alcove shelves

[littlestar34]

I would like a couple of shelves in two alcoves I have in the older part of our extension. The walls are a bit wonky (as seems to be the way with our house) and the two alcoves are slightly different widths (on is 98cm wide, the other 103cm) making sourcing premade stuff fun!!. I did think oak or oak effect. DH has a DIY list as long as your arm and he is so busy with work that I also thought about getting someone in to fit something. There are bits I can help with but he won't let me anywhere near his power tools!! :) How much will it cost do you think to get someone in to put in four shelves?

I put in MDF shelves in our alcoves which were also wonky. They're fully built in shelves (coving and skirting boards removed and put back in front etc.). The materials cost me around £280. It took me around 4 days of work although I had a bad knee at the time so was working slowly. My FIL who is a builder helped me out for 3 days. That was a big job though.

If you just want a few batons screwed into the wall and a shelf put on top then that's a 15 minute job per shelf. Materials for that will cost less than £100.

So basically labour will be your main cost. Any relatively skilled Herbert will charge around £150+/day. Which means that it depends on how much you want them to do and how finished you want them to give it over (will you do all the painting for instance? This saves a lot as there's a lot of sitting around waiting for paint to dry to paint shelves).

I had a very good carpenter fit some floating alcove shelves and he charged £70 per shelf which included silicone around the sides and making it ready for paint. I had to prime and paint them. Made with MDF, look great painted. It was in a very deep and large and wonky chimney breasts.