Should I pay before or after?

For repairs, after. For a wardrobe or kitchen, a staged payment is normal: an advance against the material bill, a stage payment when the carcasses are standing, and the balance after the shutters are hung and adjusted. Never pay the final instalment before the adjustment visit.

Labour only, or with material?

With material is simpler and the carpenter carries the wastage risk. Labour only gives you control of the grade and brand, which matters on a large job. If you buy, go to the shop with the carpenter the first time and keep the bill.

What if a shutter goes out of line a month later?

That is normal settling and a good carpenter returns once to re-adjust at no charge. Agree it on the phone and write it on the quote; it is the single most useful thing in the agreement.

How to hire a carpenter

Carpentry is the trade where the quote is hardest to check. A number per square foot can hide a grade of plywood, a thickness of laminate, a type of hinge and whether the inside edges get banded, and none of those show on day one. Here is how to make the quote checkable before anyone cuts a sheet.

On the phone: five questions that sort the professionals

"What is the visit charge, and is it waived if I go ahead?" A number near ₹300 and a yes. For a wardrobe or kitchen, expect a measurement visit; that hour is the job.
"Is your per square foot rate on the front elevation, and does it include material?" The answer should be width times height of the finished face, and a clear yes or no on material. The ₹450 wardrobe rate includes material in its range; a ₹6,000 TV unit is labour with material on top. A carpenter who is vague here will be vague on the bill.
"Which plywood brand and grade will you use, and where does BWP go?" Listen for IS 710 BWP in the kitchen, bathroom, every carcass base and anything against an external wall, and MR only in dry rooms. A carpenter who says "good quality ply" without a grade is not specifying anything.
"Do you band every cut edge, including the internal ones?" Yes, with 2 mm on shutters. This question separates careful work from quick work more reliably than any other.
"Do you come back once to re-adjust after a few weeks?" The right answer is yes, without being asked twice.

For a kitchen, add: "Soft-close hinges and telescopic or tandem channels?" and "Is the plinth removable for plumbing access?"

At measurement: what to look for

A professional measures the width at top, middle and bottom and the height at three points, and writes them down rather than keeping them in his head. He checks the wall for plumb with a level, checks the floor, and tells you then and there if a filler strip will be needed because the wall leans. He notices the switchboard, the window reveal and the door swing. He asks where he can cut and where the dust can go.

He will also ask how you use the space: how many long hanging items, whether the top shelf needs to be reachable, whether a drawer or a shelf suits you better. A carpenter who asks nothing will build a generic box.

Two carpenters cutting and fitting timber on a building site in Kerala — Carpenters working on site. The measurement visit, with a level against the wall, is the hour that decides the job.Photo: Shijualex, Public domain

Red flags

A single number for a whole kitchen with no breakdown by unit, no sq ft figure and no material list. Nobody can check it.
"Good quality ply" with no brand, no grade, no IS number.
No mention of edge banding, or banding only on what you can see.
Roller drawer channels quoted as standard in a kitchen.
MDF or particle board below a sink, at any price.
Measurements taken by eye or carried in the head.
A large advance before any material arrives on site.
No return visit offered for adjustment, or irritation at the question.
Nails where screws belong when you watch the first joint go together.

What a fair quote looks like

A quote has four parts, each on its own line.

Visit or measurement. ₹300, waived when the work goes ahead.

Labour, per unit or per square foot of front elevation. Hinges at ₹300 per piece; shutter alignment at ₹200; drawer channels at ₹350; a lock at ₹350; a new flush door at ₹1,500 and a frame at ₹1,200; a mesh door at ₹900; a custom wardrobe at ₹450 per sq ft; a loft at ₹300 per sq ft; a bookshelf at ₹350 per sq ft; a study table at ₹3,500; a TV unit at ₹6,000; a pooja unit at ₹7,000; kitchen cabinets at ₹500 per sq ft or modular installation at ₹150 per sq ft; polish at ₹45 per sq ft, laminate at ₹60 per sq ft, veneer at ₹110 per sq ft; flooring at ₹60 per sq ft; a partition at ₹180 per sq ft; or a day on site at ₹900.

Materials, with brands and grades written down. Plywood at ₹250–₹600 per sq ft for a wardrobe or ₹300–₹700 for kitchen cabinets, laminate at ₹40–₹120 per sq ft, a door at ₹2,500–₹12,000, a lock at ₹300–₹2,500, channels at ₹150–₹800 per set. Brand, grade, thickness.

Adjustments. Metro cities about 30 percent higher. Same-day about 20 percent more. Flexible dates a little less. More than four items, a discount from the fourth.

The TheHire cost estimator produces exactly this structure for your list of jobs and your city, and you can share it with the carpenters who reply so everyone is quoting the same thing.

What to agree before work starts

The material list in writing: plywood brand and grade by location, laminate brand and thickness, hinge and channel type, edge banding on all cut edges.
The drawing or the photo you both agreed, with the internal layout: shelves, hanging, drawers, and their heights.
Where the cutting happens and who clears the dust. Cutting plywood indoors coats a flat.
The timeline, in working days, and what happens if it slips. Three to five days for a wardrobe, one to two weeks for a kitchen after measurement.
The payment stages, tied to visible progress rather than dates.
The adjustment visit, a few weeks later, written on the quote.
Who handles the wall, if an old unit comes out and takes plaster with it.

Before the final payment

Walk the job with the carpenter and check, in this order:

Open every shutter and drawer. Even gaps all round, soft-close engaging, nothing catching, drawers level when loaded.
Look inside. Every cut edge banded, including the backs of shelves. Clean cuts, no tear-out.
Push the tall units. Anchored to the wall, not just standing.
Check the back panels are fixed all round and the unit is square.
Look at the base in a kitchen: BWP, a plinth that can come off, no raw edge at floor level.
Load a shelf and sight along it.
Collect the material bills and keep them with the quote.

Then write a review. The next household trying to tell a ₹450 per sq ft wardrobe from another ₹450 per sq ft wardrobe is choosing on it.

When you need more than a carpenter

Three jobs sit on the border with other trades, and a good carpenter will say so.

Termites. Treatment is the pest control service's and must come before new woodwork. Replacing eaten panels at ₹120 per sq ft is carpentry; killing what ate them is not.

A full modular kitchen. Factory-made units, the counter, the sink cut-out and the appliances are the modular kitchen supplier's; the carpenter installs at ₹150 per sq ft and builds anything custom around them.

Design and co-ordination. If the job involves a false ceiling, electrical points inside a wardrobe, or matching finishes across rooms, an interior designer co-ordinates the trades. A carpenter can build beautifully from someone else's drawing and is rarely the right person to produce the drawing.

How to hire a carpenter: what to ask on the phone, what to check at measurement, and what a fair quote looks like