Carpentry Services in Dubai: Wardrobes, Kitchens, Doors and Panelling

Carpentry services in Dubai, room by room

A home is lived in room by room, so this table starts with the room. Find yours, see the carpentry that belongs in it and see what to settle before anyone measures.

We do not make loose furniture such as beds, tables and sofas, outdoor structures such as pergolas and decking, or wood flooring. If your job mixes carpentry with something on that list, say so when you write, and we tell you which part is ours.

Carpenter in Dubai: carpenter, joiner or cabinet maker?

The words overlap in Dubai, and search results mix them all. A carpenter works with timber and board. On a building site that can mean rough structural work, such as the timber formwork that holds concrete while it sets. In a finished home it means fitting: doors, frames, skirting, panelling, shelving. That second meaning is the one this page covers: interior carpentry, the parts of a home you open, shut and lean on every day. Formwork and structural timber work are a different trade and not ours.

A joiner, or a joinery firm, makes the components to measure: cabinets, doors, wardrobe carcasses. A cabinet maker is a joiner who specialises in cabinets and storage. A finishing carpenter, who does what the trade calls finish carpentry, fits the visible parts last: doors, trims, panels and handles. A single Dubai carpenter company can do all of this, or only one part, and the name on the van rarely tells you which.

What you need depends on the job. If you want something that does not come in a standard size, such as a wardrobe to the ceiling, a kitchen that fits an odd wall or a panelled wall with a lit recess, you need custom carpentry: made to the measurements of your room. If you want an existing door re-hung or a drawer put right, you need fitting and repair. We do both, and the first message is easier to answer if you say which you are asking for. Whether you are looking for carpenter services in Dubai for one wardrobe or for every room of a villa, the carpentry work starts with the same questions: what is being built, in what, and where it meets the rest of the room.

Wardrobes: hinged, sliding and walk-in

A fitted wardrobe is designed around the room it stands in, and four decisions shape it: the door type, the height, the layout inside and what the wardrobe has to avoid. Settle those four and the rest is detail.

Door type. A hinged door opens the whole width of its section at once, and it needs floor space to swing into. A sliding door needs no swing space, which suits a narrow bedroom, but only part of the opening is clear at any moment. A glass-framed door lets you see into the wardrobe or reflects the room, depending on the glass. A wide wardrobe often mixes types, with sliding doors across the middle and hinged doors at the ends.

Height. A wardrobe built up to the ceiling leaves no ledge for dust and uses the space that a freestanding unit wastes. It also means the ceiling is part of the design. If the room has a gypsum ceiling, a lit cove or a recessed trim line, the wardrobe has to stop at the right place against it, so the ceiling line is fixed before the carpentry is measured. Our false ceilings page explains those lines.

Inside. A wardrobe is mostly a plan of rails, shelves and drawers. Count what you hang and what you fold, and tell us roughly how much of each. Drawers, pull-out trays and shoe racks are separate lines in the written quote, so you can add or drop them. If you want lighting inside, say so at the inspection, because it changes how the shelves and uprights are built.

What it has to avoid. Windows, doors, switches, vents and ceiling lights should not end up behind a panel. Photos of the wall, taken from the doorway, show most of this before we visit.

Before we visit, it helps to know:

• the room you want the wardrobe in, and the wall it should use;
• whether you want it to the ceiling;
• hinged, sliding or a mix, and whether you want glass;
• what you hang, what you fold and how many drawers you want;
• a photo of any wardrobe you like.

A walk-in wardrobe adds two more questions: how much floor to give up for the walk, and where the light comes from. The walk-in pictured below has strip lighting running down the uprights beside the shelves, so the clothes are lit without a ceiling light behind them. If you want that, tell us at the inspection, because the uprights and shelves are built around it.

Kitchen cabinets and laundry units

A kitchen is cabinets, a worktop and a splashback, and the carpentry is the first of the three because the other two are measured from it. We build base units, wall units and tall units, with handled or handleless doors, and fit them to the walls you have, not to an ideal plan.

The layout comes first. Where the sink, hob and fridge go decides where the cabinets break, and our crews leave the openings the sink, hob and appliances need. The written quote lists what is and is not included in your kitchen, so you can see where our work stops.

Doors and drawer fronts are the part you see, and they take the finish. A flat panel in a matt colour looks calm and shows fewer marks. A gloss door looks bright and shows fingerprints. A door with a handle needs the handle chosen early, because its position changes how drawers are laid out. A handleless door has no handle to choose, but it needs a finger profile or a push fitting, and the quote should say which.

Tall units are the part people forget. A tall unit that houses an oven, a fridge or a pantry has to be built around the exact size of the appliance, plus the clearance it needs to breathe and to open. Send the make and model of any appliance you have already bought, or tell us if you have not chosen yet, so the openings are not guessed.

Before we measure a kitchen, it helps to know:

• where the sink, hob and fridge will go, or where they are now;
• the appliances you have bought or plan to buy, with sizes;
• handled or handleless doors, and the colour and finish you want;
• the worktop and splashback you have in mind, and who is supplying them;
• whether the wall units run to the ceiling or stop short of it.

