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Kitchen remodel cost
The range you see quoted for kitchens is not uncertainty — it is four different jobs. Refreshing a 150 ft² kitchen without taking anything out is around $12,750; replacing everything in the same layout is $27,750; moving the sink takes it to $49,500. That middle step is the expensive one, and it is a decision rather than a material. This allocates a budget by trade and hands each line to the calculator that works it out properly.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-21 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
What moves decides the price
The spread you see quoted for kitchens is not uncertainty — it is four different jobs. What takes you from one to the next is a single decision, usually about whether the sink stays where it is.
Floor area of the room. A typical American kitchen is 150 to 200.
New cabinets, new worktop, new floor, new appliances — all landing where the old ones were. The sink stays on its drain and the range stays on its circuit, and that is the whole reason this tier stops where it does.
Semi-custom cabinets, quartz or granite, tile or engineered wood, a named appliance brand. This is what the national average figure describes.
Fifteen. Old enough for a surprise or two behind the cabinets, new enough that they are ordinary ones.
Optional, and it is the sanity check nobody does. Past about 15 per cent of the home's value a kitchen stops returning what it costs.
Take them out if they are already bought, or staying. The other trades do not get cheaper because you own a fridge.
Used only to pick a regional labour rate. It stays in your browser.
Replace in place — same layout
$31,913
$22,425 – $46,575 · $185 a ft² · 150 ft²
This is a budget, not an estimate
It says how a kitchen of this scope divides between trades, so you know what to brief and which quote to question. Every line below that has a page behind it links to the calculator that works it out properly from your own measurements — and those numbers will beat these.
How it adds up
The contingency is a line and not a piece of advice. Fifteen. Old enough for a surprise or two behind the cabinets, new enough that they are ordinary ones.
Where the money goes
Installed cost, so there is no separate labour line — each trade already carries its own. Click a line to work that one out properly.
| Trade | Share | Budget | Calculate it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CabinetsThe largest single line in every kitchen that gets new ones, and the one whose price is decided by the number of boxes rather than the number of feet. | 32% | $8,880 | Kitchen cabinets |
| AppliancesBought at retail rather than built, so this is the one line where shopping genuinely changes the number. It is also the second largest, which surprises most people. | 15% | $4,163 | not ours |
| CountertopsPriced by the slab rather than the square foot, which is why two worktops of the same area can differ by a slab's worth of money depending on how the runs nest. | 12% | $3,330 | Countertops |
| FlooringIt goes in before the cabinets, or under them, and which of those you choose decides whether the floor can ever be replaced without pulling the kitchen apart. | 8% | $2,220 | Flooring |
| BacksplashThe line people spend the most time choosing and the least money on. Four per cent of a kitchen, and months of Saturdays. | 4% | $1,110 | Tile |
| LightingRecessed cans, under-cabinet strips and whatever hangs over the island. In a refresh it is the biggest visible change available for the money. | 6% | $1,665 | Recessed lighting |
| ElectricalSmall when nothing moves and large the moment it does. A kitchen with an induction range and a double oven is also where a hundred amp service runs out of room. | 3% | $833 | Electrical panel |
| PlumbingThe line that defines the tier. A sink that stays put is a connection; a sink that moves is a drain, a vent and a permit. | 4% | $1,110 | not ours |
| Walls and ceilingPatching in a replacement, real drywall work once anything opens up. It is also where an old kitchen hides its surprises. | 5% | $1,388 | Drywall |
| Trim and crownCrown on the wall cabinets, toe kick, and the baseboard that has to be reinstated wherever the floor changed. | 3% | $833 | Crown molding |
| Design, permits and managementDrawings, permit fees, inspections and somebody sequencing eight trades. On a layout change it is not optional and it is not small. | 6% | $1,665 | not ours |
| Everything elseSkip hire, protection, the hardware nobody counted, and the second trip to the shop that every job has. | 2% | $555 | not ours |
Two lines have no page because they are not construction: appliances are retail, and design and permits are professional fees. Everything else on this list is something we calculate properly, and the calculated figure should replace the allocation as soon as you have it.
