Hi all, we are in discussions with a remodel company for our 13x9 kitchen. We have one other estimate which is a bit lower (but we didn’t like their vibe), have a third company coming out soon for another, but we liked these guys so wanted to get a gut check. Overall IMO, it seems fair except I am a bit hung up on the countertop fabrication and install cost.

Kitchen: 13x9 (45 sq feet of counter tops) Location: HCOL, west coast

• Demo: $2,250

• Kitchen install: $13,000 (Installation of cabinets, sink, appliances (existing), HVAC for built in microwave, hardware, clean up)

• Cabinets estimate: $15,000 (semi custom)

• Countertop fabrication and install: $10500

• Quartz slab: $2-3k

• Backsplash Install: $3k (+$500 for tile)

• Kitchen electrical: $4k (Update outlets, under cabinet lights, electrical to island for microwave, add 3 pendant lights, add 2 can lights)

• Paint ceiling: $2k (600 sq ft)

Overall: give or take $53k

Appreciate the input.

Just purchased my first home and we’re looking to do a complete remodel of our kitchen. We’ve met with several contractors and have been consistently been given estimates in the $50-$70k range. I know there’s a lot of variables in play in terms quality of materials, replacing all appliances, etc.

We received a more formal quote (picture included), and I’m looking for some guidance on if these prices seem reasonable or are heavily inflated.

Here’s some additional context:

This estimate doesn't include anything for materials (cabinets/floor/counters)/appliances... all of that we purchase on our own or with them (at the cost they get it for)

Kitchen is small/medium

This does include them raising the kitchen ceiling ~8 inches to be flush with the living room ceiling that is a connected room

This does include them replacing our 100w electrical panel to 200w; instead of giving us a "discount" on the final quoted price, he offered the electrical panel + raising the ceiling as mentioned above as the discount... which seems pretty solid, but not if all the costs in the attached picture are massively inflated

$10,000 for demo seems crazy

We will need to pay for the permits out of pocket as they will be doing plumbing/pipe electrical adjustments

Any insight or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Title ^. I live in the same floor plan as this house and would love to do this to my kitchen. Any idea how much a remodel like this would cost? Keeping my appliances. Don’t need custom cabinets (Home Depot/Lowes is great)

Note my current house has a wall where the kitchen opens up to the living room in the video. So would need to get that removed. Thank you!

How much did something like your kitchen or bathroom cost? Right now real estate only seems affordable if you find something that needs work, but I have no idea how much a contractor would charge.

My 2009 kitchen needs a remodel. (No! Not my design, we bought last year!) It isn’t a large kitchen and I will keep basically same layout. Same floor. Larger island. Transform that stupid “desk” to cabinet space and get rid of that stone monstrosity. I went to a local highly rated kitchen & bath remodel place for an estimate. He didn’t ask my budget. Estimate (includes appliances) $75k, which is more than a lot of the houses around here go for. The designer said it wouldn’t be much less to reface the cabinets (which are great quality and excellent condition). I really wanted to spend only about half that (not including appliances). Am I dreaming?

My wife and I bought house in Eastern NC in 2021 for 310k. It is probably worth 400-425k now. The home is in good condition but the kitchen is dated. The kitchen is original to the house and was built in the late 1980s. We are working with a contractor who is known for her work on luxury homes in the area. She probably is used to working with homes that are 400k-1M in value, which is high end in our area. At our first meeting, we told her that we hope to keep the kitchen renovation budget to 60k. It is a full gut job. Ideally, cabinets, flooring, lighting, and countertops would be replaced, but no walls need to be moved or anything.Yesterday, the contractor told us that she is waiting on a couple more firm estimates from subs, but that she expects the project to cost 150k. We told her that there is no way we could even close to that and that is way out of our budget.Am I wrong here for thinking that 60k could get us close to a full kitchen remodel? Do I need to adjust my expectations? Or, is 150k for a kitchen model as absurd as it sounds to me?

