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To all the woodworkers reading this… If you're here, I want to start by saying I've sat exactly where you sit. After tripping and falling headfirst into a passion for woodworking, I found myself asking “how the h*ll do I figure out a way to price this?”
It doesn't matter how you got into it. It could have been that high school class, or that part time job you landed. It could be your wife's ever-growing 'honey-do' list, or maybe it was that YouTube guy who poured a Star Wars themed live edge epoxy table and sold it for more than the GDP of a small country. Whatever it was, you ended up here driven by the desire to create something with your own two hands (and a power tool or two).
You’ve likely made a few projects by now that you finally consider to be a ‘passing grade’ to your own hyper-critical eye. You’ve also probably thought that “if I sold a couple of these, I could probably get a better sander” which would make the whole process of finish sanding 200% less soul sucking.
Well, you’ve found yourself in the next phase of the journey… Monetizing your passion. Something we all try to do with a jumble of methods we never seem to agree on.
Pricing projects can feel like trying to hit a moving target. If you were to ask ten different woodworkers how they price their work, you’ll get ten different answers. On top of that, once you’ve found a strategy that works for you, you’ll likely have to explain to a customer that your work and your time is worthy of the price tag… (You’ll also realize quickly that no matter what price you tell them, their job is to convince you that your price is too high. It’s just the way it is.
Now, it's time for the different methods for pricing. That’s why you're here, right?
The truth? There's no one-size-fits-all method. Some pricing strategies are overly simplistic and leave you underpaid. Others are so complicated they feel like you're running a corporate finance department out of your garage hobby shop. There may even be situations where one strategy you use may not work for certain projects, or you'll need to use a combination of two or more. The key is finding a method that works for you — one that balances fairness, profitability, and sustainability.
In this post, I’m going to break down common pricing methods and the pros and cons of each one. I’ll help you avoid costly mistakes and give you a framework you can start using today.
Pricing isn’t just about covering your material costs. If you consistently price too low, you risk burnout and business failure. If you go too high without offering matching value, potential customers walk away (ps. Customers will walk away regardless. Don’t let it bother you)
You’re not just selling a product. You’re selling time, skill, quality, and luxury.
How it works: Add up your material costs and multiply by x2 or x3.
Pros:
Fast and easy
Good for low-complexity, high-volume items
Good for hobby garage shops more focused on the therapeutic woodworking element.
Cons:
Ignores labor, overhead, or complexity
Can drastically underprice detailed or custom work
Best for: Beginners testing the waters or selling small, repeatable items. It can also help people get comfortable implementing a pricing strategy before moving on to more strategic methods.
How it works: Price the item based on what it’s worth to the customer, not just what it costs you.
Pros:
Often the most profitable method
Great for high-end, custom, or artistic pieces
Cons:
Hard to justify unless your branding and product quality are dialed in
Can be inconsistent if not backed by a process.
Even though it can be profitable, It can also cause the biggest loses if the project isn’t broken down properly.
Best for: Experienced woodworkers with a strong portfolio and established reputation. Its is also better implemented in Niches where there is extensive knowledge and expertise.
How it works: You look at what others are charging for similar products and set your price accordingly—sometimes lower to seem more competitive.
Pros:
Feels like you’re staying competitive
Easier than building your own pricing model
Cons:
Ignores your unique overhead, labor, and value
Creates a race to the bottom that devalues the craft
Often leads to underpricing, especially in a saturated market
Assumes other makers have priced correctly (most haven’t)
Best for: Makers focused on quick sales rather than sustainable growth. It’s often where beginners start, but not where the experienced craftsperson will stay.
This is what we at The Knotty Lumber Co. use daily to price our projects. We have a simple tool that you can download for your own personal use here!
How it works: Estimate how long the job will take, multiply by your hourly rate, then add in your material costs and a waste factor.
Pros:
Scales well with complexity
More accurate than flat markup
Cons:
Requires good time estimation
Can be tricky for one-off projects without prior benchmarks
Best for: Makers aiming for sustainable, full-time income.
Why we use it: This is one of the most common pricing strategies used by skilled craftsmen, professionals, and woodworking businesses. It allows us to capture the full value of our work—factoring in labor, expertise, overhead, and materials—without relying on guesswork or volatile market trends. Unlike market-based pricing, this method is rooted in our actual costs and our standards, not someone else’s. It also offers maximum flexibility and fairness across custom and complex jobs, ensuring we stay profitable while delivering high-quality results.
You don’t need a degree in economics, but you do need a system. Here’s the step-by-step process we use to price our projects daily. It is provided as an example for you to modify and implement to benefit your business or hobby shop. We want to ensure others don’t need to learn hard lessons the way we’ve had to!
