Sounds good. We have recieved quotes from 1.00 to 2.80 per square foot, but the 2.80 included building cabinets on site (labor only, no materials). We are going with a guy who is charging us 1.80 per square foot. We are buying the kitchen cabinets but this amount includes labor to make the vanities and the built-ins on the closet as well. Texas

We just received a quote from a reputable company in Charlotte, NC 1.15 - 1.35/sq ft. No cabinetry. All Wood Trim (inc. crowns in living areas, 2 piece chair rail in dining hall and wainscot in Study), Hang Doors and Lock up.

Unless the moulding is to be stained you should be buying it primed.

Have you already purchased the moulding? If so, how many linear feet of the moulding did you buy?

Rachel & Kempton, are those sq footage prices based on the house square footage? I don't see the relationship between house square footage & installing moulding labor cost. The amount of moulding used in a house varies widely from homeowner to homeowner. Some prefer vary little, say just baseboard & window/door trim, others like a lot with dental moulding, chair rails, etc, etc.

Or did they quote those prices based on linear feet of moulding used?

I charge $45.00 per split jam door. $90.00 per solid jam door. $90 per window with jam extensions and sill. $45.00 per window pitcher framed not extensions. $2.00 per lineal foot of trim crown, base, chair rail matters not 2 bucks a foot per piece.
Kitchen cabinets per made $45.00 per box counter top $5.00 per foot. Mill work $65.00 per hour

The prices I were given were based on the square footage of the house which I didn't understand either. In theory, I'd be paying the same labor if I had crown in every room or none. Of course the guys did come out and look at the house and may have tweaked their numbers a bit based on what I described but their price ended up pretty much what their "general price" is. I was puzzled too.

Labour prices are extemely dependent on local markets.

I suspect the OP is in the deep or mid South. Here in Toronto, Canada, I just paid the trim carpenter $7,200 for trimming out a 3,100 sf. luxury home including baseboards, casings and jambs for 49 doors, including 5 pocket doors, lots of oak trim and linen closets. Also extra for wood panelling, repair of badly installed oak bullnoses and some outide trim.

If I weren't an experienced homebuilder I might have gone for other quotes ranging from $9,500-$14,500

$4900 for all window trim(wood), hanging doors, baseboards (2 piece) for 4,800+ feet conditioned area - Florida.

excludes installing cabinets, crown and stair.

Nearly finished. Has done nice job.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Sounds like we're getting a very fair price.
To clarify a couple of questions asked:
- We're located in Dallas.
- The wood is preprimed.
- Price does not include crown or stair trim....just baseboards, window and door casing/jams, and to strip all existing paint from the doors (we purchsed them from a salvage warehouse plus our neighbors house was being torn down so we got his old doors too), and then reinstall the doors.
- 22 doors w/ doors, 4 cased openings without doors, 26 windows

We're responsible for caulking, priming, and painting.

I have the baseboard, already stained for master bath area and water closet. Both areas less then 100 ft. I need cost to install plus the name or names of Good Carpenters to do the job in the Arvada CO area

I am in NJ and just got quoted $22,000 for the second floor only of my house which is about 4,000 square feet--(the entire house is over 12,000 sf including finished basement.) I am pricing floor by floor so I don't go crazy. Even taking into consideration that the above numbers are from 7 years ago--I am glad to read this thread because I was wondering about that price which seemed high. time to get a lot more estimates. And the 22k was labor only and no chair rail or fancy stuff. and crown only in about 1/3 of the area.

$22,000 seems low to you for labor only for one floor of about 4000sf? It is primed trim we are doing with picture frame windows.

I'd write that $2,000 check so fast your head would spin. Assuming the quote includes modifying your openings to fit your salvage doors, too?

Fascinating discussion. What is the quality of the work that will be done? How tight will the joints be? How tight the scribes? Is this 1, 2, 3 or more pieces per crown? Is there even any crown? How many pieces base? Chair rail? How many total 90° corners? How many odd angle corners? What type of material? Anything need to be custom run to match other stuff? How many linear feet are there?

Just with crown, a 4 piece crown done quite well could easily cost 10x per linear foot what a single piece crown done quickly will cost. And both of these could be considered fair prices for the job. A bunch of smaller rooms could have 3x as many linear feet as a few larger rooms.

