Ready-Made vs. Custom Home Improvements

Whether you have some knowledge of the home improvement industry or just a good intuitive sense for the marketplace, it will come as little surprise to most homeowners that ready-made, manufactured goods are cheaper than customized or unfinished materials. Though the initial cost is higher for ready-made goods, the total price is almost universally lower due to minimizing the cost of labor. While customized projects always have some upside, the difficulty in choosing can range from project to project. Here is a look at some of the most common home improvements that involve a choice between the pros and cons of ready-made and customized materials.

Pre-finished vs. Unfinished: Floors and Doors
Hardwood flooring can be purchased in pre-finished, ready-to-install planks or unfinished planks that must be sanded, stained, buffered, and coated. Along with higher costs, the process of on-site finishing may entail an extra week or two of installation time, during which time the room (or even the entire home) will be off-limits. In terms of value and convenience, pre-finished wood flooring is the hands-down winner and is, in fact, the more popular choice. Yet, unfinished wood flooring continues to find a reliable audience with wealthier homeowners who don't mind paying more for the best possible product. Plus, the only way to reliably match pre-existing wood flooring or to create a consistent finish over large or multiple areas of the home is through unfinished flooring products. In this instance, homeowners are more likely to choose a less expensive wood species to stay within budget. This reality also explains why it's notoriously difficult to say how much extra on-site finishing will cost.

Read more about prefinished vs. unfinished wood flooring.

Many of these ready-made vs. customized decisions are binary—either you want a contractor to customize the installation or you want to streamline the process with ready-made products. For residential doors, however, it's more of a continuum. The various parts of a door installation can be ordered assembled, partially assembled, "knocked down," or custom-built. The more assembled, the easier the installation will be. The less assembled, the higher the quality and versatility of the door can be. This decision is in addition to choosing a finished or unfinished door slab with similar pros and cons to wood flooring. If you know exactly what you want (and what you want is pretty standard), a pre-hung, pre-finished door can allow homeowners with basic carpentry skills to install their own door.

Read more about prehung doors.

Vinyl Siding: Behind the Cladding
Although most homeowners wouldn't think to include the project on this list, vinyl siding presents essentially the same choice during installation. As a poor insulating material, vinyl siding needs a foam underlayment for high-quality siding performance. This insulating layer can be included during the manufacturing process or included manually during the installation. Typically, homeowners who want the benefits of this insulation will simply upgrade their vinyl siding product with the manufacturer. However, if you want more insulation than the manufacturer can provide or know a siding contractor who is willing to install this insulation below the standard cost, manual installation of this underlayment may be the way to go, if you feel confident in the ability and trustworthiness of the contractor.

Read more about vinyl siding.

Cabinets: Stock, Semi-Stock, and Custom-Built
Another project that has a spectrum of ready-made vs. customized choices is cabinet installation. Cabinet manufacturers have taken the principles of mass production and applied them to cabinet making. This manufacturing process has allowed homeowners to purchase new cabinets for their home for a fraction of the cost (several thousand dollars instead of tens of thousands of dollars for high-end custom cabinets). Semi-stock, also known as semi-custom, is the term given to cabinet manufacturers who allow you to change the building specifications of their stock cabinets. Generally speaking the modifications are limited to height, width, and depth. Some cabinet manufacturers will allow dozens of modification, but you should expect to pay more for each modification you choose. Finally, custom-built cabinets are just that, cabinets built by a craftsman cabinet-maker to whatever specifications your home needs and you can imagine.

Read more about cabinet installation.

Countertops: Installation vs. Fabrication
Countertops are another piece of home improvement that many homeowners don't realize involves choosing between ready-made and more personalized products. With countertops, however, the dynamics and pros and cons of the decision-making process are reversed. Many countertops can be fabricated onsite (at your home) or off-site and then delivered to your home. In this case, the personal touch of onsite fabrication is usually cheaper but with reduced design options. Onsite fabrication also allows for easy measuring and installation of the countertop. Off-site fabrication, on the other hand, will increase the number of edging and design options, as some of these features require heavy machinery that rules out the option of completing the fabrication at your home.

Read more about countertop fabrication.