Carpenter hourly rates 2026: 0 out of 39 firms show their price

*By Oscar Aston Brovall*

We went through the websites of 39 carpentry firms in eight Swedish cities looking for one piece of information: what an hour costs. It was nowhere to be found. Not in Stockholm, not in Gothenburg, not in any of the other six cities.

That made carpenters the bottom performers in our entire review of 142 tradespeople and removal firms. Removal firms showed a price in 40% of cases. Plumbers and electricians at least got above zero. Carpenters: 0 out of 39.

So this article can't give you the price list you googled for, because it doesn't exist. What it can do is explain why, show the one price we did manage to find, and walk through how to get a real price for your job.

Why there are no published carpenter prices

Carpentry jobs rarely resemble one another. Replacing a kitchen tap is roughly the same job everywhere, which is why some plumbers dare to fix a price for it. But "build a deck" could mean twenty hours or two hundred, depending on ground conditions, size and timber. An hourly rate without context doesn't tell you much, and a low headline figure risks only creating disappointment when the total ends up high anyway.

It also matters that no one else shows a price either. The one firm that goes public with a figure risks being ruled out on that number before the customer has even heard what's included. So everyone stays quiet, and the silence persists.

For you as a customer, the reason matters less. The conclusion is the same either way: the price can't be found on Google. You have to ask.

The one price we did find

One firmly price-transparent building firm in Stockholm was the sole exception, displaying its hourly rate: SEK 690 including VAT, about SEK 485 after the ROT deduction.

One figure isn't a statistic. But it does give a reference point for the big-city level, and it matches where quotes tend to land: a few hundred kronor up or down depending on the firm, experience and job. Materials are always extra.

ROT: 30%, but only on the labour

Carpentry work in your own home normally qualifies for the ROT deduction, 30% of the labour cost. SEK 700 per hour becomes around SEK 490 for you.

Two pitfalls. Materials are never covered, so on a timber-heavy job like a deck, the discount on the total sum ends up well below 30%. And ROT shares its annual allowance with RUT (the deduction for household services), so if the household has already used a lot on cleaning and moving help, the cap might already be reached.

How to get a real price

A quote is your only route to a real figure, so make it comparable. Describe the job concretely, with measurements and preferably photos. The less the carpenter has to guess, the less padding there'll be in the price.

Send the same specification to at least three firms and ask the same of each: labour and materials itemised separately, fixed price or time-and-materials, hourly rate and estimated time if it's time-and-materials, and what happens if something unexpected turns up behind the wall.

The choice between fixed price and time-and-materials is the single most important question. Fixed price for well-defined jobs. Time-and-materials when the scope is genuinely uncertain, but then with a price cap or at least a written time estimate.

Finally, check for F-tax status, without it the ROT deduction disappears, along with liability insurance and references from similar jobs.

Want to skip chasing firms that don't answer the phone: describe the job on Marketit, and you'll be matched with carpenters who can take it on. Free for private individuals.

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*This article is based on Marketit's review of 142 tradespeople and removal firms, July 2026. Marketit matches private individuals with the right company, free for consumers.*