Edit: Thank you all for the insight and diverse perspectives! We can't afford 150k on a kitchen reno so you don't have to worry about us spending that amount of money on this project! We are in a LCOL area about 60 miles from Raleigh NC. I have not been provided with any formal quotes yet from the contractor so I don't yet know what is driving up the cost. The contractor has not yet given us different options for different types of materials which I am learning can make a world of difference in terms of price. She essentially told us the types of materials/finishes we would want without discussing pricing. The quote did include custom cabinets, but I was not told what type of materials would be used; apparently high-end haha. I am most frustrated that we were up front about our budget/expectations, but then her estimate was 3x as much without any conversation along the way.

Moving forward, I plan to adjust my expectations; 60k could be low but 150k is waaay too high. I will request formal quotes from her and the subcontractors she plans to use so I am better informed. I will ask the contractor to get me different estimates for various aspects of the job from different subs and/or different materials. I may also be looking for a new contractor to see what someone else can come up for us in our budget range.

Edit 2: This post got a decent amount of attention. Thanks for all the thoughts and anecdotes. After about 2 years from this post, our kitchen remodel is finished! We ended up shopping contractors and got some better prices. We remodeled the kitchen as well as the adjoining half-bath and laundry room. All in we spent $74,500. This got us custom cabinets, paint, trim, new appliances, electrical, plumbing, countertop, and flooring. We tried to save some money in a few areas. We went with a tile-looking LVT rather than tile (saved about $8,000), countertops, and appliances. I've seen others spend tons on high-end appliances. We've been happy with out GE, fingerprint resistant black slate appliances and spent about $5,000 on fridge, dishwasher, and oven. Hope this info helps anyone who visits this post. Kitchen remodels are expensive and a bear. My advice is to make your budget, take your time, and find a contractor you feel comfortable with.

We really want to remodel our kitchen, but the quotes we are getting seem to be really high. (We live in NJ)

We were hoping to keep it under $20K.

-New cabinets, backsplash, countertop, flooring (Layout does not need to be changed)

-Only appliance that needs to be replaced is the fridge

-Our kitchen is small too- we have 5 cabinets and a small island

First company told us $35-40K and flooring is an additional $15K. They were super professional though and high end.

Second company was not as professional, barely gave any details and said their kitchen renos usually START at $50K. He talked about demoing our whole kitchen. Taking it down to the studs/ adding insulation etc.

Third company wants us to measure the kitchen ourselves first and we haven’t gotten around to that yet 😭😭😭

-Why do we need to demo our kitchen if we aren’t changing anything electrical or plumbing?

-We bought our house for $315K. I don’t think it’s worth it to spend more than $20-25K on just a kitchen renovation

-We wanted an easy remodel and to get a company to help take care of the process, but I’m willing to just buy the cabinets, countertop, etc and have a contractor we trust install it for us and manage the installation ourselves.

Thanks for the advice!

Hey all. I’m looking for honest, candid disclosures of prices paid for a kitchen remodel on a home similar to mine.

My house was built in 1925. The kitchen is approximately 8x13. I’ve had three estimates over the last couple of years coming in at $50-80k. This is for new cabinets/counter, floor, and possible ceiling.

I’m finding it terribly hard to accept these prices as true and real for remodeling a kitchen like mine. Am I living in a fantasy world thinking I should be paying $30k or less?

I’m attaching pics of the kitchen as-is today.

We are remodeling our kitchen in east bay . The kitchen is quite small 12*12 , and we are doing tiles on the floor . The contractor feels that if we need to get the permit (as the electrical is not up to the code) we will spend extra . Given my past experiences with insurance I want to get the permits for kitchen remodel .

He is asking for 35k for labor ( install cabinets, flooring for 400sq ft , electrical.. ). If you add material we are looking at 60k remodel . Is this fair in Bay Area currently for this size of kitchen.

Obviously, a lot of the pricing will depend on specifics, but I'm trying to get the roughest sense of what kind of numbers I'll be hearing. It's not a massive kitchen, but it likely has not been renovated since our house was built in 1948. We need new cabinets, new flooring, everything. We live in northern Marin and are considering reaching out to contractors in Petaluma/Santa Rosa because we think they will be more competitively priced.

guys! we moved into a new house almost a year ago ... recently evaluated our options and settled with a renovation plan for our 40 yr old 200 sqft kitchen with Ikea cabinets. We designed the kitchen using IKEA kitchen planner. I've got a total of 3 quotes and 2 of those are specific to IKEA kitchen installation labor costs with some add-on work, such as, flooring, electrical work, outside venting hood, etc. I am providing the lower-end estimate below (see Table) and wondering if you see any gaps or ways to reduce cost further down or opportunities for negotiations. I know I may be able to accomplish some of the listed work myself but DIY might be a long shot given my demanding job and other family responsibilities.

