Whole project
Work out a kitchen remodel cost from the room, not from a budget
Type in the room. This page works out how many linear feet of cabinet the walls will hold, how many boxes that becomes, how many square feet of counter sits on top of it, how many hours each trade spends in the room, and what all of that costs at the prices you have actually been quoted where you live. It never asks you for a budget and multiplies it by something.
Your kitchen, and what it derives
Derived project subtotal, before contingency
$38,389
Scope tier derived from your answers: Reconfiguration.
Range from published wage spread $36,733 to $40,765
Biggest swing factor Across the whole project the widest single band is cabinetry, worth roughly $8,190 of movement on its own. Spend your negotiating time there and let the small lines go.
The tier is a consequence, not a choice
Services move even though the room does not come apart. The plumbing and electrical scope is what separates this from a straight replacement, and it is the part most often missing from the first quote.
Most kitchen sites open by asking which of three or four budget tiers you want. That question has the logic backwards. Nobody decides to do a reconfiguration; they decide the sink should be under the window, and a reconfiguration is what that decision costs. The four tiers below are named by what has to happen, so you can see which decision moves you between them.
| Tier | What defines it | What sets the price | What can still surprise you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surface refresh | Boxes stay, doors and surfaces change | Material selections and the door count | Very little. This is the most predictable work in the house. |
| Same-footprint replacement | New boxes and counters in the same positions | Cabinet grade and counter material | Whatever is behind the old cabinets — the wall is never as flat as the old boxes implied. |
| Reconfiguration | Services move, walls stay | How far the drain travels and how many circuits are new | The drain route. Everything else in this tier is knowable in advance. |
| Gut and relocate | Walls open or come out | Trade sequencing and inspection holds, not finishes | Structure, old wiring, old plumbing and the permit history of work you did not do. |
Where the material money goes
Each line below is a quantity this page derived from your room, multiplied by a price you supplied. Nothing in this table is a national average, because a national average of a kitchen is an average of a number that does not exist.
| Line | Derived quantity | Your unit price | Line total | How the quantity was derived |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinetry | 32.5 linear ft (10 boxes) | $420.00 | $13,650 | 15.5 base + 13.5 wall + 3.5 tall linear feet, derived from your wall runs after appliance openings and blind corners were taken out. |
| Cabinet hardware | 10 boxes | $26.00 | $260 | One pull or knob allowance per box, derived from the box schedule rather than guessed. |
| Countertops | 52.7 sq ft, 33.5 ft of exposed edge | $78.00 | $4,111 | Counter run length times your counter depth, plus the island. Ranges and refrigerators break the run, dishwashers and cooktops do not — which is why this is not the same as cabinet linear feet. |
| Appliance package | as specified | $7400.00 | $7,400 | Your own figure. We publish no appliance price table because we have no source for one. |
| Sink, faucet and disposal | 1 set | $950.00 | $950 | Your own figure. |
| Lighting fixtures | as specified | $780.00 | $780 | Your own figure. |
| Backsplash material | 28.5 sq ft | $22.00 | $627 | Wall-cabinet run length times the height from counter to cabinet underside. |
| Flooring material | 180 sq ft | $9.00 | $1,620 | Room length times room width. Flooring under the cabinets is included because most builds lay it first. |
Materials come to $29,398 and permits to $640. Labour is derived separately, from published wages rather than from anything you typed, and it is explained on the trade labour page.
Where the labour money goes
This scope generates 121.6 trade hours. Each trade's hours are priced at that trade's published national wage distribution and multiplied by 2.20 to reach a billed rate. The low figure uses each trade's 25th-percentile wage and the high figure its 75th; both wages are measured and published, and the multiplier between wage and billed rate is ours.
| Trade | Hours | At 25th percentile | At median | At 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carpenters (SOC 47-2031) | 48.8 | $2,504 | $3,126 | $3,966 |
| Tile and Stone Setters (SOC 47-2044) | 34.1 | $1,631 | $2,009 | $2,534 |
| Electricians (SOC 47-2111) | 22.7 | $1,187 | $1,517 | $2,016 |
| Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters (SOC 47-2152) | 11.5 | $610 | $776 | $1,035 |
| Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141) | 4.5 | $210 | $233 | $291 |
Carpenters (SOC 47-2031) carry 48.8 of the 121.6 hours in this scope, and the published gap between a 25th- and a 75th-percentile worker in that trade is worth $1,462 on this job alone. That is a real, measured spread between two competent crews, before anyone marks anything up.
What this number does not include
Not in the subtotal above
- Anything behind a wall that nobody has looked behind yet
- Structural repair discovered during demolition
- Asbestos or lead testing, abatement and clearance
- Bringing unpermitted earlier work into compliance
- Appliance delivery, installation and haul-away of the old units, unless your appliance quote says otherwise
- Window, door and exterior repairs triggered by a new vent termination
- Temporary kitchen setup and the cost of eating out
- Sales tax, financing cost and any contractor deposit that is non-refundable
The unknowns on that list are not all equally likely for your house. The contingency tool derives which of them your specific building actually opens, and how much reserve each one justifies, instead of applying a flat percentage to everything.
The four questions that move this number most
- Does the sink move? Work out whether the drain can physically get there before you accept a price for it. This is the one item that can change tier on its own.
- How many linear feet do you actually have? The takeoff tool breaks the runs into real boxes, which is how cabinets are quoted and how you check a quote.
- How many slabs? Counter cost is a yield problem, and the difference between one slab and two is bigger than the difference between two materials.
- When are the cabinets ordered? The schedule tool works backwards from the lead time to the latest order date that keeps the site moving.