OSRS Mahogany Homes vs Oak Dungeon Doors: 50-83 Construction Guide

Game screenshots and facts are cited from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (strategy, equipment, drops, and related pages). Writing is original editorial, not a copy of the wiki article.

Reaching 83 Construction unlocks the ornate jewellery box, one of the most convenient teleport hubs in Old School RuneScape. The journey from 50 to 83 can be brutal, either demanding intense clicking in your player-owned house or constant travel between four cities for Mahogany Homes contracts. This guide compares both paths, focusing on the classic oak dungeon door method and the Mahogany Homes alternative that uses Amy's saw. We'll break down XP per hour, supply requirements, ironman considerations, and the honest shortcuts for players who would rather buy gold than chop a thousand oak logs.

Both methods scale differently with attention, bankroll, and ironman status. The decision hinges on whether you want high XP/hour with high material burn or moderate XP/hour with lower plank waste and built-in travel.

Who This Is For & Requirements

This guide targets players with at least 50 Construction who want the ornate jewellery box at level 83. It is especially relevant for ironmen, because plank acquisition is the real bottleneck. The two routes covered here are:

• POH oak larders to oak dungeon doors – the traditional high-intensity method using a player-owned house, servants, and building mode.
• Mahogany Homes contracts – the minigame-based method using Amy's saw, a plank sack, and teleport tablets.

If you are under level 50, complete the Daddy's Home miniquest and use oak larders or beginner Mahogany Homes contracts to reach 50 before reading further.

POH Oak Dungeon Doors: The High-APM Blast

Traditional POH training revolves around building and removing the same piece of furniture in Building Mode. From level 33 to 52, oak larders are the staple; at level 50 players can expect up to 500,000 XP per hour with near-perfect clicks, according to the wiki's Construction training guide. Once you hit 74, oak dungeon doors become the efficient oak-plank option because they build faster than larders and provide comparable or better XP per hour. You stay inside your house, so there is no travel downtime — only the relentless rhythm of build, remove, build, remove.

The method requires a large stack of oak planks. You either unnote them with Phials in Rimmington before level 40, or hire a butler and later a demon butler to fetch planks from the bank for you. Servants are worth the cost because they shave seconds off every inventory cycle. The inventory is simple: coins, a hammer, a saw, and as many planks as possible. Weight-reducing clothing helps for the Phials phase, but once a servant is doing the running, you just click the hotspot and the servant.

This is the highest XP/hour construction method available to non-iron accounts with deep pockets. It is also the most carpal-tunnel-inducing. Expect to burn through thousands of oak planks and pay a fortune on plank conversion, especially if oak logs spike. There is no completion XP bonus to soften the blow; every plank gives a fixed, modest amount of XP relative to Mahogany Homes.

Mahogany Homes Contracts: Efficient and Ironman-Friendly

Mahogany Homes is a Construction minigame where you accept contracts from Amy or other contractors, travel to a random NPC home in Falador, Varrock, East Ardougne, or Hosidius, and repair or build furniture using planks and occasionally steel bars. There are four tiers: Beginner at level 1, Novice at 20, Adept at 50, and Expert at 70. Higher tiers consume more materials per contract but reward significantly more XP and carpenter points.

What makes contracts compelling is the average XP per plank. The wiki's crowdsourced data shows an oak plank in Mahogany Homes yields about 200 XP when you factor in completion bonuses, compared to far less in a POH. Teak planks average 287.9 XP each, and mahogany planks average 346.1. That means you get more Construction experience for every log you process, which matters enormously for ironmen who must chop logs, run them to the sawmill, and pay coins for conversion.

Contracts also give you flexibility. You are not locked into one room or one inventory tick. With a plank sack holding up to 28 planks and Amy's saw equipped in the off-hand, you can fit extra materials per trip. The Astral Contact spell lets you contact Amy remotely to get your next contract without running back to a contractor, which tightens the loop considerably.

One downside is travel time. Even with optimal teleports and a portal nexus, you will spend a large chunk of each hour moving between cities. That keeps raw XP/hr below POH methods, but the lower plank consumption and higher XP per plank often make up for it in overall resource efficiency.

Supply Acquisition for Ironmen

Ironmen cannot buy planks on the Grand Exchange, so the choice between Mahogany Homes and POH doors is often a choice between chopping fewer logs or clicking more. Mahogany Homes wins on woodcutting time because you need fewer planks per XP, but it adds steel bar requirements — about 0.13 to 0.25 bars per contract depending on tier. Steel bars are easy to smith, but they add an extra inventory item and a detour to a furnace.