The four tiers, and what moves you between them
Same kitchen, same finish level, in all four bars.
Worth knowing
- This is a budget allocation, not a materials estimate — it says how a kitchen of this scope divides between trades, so you know what to brief and what to question. Every line that has a page behind it links to the calculator that works it out properly from your actual measurements, and those numbers will be better than these.
- Where the money actually is: cabinets at 32 per cent and appliances at 15, against 4 per cent for the backsplash. People spend months choosing tile and an afternoon choosing cabinets, and the ratio of attention is the exact inverse of the ratio of money.
- The tiers are steps, not a slope. Going from "replace in place — same layout" to "change the layout" adds about $25,012 — 1.78× — and what triggers it is one thing: moving the sink, the range or a wall. That is worth knowing before a designer suggests it in passing, because it is not a small change to the drawing.
- Contingency here is 15 per cent — $4,163 — and it is a line in the budget rather than a piece of advice. Fifteen. Old enough for a surprise or two behind the cabinets, new enough that they are ordinary ones.
On this page — 5 sections
The range is four jobs, not one uncertain number
The short version
- Four tiers, not a scale. Each one adds a trade the one below it did not need.
- The step from replacing to moving is the big one. On a 150 ft² kitchen, about $27,750 to $49,500 — and the trigger is the sink.
- Cabinets are 32 per cent and the backsplash is 4. Attention is the inverse of money.
- This is an allocation, not an estimate. Every line links to the page that calculates it properly.
Search for what a kitchen costs and you get a range — fifteen thousand to eighty, or worse. It reads as though nobody knows, and that is not what is happening. The range is wide because it covers four genuinely different pieces of work, and the thing that separates them is not how nice the materials are. It is how much moves.
| Tier | 150 ft² kitchen | Permit | What takes you to the next one |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refresh — nothing comes out | $12,750 | no | Taking the cabinets out |
| Replace in place — same layout | $27,750 | no | Moving the sink, the range or a wall |
| Change the layout | $49,500 | yes | Removing a wall or going back to the studs |
| Down to the studs | $84,000 | yes | Structural work, or an addition |
Mid-range finishes, before contingency. The gap between the second row and the third is the one worth staring at.
$27,750
Replace in place
150 ft², mid-range
$21,750
What moving the sink adds
Plumbing, drywall, permit, inspection
32%
Cabinets
The largest line in every kitchen
4%
Backsplash
Months of choosing, four per cent
MaterialsEstimator, Kitchen remodel budget survey — by scope tier and by trade · checked 2026-09-21
Where the money actually goes
Once the tier is settled, the budget divides in a way that is remarkably consistent across kitchens and remarkably unlike where people put their attention.
Every figure here is installed cost — materials and the labour to fit them together. That is why there is no separate labour line: it is already inside each trade, which is also how every other page on this site quotes.
| Trade | Refresh | Replace in place | Change the layout | Down to the studs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinets | — | 32% | 28% | 24% |
| Refacing or painting the doors | 34% | — | — | — |
| Appliances | 8% | 15% | 13% | 12% |
| Countertops | — | 12% | 10% | 9% |
| Flooring | — | 8% | 7% | 7% |
| Backsplash | 14% | 4% | 3% | 3% |
| Lighting | 16% | 6% | 5% | 5% |
| Electrical | 4% | 3% | 7% | 8% |
| Plumbing | 2% | 4% | 8% | 8% |
| Walls and ceiling | 10% | 5% | 7% | 10% |
| Trim and crown | 4% | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Design, permits and management | 4% | 6% | 5% | 8% |
| Everything else | 4% | 2% | 4% | 3% |
Read across a row to see what a trade does as the scope grows. Plumbing quadruples; cabinets fall as a share while rising in absolute terms, because everything around them grows faster.
National Kitchen and Bath Association, Kitchen Planning Guidelines with Access Standards · checked 2026-09-21
The order, which is where schedules go wrong
The thing a general contractor is actually paid for is sequencing, and the sequence has two serial delays in it that almost every homeowner plan treats as parallel.