Note that the IKEA kitchen cabinets may cost another $10k, tiles may cost around $2k, and kitchen appliances, including refrigerator, dishwasher, range, lighting, sink, etc. may end up being an additional $5 to 6k. So, overall, I am looking at $30k for the entire renovation.

Any advice or insight to keep down the overall cost would be appreciated :)

I live in a modest home in an affluent neighborhood. We were hit hard by the housing market crash, and just never recovered. In fact, it's probably worse.

My house has dropped value significantly since I bought it in 2005.

There is no way we can sell it, as no one will want this house the way it is. So we thought we would make it a better house for us.

We wanted to start by renovating the kitchen. It's a 1950s house and has never been updated.

The problem is we were quoted 100k (and maybe more once everything is bought) for what we want done.... Is this a really bad decision for us to do?

We are doing things like- opening walls to the dining room, and changing flooring, and all the cabinets, and lighting... but it still seems like 100k is too much for a modest house and kitchen.

Need a sounding board. I am looking to renovate my kitchen. Not changing the layout other than expanding one wall into an existing room to create a pantry. I intend to update bottom cabinets, put shelves instead of uppers, and update the island. The water line for the sink and gas line will remain in the same location. The bottom cabinets will be all drawers with nothing special inserted. Is $94,000 a reasonable price? This quote does NOT include appliances (range, hood, fridge, freezer, or microwave). Flooring stays the same.

Edit 1: Thanks for all of the feedback. I do live in a HCOL area (Northern VA). The home is newer and everything is up to code, so I don't forsee any issues arising. Once the area is opened, I’m looking at approximately 405 sqft. However, much of the newly acquired space will be devoted to a dedicated pantry and will not have any new cabinetry. I did have another quote from Block Renovation for ~$125k—not including appliances—which also did not encompass building a space for a pantry. Overall, based on the chosen materials, mainly custom KraftMaid cabinets and quartz countertops, I think the quote may be justified. Thanks again guys!

Once I decide to go forth with this renovation I will post before and after photos.

My galley kitchen is 6 x 12. I wanted to replace the floors, cabinets, and countertops.

I have been waiting over 3 months for an estimate from one contractor. Another one vanished and the third wouldn’t put an estimate in writing.

I received a staggering estimate today from a 4th contractor. The total was twice my budget and it didn’t even include flooring. I had refinanced my mortgage to get equity funds to cover the cost. The bank and I both thought I had more than enough money to complete this project.

I am so discouraged. I have no idea of what to do.

HI - I'm curious if someone could help me understand if I have a reasonable quote for a full kitchen remodel. I live in the Chicago area, and it would be a full gut that includes kitchen, dining room, and a laundry area.

Total Bid: approx. $75,000

Breakdown:

• $32,000 Cabinets + Quartz Countertops (includes personalized cabinets in kitchen and dining room)

• $6,000: Vinyl Floor Planks + Backsplash + Sink/Faucet

• $6,000: All new appliances (basics, but what we want - long lasting - includes fridge, stove, microwave/air fryer, and washer/dryer)

• $31,000: All the work related to this including:

  • remove & dispose of all existing cabinets, countertops, drywall

  • bump a wall out 1 foot and build out

  • do canned lights in ceiling, add 3 outlets

  • Run new duct for stove vent

  • Reinsulate, drywall, mud, sand, paint

  • Install new cabinets in kitchen and dining room - includes trim and hardware

  • Install vinyl plank flooring

  • Insure plumbing is set for laundry area (moving up from basement to first floor)

  • Install shelf + double door for laundry area

  • Trim doors, base, and shoe

  • add plumbing after counters installed

  • install backsplash

I have asked for details on what materials we would be responsible for tin the last area vs. what is included to be Crystal clear.

Is this reasonable?