Three quotes for the same kitchen can sit tens of thousands of dollars apart, and the reason is rarely that one company is greedy and another is generous. They are pricing different things. One is cabinetry only, one includes counters and install, one has plywood boxes and one has particleboard, and the exclusions are in different places on each page. The spread comes from six lines: scope, box construction, finish, hardware, who installs, and what is left out. Rewrite each quote into those six lines and the numbers start to make sense.
The first question is what the number covers. A cabinetry-only quote covers boxes, doors, hardware and delivery. A project quote adds counters, installation, removal of the old kitchen, and sometimes the plumber and electrician who reconnect things. On DADO's site, cabinetry starts at $15,000. A whole project, with counters and an appliance tier, runs from about $18,000 for a smaller kitchen to past $100,000 for a large high-end build, and most projects land between $30,000 and $50,000. Two quotes for the same room can be the same kitchen with counters and install on one page and not the other, and the gap looks like a difference in quality when it is only a difference in scope.
You will not see the box once the doors are on, which is why it is the easiest place for a quote to save money without saying so. Plywood boxes hold screws better, stand up to a dishwasher leak, and stay square. Particleboard is cheaper and swells when it gets wet. The difference on a medium kitchen is real money, and it belongs in the comparison. If a quote does not say what the boxes are made of, ask. We wrote about this in plywood versus particleboard cabinet boxes.
Doors and fronts are most of what you pay for and most of what you see. Melamine and laminate sit at the bottom of the range. Painted slab MDF costs more. Wood veneer such as walnut costs more again, and solid rift white oak sits near the top. Two quotes can describe the same colour and be a different finish underneath: a laminate in white and a sprayed paint in white are not the same door, and the cheaper one will look it in three years. Make each quote name the material, not just the colour.
Soft-close hinges and full-extension drawer slides should be standard, and on a DADO kitchen they are. The hardware and mechanical parts are covered for life under our lifetime warranty, and wood and laminate finishes typically carry a one-year manufacturer warranty. Some quotes list soft-close as an upgrade. Drawers cost more than doors with shelves, pull-outs cost more than drawers, and integrated handles cost more than surface pulls because the door is machined for them. A kitchen with twelve drawer stacks and a kitchen with four is not the same kitchen, even along the same length of wall. Count the drawers on each drawing before you compare totals.
Installation is either in the number, on a separate line, or missing. Some companies deliver flat-pack and leave the rest to you. DADO delivers cabinets pre-assembled and installs with our own team or works with your contractor, and the quote says which. Then read the exclusions: removal and disposal of the old kitchen, counters, the plumber and electrician for reconnection, paint, flooring under where the old cabinets sat, and tax. None of those are wrong to exclude. They are wrong to leave unmentioned.
Take a blank page and write the same six lines for each quote:
Once the lines match, the spread usually shrinks to something you can actually judge: a better box, a better finish, a company that installs its own work. If a company will not fill in a line, that is an answer too.
Run your room through the Vancouver Kitchen Cost Calculator for a planning range built from the same six lines, read how much a custom kitchen costs in Vancouver for the full breakdown, and book a free consultation if you would like us to go through the quotes you already have.