- 01DemolitionOut to the walls, or as far as the tier requires. This is also when the surprises appear, which is why the contingency exists and why it is early money rather than late.
- 02Anything inside a wallPlumbing and electrical, while the walls are open. Nothing after this point can change without reopening them, so this is the last moment the layout is negotiable.
- 03Drywall, then paint the wallsBefore the cabinets go on them. Cutting in behind a run of wall cabinets afterwards is the worst painting in the house.
- 04FlooringBefore the cabinets, so the floor is continuous underneath and can be replaced one day without pulling the kitchen apart. It also sets the finished height the cabinets are levelled from.
- 05CabinetsAnd this is the first serial delay: they have a lead time of anywhere from two weeks to four months depending on grade, and nothing after them can start.
- 06Worktop template, then the worktopThe second serial delay. A worktop cannot be measured from a drawing — it is templated off the cabinets once they are physically in place, and then it takes one to three weeks to fabricate.
- 07BacksplashAfter the worktop, because it tiles down to a line the worktop sets. Doing it first means tiling to a line that does not exist yet.
- 08Final plumbing, appliances, trim and the punch listThe sink goes in once the worktop does. Then the door that catches, the missing filler and the outlet cover nobody fitted.
What separates a real quote from a cheap one
- A line for design, permits and inspections wherever anything moves. Its absence is not a saving.
- Removal and disposal of the old kitchen, stated rather than assumed.
- Who templates the worktop and when, given it cannot happen until the cabinets are in.
- What happens to the flooring under the old cabinets — is it continuous, or does it stop where they stood?
- Whether the electrical is being brought to current code, which in a kitchen means arc-fault and GFCI protection.
- The appliance specifications, because a 36 in fridge does not fit a 33 in gap and somebody has to own that dimension.
- A contingency, named as such, rather than a firm price that becomes a series of change orders.
- A retention held back against the punch list, which is normal and worth agreeing at the start.
The sanity check nobody does
There is one number that reframes the whole conversation and it takes ten seconds: the remodel as a share of what the house is worth.
Between about 5 and 15 per cent, a kitchen generally returns roughly what it costs. Past that it does not — a kitchen costing a quarter of the house does not return a quarter of the house, it returns approximately what a fifteen per cent kitchen would have returned.
That is not an argument against spending more. It is an argument for knowing which of two things you are doing: making an investment, or buying something you want. On a house you intend to live in for twenty years the second is entirely reasonable. On one you intend to sell in three it is a decision that deserves the number attached.
| Inside the band | Well past it | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An investment that roughly holds | A purchase for your own use |
| Where to spend | Cabinets and layout | Wherever you like — it is yours |
| If selling in 3 years | Sensible | Expect to leave money behind |
| If staying 20 years | Sensible | Also sensible — enjoy it |
| The risk | Under-spending on layout to save on finishes | Assuming it is an investment when it is not |
And the corollary, which matters more than the headline: if the budget is tight, economise on finishes and never on layout. A worktop can be replaced in a day in ten years’ time. A sink in the wrong place is there until somebody does all of this again.
What goes wrong
01Comparing two quotes from different tiers
A replacement and a layout change differ by roughly the price of the replacement again. Two perfectly honest numbers can be twice apart and both be right.
Instead — Establish what moves before comparing anything. If one quote relocates the sink and the other does not, they are not quotes for the same job.
02Agreeing to move the sink in passing
It is the line between tiers. Drain fall, a vent, opening a wall or floor, drywall, permit, inspection — about $21,750 on this kitchen.
Instead — Decide it deliberately with the number attached. It is often the right call, and it should never be a throwaway remark in a showroom.
03Treating contingency as optional
In a pre-1980 house the question is not whether something is found behind the cabinets but what. Without a contingency line, every discovery becomes a change order and an argument.
Instead — 10 per cent on a modern house and 20 on anything older, in the budget from the start.
04Demolishing before the cabinets have shipped
Cabinet lead time and worktop fabrication are consecutive. A custom order can be four months from signing to a working sink, and the kitchen is out for all of it.
Instead — Confirmed delivery date in writing, plus the worktop time, and take the old kitchen out about a week before that.
