How Much Does a Kitchen Remodel Really Cost? | Real Numbers

Charlie, this is a stunning 3D demonstration, but can we have the cost breakdown?

Okay, cost breakdown. Where does your money go? Right. Super important. I had to put my glasses on so I could read the screen—sorry, that’s what you get for 40 years out there doing this stuff. This is a typical budget breakdown that we give all of our clients. When you start talking about a project and an initial budget, or what we refer to as a ROM—a rough order of magnitude budget—when you don’t have a really detailed plan, you need to start with an idea. In our process, we begin with a preliminary budget. Then we can see if that budget, that rough ROM, fits what we think is a reasonable investment for our home for this project.

Then we get into the real design. And as the design evolves, the budget evolves. We know more, we’ve learned more, you’ve made some decisions, you’ve picked things out. So now we can apply an actual item within the budget versus a placeholder item that we had put in.

The one that I’m going to show you here is a project where our ROM budget was about $145,000 for a kitchen. It’s not just a kitchen—it’s a kitchen, family room, sort of main floor area. And once we went through all the design, all of the details, all the selections, they had picked everything out, it came in at about $180,000.

There were some things they added. They increased the scope of work. They decided to put in some windows and add a couple of skylights—things like that that weren’t part of the original budget because they weren’t part of the original scope. That is important to know and manage, because if you go through that design and you find out, “Oh, we’re too far over from a cost standpoint,” then we can just take a few things out, make a few modifications, and get the budget back in line with what you want to spend.

So, actual cost. Let’s look at this budget breakdown. In a kitchen, almost always, the cabinets are the single largest line item. And they often can be in bathrooms if they are cabinet-heavy. Typically, the most expensive thing in a bathroom, though, is tile. But in this instance, on $180,000, $40,000 of it is cabinetry alone. Nearly a quarter of the entire job is in the cabinets.

The next one—actually the second biggest—is electrical at $18,000. And the third is countertops at $15,000. Between those three things—cabinets, electrical, and countertops—you’ve got about $70,000, nearly half of the job, tied up in three line items.

Then you’ve got the smaller things that add up along the way. Flooring can be a big one, depending on whether you’re keeping the floors or installing new ones. Then you get into labor: demo, drywall, paint. Those things start to add on.

Permit costs in this instance were not very much, about $1,200, so not significant there. Windows and skylights—they added skylights, about $5,000. Plumbing was almost $7,000. Framing was $7,000. So it all adds up.

This is how we break it down, so you’ll see clearly where your money goes. We’re trying to be very transparent. And if people aren’t willing to give you this level of detail, then I’d question what it is that they’re doing if they’re not willing to share these kinds of cost breakdowns with you.

There are a lot of companies out there that can build you a pretty good kitchen or bathroom or whatever it is. But what is it like to live through and get through that? That process is so important to us. Forgetting about what the quality of the project is—because that’s not a problem, we’re going to build a great project—the real question is, how big of a nightmare is it to get through? That’s what’s really important.

But don’t navigate these waters alone. That is my advice after all these years: if this is not something you do regularly, don’t do it alone. You’re already very busy with family, work, and outside commitments. You don’t do your own legal work. You don’t do your own medical work. You don’t do your own dentistry. This is the same—it’s important. It’s a big deal.

So, hire professionals. Interview them. Talk with them. Understand their process. Get comfortable with them and make sure it feels like you have a good sync. And if you don’t, keep looking. There are a lot of good companies out there.

Thanks very much. Don’t forget to hit the like button, subscribe, and leave us a comment down below. We’ll try to get back to them as much as we can. Thank you very much, and I’ll see you in the next one.