For POH doors, the supply chain is straightforward: cut oak logs, run them to the sawmill for 250 coins each, then start building. You will need enormous quantities. The wiki's Mahogany Homes page estimates that 50-83 via oak planks in contracts requires roughly 12,860 oak planks. A traditional POH route would consume even more planks because each plank gives less XP. If you are an ironman with 99 Woodcutting or a stack of oak logs from Wintertodt or Managing Miscellania, the POH route may be viable; otherwise, the extra chopping time can outweigh the faster XP/hr.

Check the Construction training page for the latest ironman meta, as methods like using a player-owned house butler to unnote planks only work after you have the planks in the bank. For teak and mahogany planks, ironmen often rely on hardwood patches or kingdom management, so verify current rates before committing.

Cost, XP, and Time-to-Goal Comparison

The table below summarises the key tradeoffs. XP/hr figures are from the wiki's Mahogany Homes experience rates table and the Construction training guide. GP/hr for Mahogany Homes are wiki estimates assuming Grand Exchange material prices; POH GP/hr is not fixed because it depends on plank prices, but it is generally higher per hour and lower per XP than contracts.

*Time to 83 from 50 uses the approximate 2.57M XP required and wiki XP/hr ranges. POH time assumes max efficiency and ignores plank acquisition time. Ironmen should add woodcutting and plank-making hours to all methods.

Unlocks Worth Stopping For

Between 50 and 83, several milestones make the grind feel less pointless.

• Level 50: You can start Adept Mahogany Homes contracts, which are the best balance of cost and XP for many accounts. In a POH, level 50 also unlocks portal chambers for teleportation.
• Level 67 +5 boost: With a spicy stew boost, you can build a Portal Nexus room. This is the keystone for efficient Mahogany Homes travel, allowing you to mount a Xeric's talisman and configure portal nexus teleports to all contract cities.
• Level 70: Expert Mahogany Homes contracts open, using mahogany planks. They are extremely fast but the cost per hour is high.
• Level 74: Oak dungeon doors become available, letting you keep using oak planks at higher XP/hr than larders without switching to expensive mahogany furniture.
• Level 83: The ornate jewellery box becomes buildable. This single item consolidates ring of wealth, glory, combat bracelet, skills necklace, and more into one click, justifying the entire grind.

Mahogany Homes also has its own reward milestones: the plank sack at 350 points, Amy's saw at 500, and the full Carpenter's outfit for 2,000 points total (helmet 400, shirt 800, trousers 600, boots 200). The outfit provides a 2.5% Construction XP bonus.

Common Mistakes and Efficiency Tips

New players often sabotage their own XP/hr. Avoid these pitfalls:

• Forgetting a hammer or saw: Both methods require tools. Amy's saw solves this for contracts, but POH training still needs a hammer. Keep one in your inventory at all times.
• Ignoring the plank sack: If you do Mahogany Homes without a plank sack, you will bank far more often. The plank sack is the single biggest XP/hr upgrade after teleports.
• Using regular spellbook teleports instead of tablets or Astral Contact: For contracts, carrying tablets for Varrock, Falador, and Ardougne plus a Xeric's talisman removes the need for runes. Use the Lunar spellbook's Astral Contact to bypass running to Amy.
• Not equipping Amy's saw off-hand: Wearing the saw in the off-hand frees one inventory slot for an extra plank, which adds up over hundreds of contracts.
• Servants not paid: In POH training, if your servant runs out of money, they stop working. Use the servant's money bag at level 58 Construction to automate payments.

Honest Shortcuts: Buying Gold or a Construction Boost

Construction is one of the most expensive skills in OSRS. POH training burns gold at a rate that can exceed 1M GP/hr when using high-level planks. Mahogany Homes Expert contracts are not far behind at an estimated 952k GP/hr in materials alone. If you have more money than time, buying OSRS gold to fund planks is a legitimate way to skip the woodcutting and plank-making grind, but it does not reduce the clicking. You still have to stand in your house and build thousands of doors.

For players who want the level without the repetitive strain, a Construction training service can handle the entire 50-83 grind for you. This is an honest shortcut in the sense that you pay someone else for their time, exactly like hiring a servant in-game — just on a larger scale. Before buying any service, verify the provider's reputation and never share your login details with untrusted sources. If you simply need gold to buy supplies, our marketplace offers live rates.

Whether you choose the AFK-ish travel of Mahogany Homes or the hyper-focused POH method, the right gold stockpile can turn a 30-hour ironman slog into an afternoon of efficient training.

Sources

• Mahogany Homes - OSRS Wiki
• Construction training - OSRS Wiki