05Laying the floor after the cabinets
It leaves the floor stopping where the cabinets stand, so it can never be replaced without pulling the kitchen apart — and it makes the cabinet heights depend on a surface that is not final.
Instead — Floor first, continuous underneath. It costs a little more material and it is the difference between a floor you can change and one you cannot.
06Spending the deliberation on the backsplash
It is about 4 per cent of the budget. Cabinets are 32 and get a fraction of the attention, despite being the thing you open forty times a day.
Instead — Spend the time proportionally to the money. Pick the cabinets and the layout carefully; pick the tile last and quickly.
07Skipping the permit to save a few hundred
Unpermitted kitchen work surfaces in a survey and holds up a sale, and putting it right retrospectively means opening walls that are now finished.
Instead — Permit anything that moves plumbing or adds circuits. It is a small line at the top two tiers and it is on record afterwards, which is the point.
08Economising on the layout to afford the finishes
Finishes are replaceable in a day; a layout is not. A beautiful kitchen that is awkward to cook in is a mistake you live with every evening.
Instead — Get the layout and the cabinet boxes right and take a cheaper worktop. The worktop can change in ten years and the sink cannot.
- 01Decide what moves before anything elseSink, range, fridge, walls. If none of them move, you are in the replacement tier and the price is roughly half what it becomes the moment one of them does.
- 02Measure the roomFloor area is enough for a budget. The cabinet run is what really scales the cost, and the cabinet page works that out properly once you get there.
- 03Take the allocation as a brief, not a quoteCabinets around a third, appliances around a seventh. If a quote puts the backsplash above ten per cent, something is wrong with it or with the tile.
- 04Calculate the big lines properlyCabinets first, because they are the largest and the most misquoted, then countertops. Between them that is nearly half the budget and both are pages on this site.
- 05Add contingency as a lineTen per cent on a modern house, twenty on anything pre-1980. It is not optional money and it is not the same as your budget being wrong.
- 06Check it against the housePast about fifteen per cent of the home's value a kitchen stops returning what it costs. Worth knowing which of the two things you are doing.
- 07Sequence it before you demolishCabinets have a lead time, and the worktop cannot even be measured until they are in place. That is a serial delay, not a parallel one.
Cabinets are about a third of the budget and the most frequently misquoted, because an inside corner takes two feet of run before anything is ordered. That page builds the schedule of boxes and prices it properly.
Start with the largest line- Scope tier
- How much of the kitchen moves, which is what actually sets the price. The four tiers are not points on a scale — each one adds a trade the one below it did not need.
- Installed cost
- Materials and the labour to fit them, together. Every figure on this page is on that basis, which is why there is no separate labour line in the allocation.
- Contingency
- Money set aside for what is found once the cabinets come off. It is a budget line, not caution — in a pre-1980 house the question is not whether something appears but what.
- Allocation
- The share of a budget a trade takes. It is a planning figure: useful for briefing and for spotting a quote that is out of shape, and no substitute for measuring your own kitchen.
- Permit trigger
- The point at which work stops being replacement and becomes construction. Moving plumbing or adding circuits does it in most jurisdictions, and unpermitted kitchen work surfaces at sale.
- Cost to value
- The remodel as a share of the home's worth. Between 5 and 15 per cent a kitchen generally returns what it costs; past that it is being bought for its own sake.
- Semi-custom
- Cabinets in standard sizes with real choices of door, finish and the occasional odd width. It is the grade the national average kitchen figure describes.
- Working triangle
- Sink, range and fridge. Moving any corner of it is what turns a replacement into a layout change, and it is the single most expensive sentence in a design meeting.
- Sequencing
- The order the trades come in, and the thing a general contractor is actually paid for. Flooring before cabinets, cabinets before worktop template, worktop before backsplash, backsplash before final plumbing.
- Template
- Measuring the worktop off the cabinets once they are physically in place. It cannot be done from a drawing, which is why the worktop lead time starts after the cabinets land.
- Soft costs
- Design, drawings, permit fees, inspections and project management. They are real money at the top two tiers and they are the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
- Punch list
- The snags at the end — the door that catches, the missing filler, the outlet cover nobody fitted. Holding back a retention against it is normal and sensible.
