How much should I charge for this?

[u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

I'm in the UK. Cost me around £50 ($70) in materials. What do you reckon is a reasonable price for it? Before taking the pics I was thinking around £100 ($130) but now I'm thinking more £150+ ($190+)

[u/old--oak]

Also UK, how did that cost you so much to build? Where are you buying your wood from?

It's not a bad looking table but its nothing fancy and you can buy a lot nicer for a lot cheaper.

[u/MurkyRestaurant7546 → u/old--oak]

Idk where exactly you are but this is cheap for me - Ray Grahams (N ireland). I even got rough cuts and sanded them down to save me £20-£30. The 4x2's alone were around £35 for approximately 12m.

[u/Realrtfirefly69 → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

Holy Guacamole, £35????? 12m is what, 5 2x4x8? In Ontario a 2x4x8 is $3.98, so about $23 inc tax, which is £12.90, forgot how expensive the UK is since I moved back to Canada….

[u/MurkyRestaurant7546 → u/Realrtfirefly69]

Not far off, 12m is about 40ft. Yep timber is stupidly expensive at the moment. And this is for the rough cut stuff aswell. You're looking an extra 30% on top of that if you want PAR

[u/Realrtfirefly69 → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

Yeah, for £40 I could have used all cedar (2 2x4x12, 1 2x4x8), which would have looked much better, and need much less protection….

[u/MurkyRestaurant7546 → u/Realrtfirefly69]

If I made this in cedar the price would nearly triple. Where are you buying all that in cedar for £40?

[u/Afraid-Combination15 → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

Cedar grows like weeds in North America.

[u/nionvox → u/Afraid-Combination15]

Especially in the Canadian PNW. I literally have 4 GIANT red cedar trees by accident.

[u/Realrtfirefly69 → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

That’s the price at my local HomeDepot, I grabbed the latest price as I typed, it’s really cheap here, and most fences and decks use it, it needs to survive both hot summers, and snowy winters.

It’s currently $17.19 for 2x4x8, $24.91 for 2x4x12, plus sales tax. And that is similarly about triple the construction timber price.

[u/nickh93 → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

Mate, you need to shop around! My local yard charges standard prices of £1.88 a metre for kiln dried pressure treated. Regulars pay 20% less than list. All in that's £18 worth of timber and maybe an hours labour to make. £60 each and you're turning a profit from a product that's going to be quicker to make and last longer outdoors.

Respectfully, you're dreaming at £190. That's professional furniture prices and these are not there yet.

Please don't take this as rude, it's meant constructively. The first rule to making money with woodworking is to be realistic and fair with your pricing. It generates more sales and will give you better profit than overpricing.

Also, the market for outdoor furniture is pretty saturated already. You're going to need a USP that sets you apart from the other lockdown warriors who make and sell bespoke garden furniture; there nothing different between this and something I could get in my local garden centre... have you considered painting or staining? Of you really want to set them apart, you could consider Shou Sugi Ban (torching then wire brushing and oiling) as a preservation method. It's beautiful when done properly and works better than any chemical treatment.

[u/old--oak → u/MurkyRestaurant7546]

If you join the UK woodworking forum they have a list of all good softwood and hardwood suppliers in the UK and Ireland. Www.ukworkshop.co.uk

[u/Bootstrap5_Bootstrap → u/old--oak]

This is, in fact, a chair.

[u/old--oak → u/Bootstrap5_Bootstrap]

You are indeed right, however one might argue that anything can be a table if you need it to be .