Good Houses
Kitchen renovation cost calculator
Step 1 of 3
Where's the kitchen?
A postcode gives you figures for your actual area. You can also skip this and get a regional estimate.
Three things move this figure more than anything else: the layout, the materials you choose, and the appliances you put in. A kitchen of identical size can land in completely different places on those three decisions alone, which is why a single average would tell you very little.
It is worth knowing how kitchens are actually sold. Wren, Wickes, Magnet and Howdens all supply them, and several offer payment plans, though they do not all work the same way: some sell to you directly, while others design with you and then supply through your fitter's trade account. Either way, supply and fitting are often two separate purchases. If a price covers the kitchen itself, you will still need fitters to install it, and that is the cost people most often leave out of their budget until late.
How we price a kitchen
Kitchens are priced by specification rather than by area alone, so the calculator starts from the level you choose (budget, mid, high or premium), and then scales it to the size of your room. A large budget kitchen and a small premium one can cost the same, and averaging them by square metre would hide that.
Labour is already inside those figures, so the local adjustment is applied only to the labour share rather than to the whole price. Units and appliances cost broadly the same wherever you buy them; fitting them does not.
Extras are added only where you say you need them: a worktop upgrade, appliances, rewiring, moving plumbing, flooring, or taking out a wall.
The result is always a range, never a single figure. A precise number would be a false promise, because two builders quoting the same job honestly can land a long way apart. Everything is rounded rather than shown to the pound, for the same reason.
Every figure behind this comes from a table we maintain by hand and review on a schedule. The date of the last review is shown on this page, so you can judge how current it is rather than take our word for it.
What the kitchen figure covers
The figure covers:
- Units, worktops and fitting at the specification level you chose, scaled to your room size
- A worktop upgrade, where selected
- Appliances, where selected
- Rewiring, and moving plumbing, where the new layout needs it
- Flooring
- Removing a wall, where selected
What the kitchen figure leaves out
Not in the figure:
- Structural work if the wall you are removing is load-bearing and needs steel
- Replastering the rest of the room, or the ceiling
- Moving a boiler or a gas meter
- Windows or doors
- Disposal of the old kitchen, unless your fitter has said it is included
- Eating out for three weeks, which is a real cost of a kitchen renovation
Why kitchen fitting costs more in some regions
Labour is the part of a kitchen renovation that moves most by region, so it is the part we adjust. Every area carries a labour multiplier, and the calculator applies it to the labour element rather than to the whole figure, because materials cost broadly the same everywhere, and scaling them by region would overstate the difference.
Where we hold published data for your area, that area's own multiplier is used. Where we do not, the calculator falls back to the figure for your region and the page says so. It will never quietly borrow a nearby city's numbers and present them as local. A London figure on a Cumbrian postcode is worse than no figure at all.
Taking this to kitchen fitters
Take it to real quotes, and treat it as the shape of the answer rather than the answer. Get three written quotes from kitchen fitters and general builders, and compare what each one includes before you compare the totals, because the cheapest number on the page is often the one leaving the most out.
If a quote comes in below our range, that usually means a newer business building a reputation, or work that cuts corners. Above it usually means limited local supply, or a firm with higher overheads. Both can be the right choice. The question worth asking is what is included, not why the number differs.
Worth asking every firm you speak to:
- Is this supply and fit, or supply only?
- What is the worktop, specifically: the material and the thickness?
- Who is doing the electrics and the plumbing, and are they certified?
- What happens if the wall turns out to be load-bearing?
- How long will I be without a kitchen?
Common questions
Does a new kitchen add value?
Some, but rarely all of what it costs, and the calculator shows that rather than implying otherwise. A dated kitchen can hold a sale back more than a new one lifts the price, which is a different and often better reason to do it.
Why does the same kitchen cost so much more from one firm?
Mostly what is inside the price: appliance brands, worktop material, whether the electrics and plumbing are included, and whether the old kitchen is removed and disposed of. Compare the specification before the total.
Is this a quote?
No. It is an estimate built from typical costs, and no contractor is bound by it. Use it to know whether a quote you have been given is roughly where it should be, and to walk into that conversation knowing what questions to ask.
Why do you show a range instead of one number?
Because one number would be misleading. The answer to "what will this cost" is a range, and where you land inside it depends on your property, your area and who you hire. Any tool giving you a single figure to the pound is telling you something it cannot know.
Do you save what I type in?
No. The calculation runs and the answers are discarded. Nothing is written down unless you explicitly ask us to email or save a result. We do not build a profile from calculator use.
How current are the figures?
The date of the last review is shown on this page. The costs behind the calculator are maintained by hand rather than scraped, and reviewed on a schedule.