Cost guide
What drives the cost of a kitchen.
A kitchen is the most expensive room in the house for its size, because it is cabinetry, benchtop, appliances, plumbing, electrical, tiling and flooring packed into a few square metres. This guide explains what moves a kitchen budget, what you control, and the mistakes that cost most. No figures: your own estimate is free.
Where the money goes
A kitchen is priced like any building work, quantities first: metres of base and wall cabinets, square metres of benchtop and splashback, square metres of floor, the number of plumbing and electrical points, the appliances, the lighting. Then each quantity gets a price from a supplier offer, a market price or a rate, plus the trade hours to install it. Seen that way, a kitchen budget has a few large parts.
Cabinetry is the largest for most kitchens. The quantity is set by the layout, the run of cabinets and whether there is an island; the price per metre by the construction and the finish, from flat-pack melamine to custom two-pack or timber veneer with soft-close hardware throughout. Tall pantry units, drawers instead of doors and internal fittings all add to the same line.
Benchtops are the second. Laminate, engineered or natural stone, timber and solid surface each sit at a different price per square metre, and stone brings its own fabrication, templating and installation. An island benchtop with an overhang is a larger slab, often with a join to hide.
Appliances are products with a list price and a wide range. The number you fit, whether they are integrated behind cabinet fronts, and whether the layout needs a rangehood ducted to outside all move the total.
Then the services. A kitchen that keeps the sink, the cooktop and the dishwasher where they were needs new connections at the same points. One that moves them needs new drainage and water runs through the floor or wall, new circuits for the cooktop and oven, and perhaps a switchboard with room for them. Moving the kitchen to another room is a renovation in its own right. This is the factor most often underestimated.
Splashback, flooring, walls and ceiling finish the room. Tiles are priced by the square metre and by the tiler's hours, which rise with small formats and patterns; a glass or stone splashback is a single fabricated piece. Flooring that continues into the adjoining rooms is more than the kitchen's square metres.
Around all of it sits the existing room. Demolition and disposal of the old kitchen, making good walls and ceilings, new lighting, and whether a wall comes out to open the kitchen to the living area, with the beam that implies. The finish level then runs across everything you can see: cabinet fronts, benchtop, tapware, handles, tiles, appliances and lighting.
The cost factors, and what you control
| Factor | Why it moves the price | What you control |
|---|---|---|
| Layout and services | Moving the sink, cooktop or dishwasher means new drainage, water and electrical runs | Keep the wet points where they are if you can |
| Cabinet run | Metres of base, wall and tall cabinets, drawers and internal fittings set the largest line | The layout; drawers and fittings only where they earn their place |
| Cabinet construction | Flat-pack, custom, door material and finish, hardware | Finish level, then product by product |
| Benchtop | Material per square metre, plus fabrication for stone; an island is a larger slab | Material, island size, overhangs and joins |
| Appliances | Number, size, integration and ducting | What you fit and whether it is integrated |
| Splashback and tiling | Square metres and the tiler's hours, which rise with small formats and patterns | Material and format |
| Flooring | Square metres, often continuing into adjoining rooms | Where the new floor stops |
| The existing room | Demolition, making good, lighting, and any wall removed to open the kitchen | How much of the room changes |
| Finish level | Runs across fronts, benchtop, tapware, handles, tiles and lighting | Economical, Standard, Good or Advanced, then product by product |
Finish levels explained
On Modern GBQ a finish level, Economical, Standard, Good or Advanced, sets a default product on every kitchen line: cabinetry and benchtop, tapware and sink, tiles, flooring, handles and lighting. Economical takes the plainest listed product that does the job; Standard the mid-range most kitchens are built with; Good a step up in material and brand; Advanced premium products and the extra labour some of them need, such as stone benchtops and large-format tiles.
A kitchen is where mixing levels works best. The benchtop and the tapware are what people see and touch every day; the inside of the cabinets is not. Many kitchens are built with Standard carcasses, Good fronts and benchtop, and whichever appliances the household actually uses.
Every default can be swapped for a listed alternative, with a photo to judge it by and a short reason recorded, then re-priced as a new version. The finish level never changes the services or the layout.
Common mistakes
- Moving the services without a reason. New drainage and electrical runs are often dearer than the cabinets they serve. Keep the sink, cooktop and dishwasher where they are unless the layout truly needs them moved.
- Choosing the benchtop before the layout. The slab size, joins and overhangs follow the layout; choose in that order.
- Forgetting the room around the kitchen. Demolition, disposal, making good, lighting, the floor running into the next room and the wall you want removed are all part of the job.
- Appliances as an afterthought. Their sizes set the cabinet openings and their ducting and circuits set the services. Choose them with the layout.
- Small-format or patterned tiles everywhere. The material may be modest; the tiler's hours are not.
- Comparing quotes with different inclusions. One quote includes the appliances and the electrical, another does not. Approve one scope and have every builder price that.
- Treating the estimate as a quote. It is an estimate for budgeting. The quote comes from a builder or a kitchen company on the approved scope.
Your own figure
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Kitchen questions.
What is the biggest cost in a kitchen?
For most kitchens the cabinetry, then the benchtop and the appliances, unless the services move, in which case the plumbing and electrical can lead. The estimate prices each as its own lines so you can see your own answer.
Can I see the products before I choose?
Yes. Where the catalogue holds a photo, it appears beside the product and beside each alternative, so a tile or a tapware range is chosen by what it looks like.
Does the estimate include the appliances?
The estimate prices the lines you include; appliances are products like any other and can be swapped. Anything you leave out is listed under what is not in the price.
Is a kitchen on its own worth estimating?
Yes. Set it up as a renovation of the kitchen's floor area, choose a finish level and re-price as you swap products. Every version is kept, so the Good and the Advanced benchtop can sit side by side.
Price the kitchen before you meet a builder.
Free to start. Every line explained.