The order matters more here than anywhere else in the house. The cabinets are fixed first. The worktop is then cut to a template taken from the fixed cabinets, because a worktop cut from a drawing alone seldom fits a real wall. The splashback tile goes on after the worktop, so it meets the worktop cleanly. The quote says who supplies the worktop. If the splashback is tile, our tiles installation page explains how we fix it, and our kitchen renovation page covers the whole room, in the order the trades follow.

A laundry room or utility space is a smaller version of the same job with one added risk: water. Cabinets around a washing machine and a sink stand in a damp room, so the boards are moisture-resistant and the cut edges around the sink are sealed. The units leave the space the machine needs, and the doors open without hitting it.

Doors and frames

An internal door is two parts, the leaf and the frame, and the frame decides whether the leaf hangs true. A frame that is out of square makes a door rub, drift open or fail to latch, and no hinge adjustment cures it for long. So the frame is set and checked first, and the leaf is hung on it afterwards.

A flush door has a flat face with no raised panels, and some carry fine grooves or a hidden edge detail. Flush doors suit modern homes because they have no mouldings to collect dust, and the same style can run through every room. A door that sits in a panelled wall can be made to look part of it, with the frame and the panels in the same finish.

In a finished home the door and its frame should be fitted, then painted or finished to match the wall, so tell us whether the doors in your home are painted, wrapped or in timber finish. Our interior painting page explains how we paint doors and frames, and the painting services page shows what a full painting job includes.

Before we visit for doors, it helps to know:

• how many doors, and whether the frames are being replaced or kept;
• the finish you want on the leaf and the frame: painted, wrapped or timber;
• the handle style you have in mind, because it affects the door preparation;
• photos of the doors and the openings as they are now.

Wall panelling and built-in units

Panelling is a skin of flat panels, slats or fluted boards fixed to a wall. It hides uneven plaster, adds texture and gives a place for lighting. The wall behind has to be sound, because panelling fixed to a damp or crumbling wall fails, so we check the wall at the inspection and our plastering page covers repairs. A feature wall is panelling with a purpose: behind a bed, around a TV, along a hallway. If it holds a screen, tell us the size of the screen and the height you want it at before the panels are cut.

Built-in units use space that would otherwise go to waste. An alcove, a recess beside a column or the dead space beside a door can become shelving or a cupboard. Built-in storage works because it takes the exact size of the space, so the measurements are the job.

Carpentry and lighting often meet. A lit cove above a panelled wall, a strip inside a wardrobe or a recess that shows a shelf all depend on where the ceiling and the wall finish. Tell us about any lighting you plan, so the carpentry leaves the openings it needs. This is why carpentry is the part of a job you should not decide in isolation.

Before we visit for panelling or built-in units, it helps to know:

• which walls you want panelled, and the pattern you have in mind;
• the height of the ceiling and any cove or recess in it;
• the size of any screen, shelf or furniture the wall has to carry or sit beside;
• photos of the walls as they are now.

Materials and finishes for Dubai homes

The board and the finish do different jobs. The board is what the unit is made of, and it decides strength, how well screws hold and how the unit copes with moisture. The finish is what you see and touch. Dubai matters for both. Many homes are humid in summer, especially near the coast, and are kept cool by air conditioning, so boards take in and give up moisture through the year, and kitchens, laundries and bathrooms see splashes and steam.

We do not tell you one material is best, because the right one depends on the room. The tables below say what each option is and where it suits. Tell us the board and the finish you want, or ask us which we would choose, and the written quote names both.

Sun and edges decide more than people expect. A wardrobe beside a window takes direct sun for hours, and some finishes fade or change colour in it, so tell us which wall gets the light. The cut edges of a board are the weak point in any damp room, because water enters there first, which is why edge banding and sealing are worth a line in the quote. A unit that looks the same on the day of handover and five years later is usually the one whose edges were sealed.

Hardware matters as much as the board. Hinges, drawer runners and handles carry the daily wear, and a unit with good boards and poor hinges will fail at the hinge first. Ask for the hardware to be named in the quote, and for any soft-close fittings to be listed as a line, so you can compare like with like.

The order of a job: where carpentry fits with the other trades

Carpentry is rarely the only job. A new kitchen, a wardrobe wall or a panelled bedroom touches the ceiling, the floor, the walls and the paint, and each of those trades depends on the one before. A wardrobe made before the floor is tiled will not fit afterwards, and a wall panelled before it is plastered traps whatever was wrong underneath. Because our own employed crews do the work, this is the order we plan to, and the written quote shows the order for your job.

Doors follow a different order. The frame is fitted early, because paint and plaster have to meet it. The leaf is hung late and protected, because it is the part most easily marked.

Not every job has every step. A wardrobe in a finished room, with the floor already down and the walls painted, begins at step 3. A villa refit begins at step 1 and runs the whole table. Our home renovation, bathroom renovation and villa renovation pages show how the order runs for each of those, and our waterproofing page covers what goes under the tile.

Painting after carpentry is quoted on its own lines. Our painting cost page shows how we price painting, so you can compare it with any other quote for the same rooms.

