Carpentry Cost in Singapore, Per Foot Run

What a foot run actually measures

A foot run is one linear foot of cabinetry measured along the wall, regardless of how tall or deep it is. Twelve feet of kitchen cabinets is twelve feet run.

This is where two quotations start to diverge without either being wrong. Kitchen carpentry is often priced per row, meaning the top cabinets and the bottom cabinets are quoted separately. One contractor quoting $250 per foot run for both rows together and another quoting $150 per foot run per row are within a few per cent of each other, and they look like completely different prices.

• —Ask whether the rate is per row or for top and bottom together
• —Check the stated height, because a taller unit at the same rate is more material
• —Check the depth, especially for wardrobes

Indicative 2026 ranges

Published Singapore guides for 2026 put general custom carpentry somewhere between $100 and $450 per foot run, which is wide because it spans everything from a basic laminate cabinet to spray-painted joinery. Narrower bands by item are more useful.

What moves the rate

Finish is the biggest single lever. Against a laminate baseline, published guides put veneer at roughly a thirty per cent premium and spray paint at around forty-five per cent. That is the same cabinet, the same size, in a different skin.

Then the carcass material, the hardware, and whether the run includes internal fittings. A wardrobe quoted with drawers, trouser racks and soft-close runners is not comparable to one quoted as a shell.

Why the rate alone tells you almost nothing

A rate is meaningless without the quantity and the specification beside it. Two quotes at $200 per foot run describe different jobs if one is for fourteen feet and the other for twenty, or if one is laminate and the other veneer.

This is the practical argument for insisting on itemised quotations. A carpentry line reading "carpentry works, lump sum" cannot be compared to anything, cannot be checked against the drawings, and cannot be argued with when the invoice arrives.

A note on where these numbers come from

These are market ranges collected from published Singapore renovation guides for 2026, not figures from any one firm. They move with material prices and they vary by contractor, so treat them as a way to sanity-check a quotation rather than as a rate you should expect anybody to match.