabinetry. Each payment, the amount, and the event that triggers it. What is included at each stage: design, materials, delivery, installation, deficiencies. How change orders are priced after production starts. The lead time, stated as a standard rather than a promise, because site delays are the usual reason a date moves. And the warranty: ours is a lifetime warranty* on hardware and mechanical parts, hinges, slides, and soft-close, with wood and laminate finishes typically carrying a one-year manufacturer warranty. If any of those is missing from a quote, from us or from anyone else, ask for it.
If you are budgeting, start with the Vancouver Kitchen Cost Calculator for a planning range, then read how much a custom kitchen costs in Vancouver and how long a custom kitchen takes, since the payment stages follow the timeline. When you want the real schedule for your kitchen, book a free consultation and we will put it on paper.