I recently started getting estimates for a new kitchen. Our house was built in the 70s, and the kitchen is all original cabinets and flooring, and everything from the floors to the cabinets to the counters are falling apart at the seams. We're well past the point where we could do a touch-up of a few cabinets or add a new countertop and be done with it -- it's going to have to be a full remodel, save a couple of newer appliances we'll keep.

My first stop was to a local kitchen showroom, where we sketched out the basic layout of the new kitchen, went over some options on cabinets, counter materials, etc. I went in with some 2D/3D plans, so I had a pretty good idea of what we wanted, but the contractor did have a few good suggestions for improving my initial layout. It's a relatively small kitchen by today's standards (about 16' x 11') so our main goal was to increase usable counter and storage space.

Maybe I'm naive, but I expected something in the neighborhood of $10k-$15k. The actual quote was around $28k, not even including the floors, which this place doesn't do. I wrote back to get a breakdown of the costs, and it looks like the prices of the materials and installation of the cabinets/counters are pretty reasonable, but there are some wildly inflated (IMHO) numbers for prep work, electrical, and plumbing. I can probably do most of the plumbing myself (I redid my house's entire plumbing system a few years back) and there's no way there's $4,000 of electrical work involved in such a small project.

So, obviously, I'm going to get more estimates, but I was wondering where my next stop should be. My first thought is to just stop by a Big Box Mart home center (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) to see what they can do. I know the quality of the contractors will vary widely, but at least I know they'll handle everything including the floors, and I'd expect the prices there to be competitive. Has anyone ever had one of these places manage a medium to large remodeling project? If so, how did it go?

My other option is to find another independent kitchen remodeling contractor, or to find my own individual contractors for each part of the job and manage the scheduling myself. I'm not sure if this would be worth the headache or not.

Anyone have any remodeling advice / war stories to share?

Maybe you shouldn't look for specifically kitchen remodelers and instead look for general contractors? There's a contractor in my business networking group whose company has a deal they call "10x10 for 10." If the kitchen is roughly 10'x10', the whole job will be $10K. You don't get top of the line cabinets for that, but his company has a nice cabinet manufacturing warehouse that does a good job.

Basically, I would also not expect more than $15K for such a job, so $28K is crazy unless you're getting some super nice cabinets or top of the line granite...

That's an amazing deal. You'll find the prices vary quite a bit from state to state, but it's not unreasonable to pay upwards of $40k for a kitchen remodel. $28k is still a very good price, depending on the quality of the cabinets. Super-nice and top-of-the-line is more like $50k+ (to start).

BTW, cabinet doors are what really determine the quality of most products. The bottoms and sides are generally all particle board. The next big cost factor is the quality of the veneer and whether or not it's real wood. This will generally only be important on exposed cabinet sides (gables). In some kitchen layouts you may not have any at all.

A plumber in these parts is likely not to bother with a such a sub-contracted job unless he knows he can come out and make over $1000 for the day. I don't know what the $4000 quote was for, but it may not be out of line for your area for professional plumber service.

Lowes, Home Depot and Ikea all carry decent cabinets.

If you don't have prior experience dealing with sub-contractors, and want to act as the general contractor yourself for this job, it would be wise to source as few subs as possible so managing them doesn't get out of control. Scheduling is going to be extremely important since one trade's work can affect the ability for the other(s) to start/complete theirs. This is where experience dealing with specific trades and knowledge of building practices comes in very valuable.

This is what my brother does for a living, though he prefers to do most of the work himself when possible - since he doesn't have a large network of subs/workers he can trust and count on.

Yeah, if I could get close to $15 I'd be happy. I have a few general contractors I've worked with before, but I'm concerned that someone who doesn't do a lot of kitchen business might not get a great deal on the materials, even if they do the labor cheaply.

We're avoiding granite entirely -- don't want to deal with the cost and upkeep for what I think is a marginal aesthetic improvement.

I told this guy to give me an estimate with their mid-grade cabinets (not their cheapest, definitely not the most expensive), and then quote me some options for upgrading them.
Here's what he came back with:


And here are the upgrade options

We went through a major kitchen remodel two years ago. I'll agree with the general sentiment that the $28K quote isn't crazy. Electricians, in particular, charge thoroughly insane amounts of money to do very simple things. Plumbers come in second in the insanity department. You could well save some money doing some or all of this yourself.

One place I'd encourage you to splurge is on a proper ventilation hood. Our kitchen was built with an anemic downdraft thing. We replaced it with an updraft model, which required an electrician to run power to it and an HVAC guy to install the exhaust tubing and cut a new hole in the outside wall to make it all fit. It was a pain to do, but well worth it now that we can cook something smokey without setting off the fire alarm.

One thing to look for is where and how your cabinets are made. The firm I hired cuts everything on a fancy numerical milling machine, so you've got some confidence that it's all going to fit together at the end, versus having somebody try to throw it all together on site from raw materials.

Also, allow me to suggest you avoid granite (which our kitchen has everywhere). Instead, should you want some kind of stone, go with one of the synthetic brands, which have the property that they're completely non-porous. You don't need to seal them. You don't have to worry about stains. If I could go back again, I'd definitely make that change.

Also, we got a monster big sink, which turns out to be incredibly useful.

If you do your own electrical work and you do it wrong or against code and there is a fire then insurance won't cover you. Keep that in mind if you are trying to save on that particular expense...

Do you mean a fire resulting specifically from the work you did? That's very difficult to prove in many circumstances. And if you do the job to code, as every electrical job should always be done, there's nothing wrong with doing it yourself. And nothing to be said by any insurance company in places where you are allowed to do your own work.

Here in Ontario a homeowner can do their own basic wiring - which is the type required for many kitchen remodels. Electrical work is pretty easy and quite straight forward. Unfortunately, it's still something I wouldn't recommend just anyone do. Some people just don't have enough common sense to follow code, or worse, the basic skills to simply do an adequate job.

That said, some electricians, while wiring within code, can still make a right mess of a job. Just look at the wiring in the new construction around my development.

Also, here homeowners are required to have their work inspected by the provincial authority afterward. Likely ditto for electrician's work too, but..

Cheers