Today we are going to glue up a 6 foot x 42 inch wide dining table out of 8/4 black walnut. We can assume that Black walnut retails for $16 per board foot. For the sake of this quote, we assume the customers choice of legs cost $300, and that includes having them shipped to us. All other numbers provided are theoretical.
Keep in mind to be generous in time estimates. Setup and cleanup time counts as well. We have learned through experience that although it only takes about 3 minutes to make a cut, it usually takes and actual 30 minutes to move it into place, turn on dust collection, clean up, etc.
|
Step |
Process |
Hours |
|
1 |
Ordering, receiving, or pulling and sorting the material |
0.5 |
|
2 |
Milling, a. Jointing b. Planing c. Table saw
|
1 1 1 |
|
3 |
Visualizing (mapping the glue up) |
0.5 |
|
4 |
Gluing it up |
2 |
|
5 |
Wide belt sanding after the glue up |
2 |
|
6 |
Finish Sanding (30 minutes per grit, per side) a. 80g b. 120g c. 180g d. 220g e. Waterpop +220g f. 320g |
6 |
|
7 |
Applying a Finish (30 minutes per side for osmo polyx, +1 hour buffing) |
2 |
|
8 |
Mounting the legs (with threaded inserts) |
1 |
This project will take a total of 17 active labour hours to complete.
This project could include a bit more waste because of the lengths in comparison to commonly available lumber sizes. To simplify the estimate, we will consider the waste factor to be 20% but this project can occasionally be as high as 35% in my experience. This is when it is important to be selective when choosing the wood or communicating with the supplier what specs are needed (or by letting us know your preferences if you are ordering it from The Knotty Lumber Co!)
6’ by 42” by 2” thick is a total board footage of 42 board feet. With a 20% waste factor, you will need to buy at least 50.4 board feet to complete the project.
50.4 board feet is 806.50 plus tax. Assuming shipping the material in is $100 for the sake of this quote, we would be looking at $906.50 plus tax.
Please note: We keep the material in stock, however even if I didn’t run a lumber business, I would still order a minimum of 65 board feet to prevent a slowdown in the project. Slowdowns are expensive!
It is important to choose an hourly rate that reflects your skill, your overhead, and your business growth. It is not minimum wage... Most common hourly shop rates can range from $50/hr for garage shops with experience, to $120 for professional wood shops with several staff members and heavy equipment. It is also important to note that most companies have variable prices depending on the piece of equipment required (i.e. Our shop rate is $100/hour at the time of writing this, but the 37” wide Cantek belt sander is $160/hr because of wear and tear, and operating costs. The sandpaper is incredibly expensive).
This project is 15 hours of shop time at $100/hour for a total of $1500, and the wide belt sander is $160/hr for 2 hours for a total of $320. The total labour charge for this job is $1820.
Legs - $300
Materials – $906.50
Time – $1820
Total quote - $3036.50
Taxes – depend on your local tax laws and your registration status.
Delivery – fees not estimated for this quote.
You can now confidently provide your quote to the customer. You now also get to hear about how it costs too much and how their buddy said they would build it for $20 and a case of beer! Please keep in mind the hourly rate is meant to factor in overhead like shop rent or lease costs, tool wear, glue, sandpaper, power, insurance, and more! You don’t want to just break even. Your profit ensures longevity.
For some customers, you can offer a basic finish vs. premium finish, or standard vs. custom dimensions.
Selling your projects for the equivalent of $5 an hour is a hard pill to swallow if you make $30 an hour at your day job. Even though it happens to the best of us, make sure it is a learning experience and not a trend!
$20 an hour to build something when your overhead is $40 an hour is an even harder pill to swallow.
That $3 of sandpaper per project adds up. Or if its Festool… $3 per piece of sandpaper.
Low estimates lead to underquoting.
Unfortunately giving discounts below what is reasonable isn’t a sustainable business model.
You’re not just selling a table. You're selling experience, craftsmanship, and passion. You’re selling luxury. Heirlooms. And products that may very well be passed between generations. It is also important to understand that pricing is a skill that improves over time. The goal isn't perfection—it's sustainability and growth.
A business owner, every single day of my 8-day work week I provide quotes, sell jobs, and execute those jobs, and my time estimates are wrong more often than they are right. They are estimates that improve with practice. It is incredibly uncommon that these estimates regarding timing and job costs are perfectly accurate. It is important to provide yourself a buffer, and to err on the side of caution for your own personal business growth.
Experiment with the frameworks above. Track your jobs. Adjust as you go. And most importantly: don’t apologize for charging what your work and your time is worth.
Keep making sawdust everyone.
