Yeah, mantle style hoods are an expensive choice. 2-5K is about average, plus the insert, which can run another 1-2K depending on what your needs are in that department. There just isn't much cost cutting where they are concerned other than eliminating them. A decent stainless hood will be cheaper, but not by a whole lot.

Good grief southernmum - that just sealed our fate too. My hubby likes stainless better but I LOVE the look of the mantle style. With the cost you just posted it will definitely be out for us too. So sad! I should have expected as much since everything I am drawn to is usually a budget buster! Sigh. Another thing to move from reality to the dream category.

Autumn4, just the hood mantle, not the insert, was priced at $4000. Totally not in my budget. Yes, as you said, guess it's time for me to get in "reality mode" rather than dream mode!

The good news is that they cleared my lot yesterday! It excites me to know this is really happening -- seems more real now! I guess I should just be glad we're building, and content knowing I can't have EVERYTHING I want, but will have a great house! Good luck to you in your build!

southernmum--

Do you have a pic of your kitchen cabinets and layout you desire?

This post was edited by cleanfreak0419 on Thu, Dec 20, 12 at 15:04

Wev gave up on a dream of a white wooded hood over an insert also because the quote was $4K from cab & insert vendors.

So we decided to go with a stainless canopy professional style hood & have the cabs built above that to cover the ducting.

Price was $1K for the hood & the cabs budget covered everything above it.

Turned out to be a better fit for our modern decor.

But yes, we were sad too initially about budget busting naturn of a wood hood insert.

I do, but I have never been able to figure out to load pics here! I'm fairly internet "able", and on other boards I can load photos, but can't figure it out here..!

--look above the message box and find

'Image file to upload (optional):

browse and find your pic and you're set

If you care for cast stone, you may be able to find a bargain supplier by checking out KiJiJi etc. Also, try Habitat for Humanity ReStores for one-offs you may be able to incorporate. Of course, it all depends on your kitchen style.

Thanks southernmum - we have a bit of a wait yet. You are correct - can't have everything but it will be nice when it's done! I have had to ditch quite a few things out of the kitchen dream. LOL!

That is the thing with the stainless I think it looks kind of modern/contemporary and that's not really my style. Dh does like it though. Oh well.

jenswren-YES - you give hope! Awesome steal of a deal.

Cost cutting on a mantle style hood involves a lot of DIY labor usually. There simply isn't a way to eliminate the labor costs involved, even by going to a custom shop. And if you are building, that may not fly very well with your contractor at all. It may be something that has to wait until after close. And you may not be able to close without a hood sufficient for the range you choose. With building code changes, ventilation is becoming more tightly regulated, with requirements for makup air bringing it under a scrutnity that most contractors are unfamiliar with.

Even in my extremely high-cost-of-living area, labor costs at a custom shop were nowhere near $4-5K. It is worth checking out, especially the online custom door places. It's not labor that drives up the price but rather the retail cabinet middleman.

Those prices seem outrageously out of line to me! In early 2010, TOTAL cost for ours, including the actual working vent was less than $2500.

Here is a picture of my kitchen where you can see the hood.

My custom cabinet maker charged me $800 to make the custom range hood cover out of clear coated mahogany. (I JUST looked up his invoice to make absolutely sure that I was remembering the price correctly.)

He designed and built the cover so it would fit over this stainless steel vent hood that we purchased from Sears for about $1500 on sale.

The purchased vent rests on a couple of very small ledges inside the custom cover and fits so that bottom edge of the stainless steel hood sits about about 1 inch higher than the lower edge of the curved section on the front face of my vent cover. That way the purchased vent is completely hidden by the vent cover but the controls are easily accessible. In the shot below, (taken from underneath) you can see how the purchased vent fits inside the custom cover and you can see one of the "ledges" at the side of the vent.

BTW, I just looked and Sears currently has the exact same stainless steel hood we used on sale for $1626. Here is a link to it: http://www.sears.com/vent-a-hood-euroline-series-model-wall-mount/p-SPM7417651910?prdNo=13&blockNo=13&blockType=G13

Or for even less money, Sears also NOW sells a 27" Broan range vent that is designed specifically to be installed in a custom enclosure for less than $600. See the link below. When we were building, I couldn't find ANY vent hoods that were designed to be installed inside a custom cabinet. (They may have been available but I could not find them for sale to consumers anywhere and I'm usually pretty good at finding things.) Thus we paid extra for the fancy Modern Euro "finish" on ours and then paid to have a custom cabinet cover made to give it the old-fashioned look we like!

So, even if cabinet builders are now charging twice what we paid 3 years ago to have our vent cover made, it still looks to me like you should still be able to get the look you want for under $2500. You might need to pay a bit more if a very high powered vent fan is important to you...but the cover alone SHOULD NOT run you anywhere close to $4000.

Sounds to me like maybe your cabinet maker probably ONLY knows how to make cabinets (boxes) and drawers and then probably purchases pre-made doors to go on those. He's probably doesn't know HOW to make a vent cover and the mere idea of making one scares him. Thus, he quoted you that utterly ridiculous price in order to scare you off from ordering a vent cover while still hanging on to the rest of your cabinet business. If it were me, I'd talk to another cabinet builder or two. And if by any chance, you're in my neck of the woods (central Texas), I'd be delighted to give you my custom cabinet builder's name. He was absolutely terrific!

Here is a link that might be useful: vent designed for installation in a custom mantle style hood.

Wood directly above a combustion source is prohibited by code. That's why a wood hood needs to be extra wide and deep when compared to a metal one.

And yes, the prices being quoted are fairly industry average. That doesn't involve a whole lot of markup for most. My margins average 25%, and that keeps the lights on, and the employees not starving, and the copy paper bought. But I vacation in Florida once every couple of years, not Jamaica every six months. No one's getting rich on 25%.

I did project management on a custom home where the client arranged for 15' of simple base cabinetry for the media room. If they had asked me, the trim carpenter I used could have done it on-site for half the price.

As mentioned earlier, though, the gc here may not take kindly to this piecemeal approach.

Why would this "piecemeal" approach make the GC mad? Is this the kind of thing that you need to specify upfront in your contract so you can have flexibility to get what you want in your house?