Cost of a Kitchen Remodel

[lady_hlh]

We are thinking of remodeling our kitchen because we have rotted subflooring and need to rip out our current floor to fix the subfloor problem. I'm wondering what kind of budget I'm looking at the do the following; reface or paint the cabinets, new countertops, sinks/faucets, new floors, re-paint and replace the french door with a sliding door. We have a lot of counterspace with an island and bar so I don't think that I would be putting in anything like granite counters. I started looking at flooring and I think that I want high end vinyl marble look tiles that are $4.50 a square foot.

 

[Maybelle]

We remodeled our kitchen a little over a year ago after a small fire. We did get back around $6000 in insurance money that helped, but we ended up spending around 20k total. We did much more than the fire damaged though, and we definately took steps to cut costs: we did a lot of work ourselves, compared prices, bought on discount, chose more inexpensive materials...

Here is a general run down of what we did to give you an idea:

-installed larger window in dining area

-new cabinets (Home Depot mid-grade. Had them installed by my uncle and his business partner, so saved a little money there.)(BTW, We looked into refacing and it was more expensive, and our cabinets were crappy, so we chose not to paint)

-new flooring-tile-look vinyl (expensive, large space, but looks really good, very glad we went this way. I took up the old vinyl (very time consuming) but we had someone lay the new one.

-new paint (did it ourselves)

-new countertops (granite look formica)

-new appliances (brushed stainless bought at DH's work related discount online)

Overall, I had always heard kitchens were expensive, but I was shocked just HOW expensive it really turned out to be.

 

[crjack]

There are so many variables with a kitchen remodel it may be hard to estimate. It sounds like you are keeping your existing appliances but if not that is a big factor since there is such a range of prices. Also, since your floor plan is staying the same you shouldn't have electrical or plumbing charges other than possibly for your sink replacement.

Will any of this by DIY or do you need to hire out for the floor, cabinets, etc. I think labor costs and vary somewhat by region and of course from person to person.

A good website to check out is www.gardenweb.com and under the forums (and home forums is "that home site") The kitchen forum there is great and the gallery has tons of finished kitchen photos.

Don't think they are all high end kitchens. Lots of DIY and budget remodels that will amaze you with how good they look. We got a lot of good referrals from that sight from other posters who lived in our area.

Good luck. We remodeled our kitchen two years ago and it was a lot of decisions and work but so worth it.

 

[momsgoofy]

Naturally, we are in different parts of the country so cost may be different, but in 2005 I helped my dad remodel his kitchen and bathroom at the same time and it was about $30,000. What they did?
-striped it to the studs, tore out 2 small walls in the bathroom where a pantry was so the bathroom could be enlarged
-new bathroom shower, stool, and HC assist bars in the shower, a new stackable washer/dryer, new faucets, (used the old counter and sink)
-new kitchen cabinets, dishwasher, sink with new faucets, fridge, countertops (used the old garbage disposal since it was only a couple years old)
-lowered the ceiling in the kitchen
-new flooring in both rooms including sub-flooring that was bad
-new walls (drywall to replace the ancient plaster)
-new ceiling light fixtures in both room and extra lights over the kitchen sink area
-new interior bathroom door
-new exterior back door in the kitchen

It is looks great now! Before the remodel, the kitchen still had the original cabinets from the 40's, tiled walls, and really high ceilings. While the bathroom had been remodeled about 10 years earlier, Dad had done it himself so it wasn't as nicely done. Now, it's very accessible for him, which with his health was becoming an issue.

 

[lady_hlh]

We already replaced all of our appliances after we moved in so we don't need to spend money on those. We are not DIY capable so I plan on paying someone to do everything for us. I like all of the features that I have in my current KraftMaid cabinets (built in spice rack, spinners,etc.) so I think that it would be better to just reface or paint them, they are just a little dinged up after over 20 years of use. I was hoping to keep the total cost to around no more than $15,000 does that seem feasible?

 

[Clotho]

As others have said, it depends on what you want to do. We priced out what we wanted to do for our very small kitchen, and priced it around $6k total. That would be to:

1) do all demo ourselves, including taking out cabinets and repairing the wall as needed
2) put in new laminate floor over old laminate (laminate tile-look)
3) replace cabinets with Ikea cabinets (Adel Medium Brown), including all plinths, new sink/faucet, and hardware (not including interior fittings, which we wanted to figure out after we had the cabinets in place)
4) a dishwasher (which we don't have right now)
5) mid-grade laminate counter
6) new fridge
7) paint

So that was our plan. We did a lot of research on places like ikeafans.com and the like. There is a lot of great DIY info out there for kitchens tied to Ikea products.

 

[Maybelle]

As others have said, it depends on what you want to do. We priced out what we wanted to do for our very small kitchen, and priced it around $6k total. That would be to:

1) do all demo ourselves, including taking out cabinets and repairing the wall as needed
2) put in new laminate floor over old laminate (laminate tile-look)
3) replace cabinets with Ikea cabinets (Adel Medium Brown), including all plinths, new sink/faucet, and hardware (not including interior fittings, which we wanted to figure out after we had the cabinets in place)
4) a dishwasher (which we don't have right now)
5) mid-grade laminate counter
6) new fridge
7) paint

So that was our plan. We did a lot of research on places like ikeafans.com and the like. There is a lot of great DIY info out there for kitchens tied to Ikea products.

Wow. That seems really low, even going through IKEA.

I forgot to add up above that we also put in all new lighting, which DH did himself. Ne wsink and hardware... Everything adds up!

 

[ecteacher23]

We live in Central PA and we are very much DIYs. We recently remodeled several rooms including the kitchen. We refaced our cabinets, got new appliances, put in hardwood flooring, painted, new countertops, sink/fixtures, and lighting. All in all we were able to do this room for about 3000. The best advice that I can give is to shop Lowe's or Home Depot for their clearance specials or discontinued merchandise. For example just doing this allowed us to get a frig that cost about 1000 originally for 500. Also comparitive pricing between lowe's and home depot is a must. best of luck on your new kitchen!

 

[sharlon]

I'll throw in my 2 cents here. We had to gut our kitchen and put in new almost everything about 2 1/2 years ago. We put in ceramic tile (I did that), new Home Depot Mills Pride Cabinets (DH did that, they are assemble on site, like Sauder furniture, and are great!), Corian countertops and built in sink ($49 per square foot installed from Home Depot), new Spacesaver microwave and stove/oven combo, and fixtures (lights, switches, plugs, can lights). We easily spent under $9000 doing this, if not even lower than that.
I had never tiled before, but took a class at HD and it looks great! You will notice that we did alot of high end stuff. I really think you could do this economically.
BTW, Home Depot (and Lowes too, I believe) will sit down with you and "design" your kitchen layout. It worked out really well!