How a carpentry job runs with us

1. Send photos. A wide photo and a close one of each wall or area, the name of your building or community, and any photos of styles you like. We say what we can price from the photos and what needs a visit.
2. Site inspection, AED 100. We measure, check the walls, ceiling and floor, and agree the sizes, the layout and the finish with you, in writing, before any work starts. We do not promise drawings or 3D images; we promise that what you agree is on paper.
3. Written quote. One document listing the work, the boards, the finishes, the hardware and the schedule. VAT at 5% is shown separately.
4. The work. Our own employed crews cover the floors, wrap the furniture, control dust and clean the site each day. We deal with building and community paperwork, including NOCs where a building requires them, before work starts.
5. Handover. We walk the finished work with you, open every door and drawer and put right what you point out. The work carries a one-year workmanship warranty.

If you change your mind after the quote, tell us. Changes are priced on their own lines and agreed in writing before the work changes.

Carpentry cost in Dubai: what moves the price and how to compare quotes

How much does carpentry cost in Dubai? There is no honest single figure, and we give none on this page. A price for a wardrobe means little without its width, its height, its doors and what is inside. A kitchen price means little without the number of units, the doors and the hardware. Published figures differ because they count different things.

Here is what moves the price, and what to tell us.

Our own price is a written quote after the AED 100 inspection, priced before 5% VAT, with each part as its own line.

Ask for the quote in lines, not as a single total. A wardrobe that is one line says nothing about whether the price includes the drawers, the glass doors or the handles. When each part has its own line, you can see what a cheaper quote has left out, and you can drop a part without redoing the whole price.

To compare quotes, give each firm the same details and ask each for the same things in writing: the board, the finish, the hardware, what is inside, who supplies glass, mirror or worktop, what happens to the walls and ceiling when the units go in, and who makes good afterwards. A price per metre with no height, finish or inside fittings is half a quote. Affordable carpentry is not the lowest figure on a page. It is a quote that names every part, so that nothing arrives later as an extra.

Choosing a carpenter in Dubai: what to check before you hire

Searches for the best carpenter in Dubai return lists that rank firms in ways you cannot check, and they say little about whether a firm does the job you have. Nobody can name the best carpenter for every home. The best fit is the firm whose work matches yours and whose answers to these questions are in writing. Put them to every firm on your shortlist, including us.

Read the quote for what it leaves out. "General carpentry" with no list of jobs gives you nothing to compare, and "supply and fix" with no board or finish named leaves the choice to whoever is on site. A firm that offers every trade under one name either employs them or passes some on, so ask which.

Carpentry repair and maintenance

Not every job is new. Carpentry repair services in Dubai deal mostly with a short list of faults, and most of them are small.

• A door that rubs, will not latch or has dropped on its hinges.
• A hinge that has loosened its screws, or a cabinet door that hangs crooked.
• A drawer that sticks, drops at the front or has a broken runner.
• A shelf or panel that has lifted at an edge after water got in.
• Loose skirting, trims or panel joints.

Most of these come from use, from a screw that has worked loose or a runner that has worn, and are quick to put right. A lifted edge after a leak is different. We find where the water came from before we repair anything, because the same swelling returns if the cause is still there, and where the board has broken down we replace the part and not only the surface. Our handyman services page lists the small repairs we do and the ones that belong to other trades, and our home maintenance page covers the long middle between a repair and a renovation. For wood carpentry maintenance on a schedule, our annual maintenance contract page explains how ours works.

Send a photo of the fault and the name of your building. We say whether it is a small repair, a replacement or something that needs a visit.

Carpentry in apartments, villas and offices

Apartments. The building sets the terms. Management decides working hours, whether the lift can be booked for deliveries and whether a contractor needs a permit, and many towers expect one even for carpentry. Large panels and tall units have to get through the lift, the corridor and the door, and that is checked before anything is cut. Tell us the building and the floor when you first write, and we say whether it needs notice or an NOC.

Villas. A villa has more rooms, longer runs of wardrobe and cabinets, and often a larger kitchen, so carpentry is a bigger share of the job. Communities set their own rules for contractor passes, working hours and waste, so give us the community name. The jobs most often combined with carpentry in a villa are a kitchen refit, bedrooms with fitted wardrobes and panelled feature walls, and our villa renovation page explains how the work is ordered across a house.

Offices. We fit doors, wall panelling and storage units for offices as well as homes. An office adds its own constraints: work often has to be done out of hours, and a building may limit deliveries. Our office fit out page explains how we run an office job from inspection to handover.

Carpenter near me: where we work in Dubai

Searches for a carpenter near me are really searches for someone who will come to your building, and we work across Dubai. These are the places we are asked about most: Dubai Marina, JVC, Downtown, Business Bay, Al Barsha, Jumeirah, Dubai Hills, Mirdif and Palm Jumeirah. If yours is not listed, send us the location on WhatsApp, and we tell you when a supervisor can visit. We work in Dubai only. When you write, give the building or community name and the floor, because that tells us about parking, lifts and access before we arrive. Our contact page has the quote form if you prefer to write there.