the price of oak ledged doors

[sawdust1]

Hi all, had a customer who asked for eight oak 2ft 9inch ledged doors with beading on both sides. The prices of the oak to me was £124 per door so taking into account machining, thicknessing, cutting to size, edging, machining the tongue and grooves and beading they would be around the £175 per door. Went onto the internet found some from oak doors direct at £136 finished, this month special at £106. Told the customer it was not worth me making them and they finally got the price down to £85 per door including delivery. They were delivered to my workshop for finishing and i must say they are quite well made, they came wrapped in a large bag and each one was in its own box. The only thing i had to do was to sand them better and to route a chamfer on the ledges. So how do they make them so cheap ? The only reason i did not buy them and sell them on as mine was incase they were rubbish or their was a problem with them.

 

[AndyT]

My guess is the usual one - whoever was making the doors was being paid a LOT less than anyone could live on in the UK. Just like the people making clothes for Primark. Presumably they are made in China like so much of the cheap and nasty furniture.

 

[sawdust1]

Hi andy, the trouble is they were cheap but infact they were well made, Do they have oak in china i would say they were made in eastern europe. They could of been hung straight from the box after a little sanding and would look good.

 

[mailee]

I work with a furniture company who imports oak doors from China. (Along with other pieces of furniture) and I too have to admit some of them are pretty good. He ships them in containers and pays very little for them. China has the one thing we don't over here and that is very low overheads. They are built on a factory line but I do wonder about the 'oak' they use as it is a bit unusual to Red, European, or White, it just doesn't work the same?

 

[mickthetree]

All FSC certified wood? Its probably cheaper for them to cut trees down in Europe, ship it to china in containers, make it, finish it, stick it back in a container and sell it in the UK.

Did someone say something about selling ice to eskimos?

 

[Charlie Woody]

About 4 years ago when we were refurbishing & extending our house I bought oak ledged & braced doors from Magnet for about £95 inc VAT each. At the time my workshop was still an old outhouse in need of much tlc, but even if it was ready I would not have been able to buy the materials for the price I paid for the manufactured doors.

After a couple of coats of Osmo oil they still look great today. I can't remember the no of times people have asked did I make them!

 

[No skills]

I think china had/s plenty of oak, seem to remember reading an article about a brit investing in a factory build near an oak rich forrest in china - for the mass production of kitchen doors etc.

FSC? doubt it...

 

[tomatwark]

A lot of the Oak that has been brought in to the EU over the last few years in finished goods has been illegally harvested.

In March this year the law changed and all timber and timber products manufactured outside the EU has to be traceable.

The fact that the price dropped that much may mean that the company was trying to get rid of pre March stock.

Tom