Common questions
- How much does a kitchen remodel cost?
- For a typical 150 square foot kitchen at mid-range finishes: about $12,750 to refresh it without taking anything out, $27,750 to replace everything in the same layout, $49,500 if the sink or the range moves, and $84,000 back to the studs. Those are not four points on a scale — they are four different jobs, and what moves you between them is one decision at a time rather than a hundred small upgrades.
- Why is the range of kitchen remodel prices so wide?
- Because the figure people quote covers four jobs at once. A refresh and a gut differ by a factor of six, and the difference is almost entirely what moves rather than what it is made of. Ask what tier a number describes before comparing it to anything: a $25,000 kitchen and a $70,000 kitchen may both be perfectly reasonable prices for completely different pieces of work.
- What is the biggest cost in a kitchen remodel?
- Cabinets, at about 32 per cent, and then appliances at 15. Together that is nearly half the budget. The backsplash — which is where most people spend most of their deliberation — is around 4 per cent. The attention paid to each line is close to the exact inverse of the money in it.
- How much does it cost to move a sink in a kitchen?
- More than the plumbing, which is the point. Moving the sink means a new drain run with the right fall, a vent, and usually opening a wall or a floor to get at both — so it brings drywall, a permit, an inspection and often flooring work with it. That is why it is the line between the replacement tier and the layout tier, and why the step is tens of thousands rather than hundreds.
- Do I need a permit for a kitchen remodel?
- Not usually for replacing cabinets and worktops in place. Almost always once plumbing moves, circuits are added or a wall comes out. It is worth having: unpermitted kitchen work is one of the things that surfaces in a survey and holds up a sale, and putting it right retrospectively costs far more than the permit would have.
- How much should I budget for contingency?
- 10 per cent for a house built after 2000, 15 per cent for a house 1980 to 2000, 20 per cent for a house before 1980. Treat it as a line in the budget rather than as prudence. In an older house the question is not whether something appears behind the cabinets but what — cloth wiring, galvanised supply pipe, a floor that is three layers deep and none of them level.
- Is a kitchen remodel worth it for resale?
- Within about 5 to 15 per cent of the home's value, generally yes. Past that, no — a kitchen that costs a quarter of the house does not return a quarter of the house, it returns roughly what a fifteen per cent kitchen would have. That does not make it wrong to do; it makes it a purchase rather than an investment, and worth knowing which one you are making.
- How long does a kitchen remodel take?
- Two to three weeks for a replacement, six to twelve for a layout change or a gut. The constraint is rarely the work — it is the lead time on cabinets and the fact that the worktop cannot be templated until the cabinets are physically in place. Those two are serial, not parallel, and a custom cabinet order can put four months between signing and a working sink.
- Can I save money by keeping the cabinets?
- It is the single largest saving available, because cabinets are around 32 per cent of the budget. Refacing them puts you in the refresh tier for roughly a third of a full replacement. The caution is that refacing is only a saving against mid-range cabinets — against builder grade the gap narrows sharply, and there is a page here that prices both on the same kitchen.
- What should I not skimp on in a kitchen?
- The things that cannot be changed later without doing all of this again: the layout, the cabinet boxes and anything inside a wall. Finishes are replaceable and appliances are replaceable — a badly placed sink is not. If the budget is tight, the sensible economy is a cheaper worktop in a good layout, never the reverse.
- Is this calculator an estimate?
- No, deliberately. It is an allocation: it says how a kitchen of this scope divides between trades so you can brief a job and recognise a quote that is out of shape. Every line with a page behind it links to the calculator that works that trade out properly from your own measurements, and those figures should replace these as soon as you have them.
- What order do the trades come in?
- Demolition, then anything inside the walls — plumbing, electrical — then drywall, then flooring, then cabinets, then the worktop template, then the worktop, then the backsplash, then final plumbing and appliances, then paint and trim. Getting it wrong is expensive: flooring after cabinets leaves you unable to replace it later, and backsplash before the worktop is tiling to a line that has not been set.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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