How can anyone say that any price is fair without knowing a gob of details?

It’s a completely meaningless quote.

4000 sf only roughly tells you how much flooring you need. Even then, it won’t account for cut allowances, shoe mold, or the complexity of that 4000 sf.

Roofs arent calculated by rough flooring square footage.

Houses aren’t painted by the rough flooring square footage.

Molding isnt installed by the rough flooring square footage.

You don’t buy cars by the pound either.

Given that this post is 11 years old prices have gone up. But in reference to the original poster the $2,000 labor only for 3600 sq ft was a hell of a deal even for back then. She answered all the questions by saying originally their work was excellent & came back with a later post & described exactly what the work entailed.

Sarayale needs to do the same thing. Specify what the work entails in detail & you'll probably get some good feedback. But off-the-cuff the $22K seems to be a rip-off for 1 floor of which only a portion gets crown & no fancy stuff.

I should have also said that given you have a 12,000 sq ft house you should know that when a contractor drives up the driveway they are going ka-ching. You might be better off getting rough quotes based on linear footage of molding & specifying whether it is to be painted or stained, what type it is i.e. base moulding, shoe, chair rail, crown & how many layers, etc. Then when they come to the house to give an actual estimate you can challenge them based on your previous ballpark estimates.

In Raleigh, we call the $22,000 quote the inside-the-beltline price. Everything is usually quoted 2 to 3 times higher inside-the-beltline versus outside. But even outside the beltline it depends on the neighborhood as to what pricing scale contractors will use.

I should have also been more specific & said the rough quotes should be without them knowing where you live & the size of the house. That's why I said get a rough quote based on linear footage.

Well, I am going to write up a detailed spec sheet of what needs to get done and get a whole bunch of estimates. For the painting of the house I had some estimates at 90k, one at 98K, and found a guy for 51K who is recommended and seems very good. I went with the guy for 51K and he is using very good primer and good paints etc. So far he is good to work with but we only primed so far. Will keep you guys posted on where I end up with the trim but at least I now know I really need to get more estimates. I think it is true that they see a big house and think you have a ton of money--thanks for pointing that out. The reality is I am doing this house as my own contractor to save money and I need to make sure we don't run out of money. We could have never done a house this size with a contractor. I do have 5 kids and I have a feeling no one is moving out anytime soon--so we need the space.

Is the painting for inside or outside or both? And when you say he is using good primer & good paints what specifically are you referring to? I've never had a painter tell me he uses a really good primer. I've had them say they use really good paints & to a large degree that can always be debatable. But truth be known some manufacturers do better at bolds versus neutrals, basically darks vs lights & vice-versa. I use to check Consumer Reports whenever I got ready to buy paint as it usually changed year-to-year on who they would recommend. And I don't think they were getting bought off to change their results.

So it will be interesting to see what manufacturer he uses for the primers & paints & also be specific as to which paint. Sherwin Williams has a low-end contractor grade paint but they also have some higher-end paints that are very good like Emerald & Duration.

Besides the paint, preparation is key to having a good paint job.

I grew up as 1 of 5 boys so I know space is always welcomed.

Just figured I would post a follow up. After the 22,000 quote, I got another quote for $16,000 although to be fair I took out the simple crown we were doing in about 1/3 of the upstairs. Then I got another quote for $5200. The third guy lives near me, works alone, and seems to be paying attention to every detail. He already started and I am no expert in trim but so far I am very happy with him. He alerted me to doors that came in wrong (that he could have just installed and would have fit) and calls me anytime there is a question. I feel lucky to have found him, and he is happy doing my work. He is installing all my doors, all my door door knobs/levers, casing, trimming out windows, and baseboard. This is for 2nd story of the house, over 4000 square feet. no crown. It might take him longer to finish than a large crew but it is easier for me to manage one person than watch a whole crew (yeah I know boss should supervise crew but in reality you end up stuck with a lot of problems if you are not watching --even after you carefully explain to boss what you want--somehow workers don't always follow).

Main point from above---spend the time getting multiple estimates. we are talking tens of thousands of dollars in savings for a large house.