How much did our UK Kitchen Renovation Cost?

When I wrote my post a short while ago about our brand new kitchen renovation, I also promised that I would write another post, a totally open and honest one, all about how much our building work cost, after a few people asked me.

Before getting builders in ourselves to give us quotes (which varied wildly by the way), I spent aaaages googling costs for a kitchen renovation, and simply couldn’t find anything out there that would give us realistic pricing. I know all renovations are going to be priced differently depending on size, structural work, whether or not an extension needs to be built or you’re using an existing one etc etc, but we just wanted ballpark figures, and there was diddly squat to go on. 

We had 4 builders come out and give us quotes, and we decided to go for the builder who offered us a mid-range quote. He wasn’t the cheapest, nor most expensive, but he came recommended and we really liked his enthusiasm and commitment to the project. After all, these are the people you’ll be making all kinds of decisions with, and parting large sums of money with over the coming months! 

Before I go into detail of how much we paid for everything, I’ll let you know the crux of the work that we were having done. It’s worth noting that we are in SE London, so our costs are most likely going to be more expensive than if you are based up north.  Prices quoted here are as beginning of 2017. The work took approx 6 weeks, but was delayed by 2 weeks due to an unexpected problem with our floor (more on that later).

Our new house had an existing kitchen and separate dining room extension, but both rooms were oddly separated still by an internal wall that we wanted to come down to open the whole space up. This saved us some money, as we didn’t have to actually build the bones of an extension, and it also meant that to save money we could keep the existing roof and skylights- something we’d wanted to change but we simply couldn’t afford to right now (and actually now the room has been opened up, we didn’t need to!). 

So structurally, we look down an internal wall and put in a steel. The old kitchen was ripped out and skipped, we also moved the existing pipework and radiators so we could have vertical ones, installed a Howdens Burford Grey kitchen, sourced a Quartz Worktop separately, had Karndeen flooring laid, bi-fold doors installed, worksurface-to-ceiling tiling in the kitchen, and the whole large room decorated. We also paid to have some extras done for us, like having a TV cable fitted around the house to connect with our existing Virgin box, and an outdoor security light fitted. 

To save money we kept our current integrated appliances (washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher). We also sourced lots of things ourselves, including the tiles, work surfaces, cooker and hood and shelving (my pride and joy!). Our builder is a regular at our local Howdens, and got us a fantastic deal on our kitchen, and I was able to see the kitchen planned out in front of me which was reassuring. Howdens kitchens also have a 48 hour order turnaround, which is why builders like them! 

Like many building projects, we came across an issue with our flooring that was very expensive to rectify. Essentially, once the old floor was ripped up, we discovered what we’d already suspected- extremely gradiented post-war composite flooring (the difference was a whopping 10cm from one side of the space to the other), which meant this needed levelling. Unfortunately, in order for us to be able to have the hard-wearing Karndeen flooring we badly wanted, special leveller had to be used, as Karndeen and the like just won’t stick to composite flooring. This coupled with the fact that the kitchen pipework was under the composite flooring and needed drilling up and moving, left us with a bill closer to £5K more than we anticipated spending. 

Always have a back up plan folks, and never assume you’ll be be able to stick to your budget, however careful you are!

So, how much did the kitchen renovation cost?

In the below table is exactly how much our kitchen renovation cost us. Our builder was fantastic, but I’m protecting his privacy as of course he may quote differently on a build-by-build basis. 

 

Work carried out/ item to buy Cost Plus Materials (if applicable) Total Cost
       
Structural drawings £1,000   £350
Building controls cost 650   64.5
Site set up, boarding etc 200 160 360
Stripping kitchen, plumbing, work safely 520 75 595
block up kitchen doorway 210 65 275
Kitchen knock-through leaving column 520 60 580
New beam installation 590 270 860
make good new opening 175 130 305
Carpentry- skirting boards etc 240 140 380
Make opening bigger for bi-fold doors 1290 330 1620
Brick up bi-fold opening 350 120 470
re-wire sockets and lights 1300 530 1830
Plastering everywhere 750 170 920
Painting kitchen (not wood) 560 75 635
Fitting new kitchen and shelves 2600 120 2720
alter plumbing hot and cold supplies 450 260 710
Tiling 1030 462 1492
Moving radiators 300 100 400
 Flooring- leveling, and fixture major issue, plus materials  4800    4800
       
 Cost of actual Building Work     18952
       
Bi-Fold doors     2715
Kitchen     3770.41
Worktop     2200
Cooker     600
Extractor Fan     125
Flooring- Karndean 2500   2500
Flooring- Installation charge as above   0
Radiators     291.96
Downlights     0
Skip Hire 250 per skip   750
Freezer     300
Cupboards/storage     160
Table  To be bought    
Chairs  To be bought    
       
TOTAL COST OF KITCHEN RENOVATION     £32,364.37 (not inc VAT)

 

I hope this is helpful and enables anyone thinking about embarking on a kitchen renovation to tot up their potential costs. If you have any questions about these costs or about my kitchen, please leave a comment in the box after the posts below and I’ll do my best to answer them!

