Kitchen Remodel Price Guide

A kitchen remodel is a large investement that should add efficency, bring togetherness, bueautify spaces and equally importantly, increase property value.

Initial Visit

Before I start a kitchen remodel I like to meet with my customer to understand the main goals and reasons behind the renovation.

The initial meeting helps me get an understanding of the family’s lifestyle and working together helps narrow the needs and wants for their living space while setting proper expectations.

In remodeling and construction everything is possible unfortunately everything costs money.

In the second phase I like to breakdown every expense on the project so that my customer fully understands where their money is going.

This process helps visualize where some expenses can be reduced and costs can be reallocated to stretch the dollar as much as possible.

At this point clients also have the option to have other trades, maybe friends or family members step in to help to reduce expenses.

Some homeowners are able to tackle some of these tasks themselves like Don who did his own plumbing in his kitchen remodel saving over a thousand dollars.

Floor and Wall Coverings

Protecting existing finishes that will remain is important so there are no unforseen expenses and problems incurred in the process.

Floor coverings consist of a team of 2 or 3 members come into the home. The first step is cleaning the floors with either soapy water or mineral spirits for hardwood floors or laquer thinner for tile, stone or concrete floors.

The second step is covering floors with thick construction paper usually Ram Board and tape down with either 3M Masking Tape for tile or stone or 3M Blue Tape for hardwood floors.

Here is a quick breakdown of the materials and pricing for floor coverings for a medium size kitchen. Keep in mind we can also use floor coverings that are more affordable such as Builders Paper or you can opt out of floor coverings and DIY it!

Using this option for floor coverings will come out to about $2/SqFt for your remodel.

For Wall coverings and appliances we use High Density Plastic Sheething and 3M Blue Tape, this is more affordable and the costs varies between $50-$150 for a kitchen.

Demo and Trash Removal

Once the kitchen is fully covered and ready for demo we need to ensure we have a trash removal or construction debris game plan. We use a dump trailer or a dumster depending on the size of the remodel and other factors but this cost is usually between $400 and $800 per remodel.

During this process we recommend all cabinets are previously cleared of any belongings.

Using the same example on a medium size kitchen where we will replace all cabinet doors and drawer fronts, replace countertops, lower bar top to match countertop height, tile backsplash, paint cabinets, replace kitchen sink, kitchen faucet and replace lights, the demo costs is broken down as follows:

3 person crew minimum

• Demo Kitchen Countertops: 6 to 8 man hours
• Demo Kitchen Backsplash: 4 to 6 man hours
• Demo all doors and drawer fronts: 4 to 6 man hours
• Cleanup and trash removal: 3 to 4 man hours

Demo for our example kitchen will take around 21 man hours with a team of 3 people. Although this is usually completed in 1 day, the average cost of demo is $850 including soft costs. The good news is we’re ready to start building after this!

Woodwork: cabinet doors and drawer fronts

New doors and drawer fronts will give your kitchen a brand new look and feel. Our team has plenty of options for door profiles but the most popular styles are shaker doors and raised panel doors.

Our doors and drawer fronts are usually built with birch or MDF panels (which provides more stability) and either poplar, maple or beech solid woods for paint grade cabinets.

When changing cabinet doors and drawer fronts I always suggest change out the hardware for softclose hinges and rails.

Changing out the hinges is easy because the new doors are custom made to order but the rails can be tricky depending on the type and structure of your existing drawers.

If your drawers are built with a spacing of 1/2″ clearence to the cabinet opening we can use the same type of rails or slides but most of the times we will have to build a “U” frame to support the new rails and level them properly. The best time to do this is when the countertops have been removed for easier access to the cabinets.

Let’s breakdown the costs of this process using the medum size kitchen with 35 doors and 12 drawer fronts, paint grade only (I’d like to point out here that stain grade woods are much more expensive such as maple, red oak or the sought after white oak)

Remodeling: Lower bartop to counter height

I see many homes built from the 80’s to the early 2000’s that have a bar top to complement a kitchen island or a peninsula providing sitting space for a breakfast area at an arm’s lenght away.

Although efficient and useful, bartops are not very appealing to the eye.

Lowering these bar tops opens up the space giving home owners and guests an open concept making the room feel larger not to mention the countertop space becomes significantly more usable because most islands will be around 42″ in width including the overhang.

There are a couple of things to consider when lowering the bartops. Most bar tops have electric and plumbing components running through it such as switches, plugs, water pipes, drain pipes and vent pipes. Moving these components is crucial to ensure the island will work well and all features are still avaiable after the remodel.

Some of the features we see in these bartops include but are not limited to:

• Light switches
• Garbage disposal switch
• Dishwasher switch
• Plugs and Receptacles
• Drain pipes
• Vent drain pipes

Let us use all these in our example just for the sake of showing a complete budget.

When lowering a bartop with all the components above I always suggest we convert the garbage disposal switch into a push button that will provide quick and easy access from the sink and the button to match the kitchen faucet, appliances and light fixtures finish providing better aesthetics and beauty.

Remove loadbearing walls: TBD

Lighting: TBD

Countertops: TBD

Backsplash: TBD

Cabinet Paint: TBD