 

 

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13 Comments

  1. Sian
    March 29, 2017 / 10:12 am

    Oh wow that is so helpful! And your kitchen is beautiful and well worth every penny. We need to embark on a very similar project in the future so this is really interesting. I had in my head that it would be a £20K project but now I know more like £30K eeeeeek. Will have to wait a bit longer!

  2. March 29, 2017 / 10:25 am

    Brilliant post hon, very useful indeed. And once again *WOW* so much kitchen envy going on right now!!!

  3. Jody
    March 29, 2017 / 7:32 pm

    Wow! Your kitchen looks fantastic. We have just had very similar work done- removing load bearing wall, electrics and pipework. We even had a very similar problem with our floor. The costs came to almost exactly the same as yours which is really reassuring. The only difference is that our 6 week renovation ended up taking 5 months! Nightmare to live through but worth it now. Those are some gorgeous photos. Well done you.

  4. March 29, 2017 / 8:03 pm

    This is a really useful post – it’s amazing how it all adds up isn’t it! Getting work done really isn’t cheap. When I read your last post I wondered if this was a Howdens kitchen – I’m glad to know it is. It looks beautiful! We have a Karndean floor in our hall – it’s been really good and very hard wearing. #HomeEtc

  5. Alex
    March 29, 2017 / 8:49 pm

    It all adds up doesn’t it! So it’s a great idea to break it all down for a future planner. Boy, doors are expensive aren’t they – I had no idea! (that puts paid to one of my plans!) Great kitchen btw. #homeetc

  6. March 29, 2017 / 9:10 pm

    Congratulations on your HIBS100 ranking! This is such an informative post, Becky. You must be delighted with your kitchen. It’s so light and airy.
    We had our extension built 2 yrs ago and have a kitchen/living room/dining room and spent about £18k on kitchen and all appliances (except we kept our American style fridge freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer. This included getting the utility done to the same spec too. This also included Granite/Silestone worktops. It didn’t include flooring.

    Your quote doesn’t sound bad for SE London.

    Can you explain the first two lines of the expenditure…And why the total cost is less than cost? DId you end up getting it for a lower price?

    Structural drawings £1,000 £350
    Building controls cost 650 64.5

    #HOMEETC

  7. March 31, 2017 / 10:38 pm

    This is so so helpful, especially as we are probably right around the corner from you somewhere! We’ll be building ours into an extension, my Mum keeps asking why we don’t get on with it and I plucked a figure out of the air and said ‘Mum, because just a semi-decent kitchen itself costs around £20,000 without anything else!’ I really admire you for sharing, so often I think that the costs are probably unrealistic when you see things in magazines X #HomeEtc

  8. Nancy Straughan
    April 2, 2017 / 6:56 pm

    This is such a useful post, thank you for writing it. I’ve never undertaken any major building work so this will really come in handy in a few years when I’m ready to buy somewhere.

    http://www.hellonancy.co.uk/

    #HomeEtc

  9. April 3, 2017 / 11:29 am

    Your kitchen is really lovely and it is so helpful to have a rundown of costs like this. Even though every project is different it really does help you get an idea of what you might be looking to spend if you’re doing a similar project.

  10. April 4, 2017 / 10:03 am

    Such a great posy Becky!! I always love to read about the nitty gritty with this kind of thing. We’re speaking to an architect at the mo about extending the cottage but, as we’re listed, it’s going to be a loooooong drawn out process. Worth it, in the end but at the moment it’s just a pipe dream. I’d go for pale quartz worktops too — absolutely love that combo.Thanks so much for sharing and being so candid xx #HomeEtc

  11. Kerry
    April 4, 2017 / 2:21 pm

    Your kitchen looks absolutely amazing and this is such an great post. I’m so interested to hear how kitchen renovations work out because its at the very top of my wish list for our home. We have had maybe 4 people out to look at our kitchen space now and not one of them has been able to give us a price for one reason or another. Thanks so much for sharing your figures, I have found them really helpful xx

  12. October 4, 2021 / 10:42 am

    Hello Beckey, thank you so much for the sharing the info! We have kitchen renovation going on right now and we have very similar plans to yours: remove weight bearing wall to make an open kitchen and used Howdens kitchens. I went to the house today and the builder informed me about the same issue of floor leveling, as you describe here. I have been feeling very anxious because I only have the initial quote the builder gave us, and am told they will need to revise it once they have all the measurement. I expected the cost will go up a lot, but seeing your cost breakdown, I think we will end up more or less in the same range, which is still reassuring.

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