Kitchen renovation cost in Brisbane: what the number is made of

How much does a kitchen renovation cost in Brisbane is the question we are asked most, and the honest answer is a range: from about $30,000 for a straightforward replacement in the same place to $75,000 and beyond for a kitchen with new structure, premium joinery and appliances to match. The range is wide because a kitchen is two hundred decisions, not one. Below is what the number is made of, so you can see which decisions are yours.

Three tiers, roughly

A kitchen replaced where it stands, with melamine joinery, an engineered stone benchtop from the affordable end of the range and standard appliances, comes in around $30,000 to $40,000. Move up to textured or painted doors, a mid-range stone, better appliances and perhaps an island, and the total is $40,000 to $75,000. Above that sit kitchens with two-pack or custom joinery, a porcelain or ultra-compact benchtop, integrated appliances and structural work such as a wall coming out. Those are the tiers. The next sections are the lines inside them.

Where the money goes

Taking out the old kitchen is about $1,000 if the services are disconnected properly first. Plumbing in the same position is a few thousand dollars; moving the kitchen to a new part of the house is closer to $4,000 for plumbing and $4,000 to $5,000 for electrical, more if the number of power points and lights grows. Flooring, if the new layout exposes the old, runs $80 to $150 a square metre for engineered timber and $100 to $180 for hardwood before laying.

Then the joinery, which is the biggest line. A small kitchen with three and a half metres of wall cabinets, overheads and an island with drawers on one side, in a matt white melamine with a mid-range stone top, is around $25,000 supplied and installed. That figure is joinery and benchtop only. Installation by our carpenters is a further $3,000 to $5,000 depending on the size and the walls it meets.

Appliances are $3,000 to $5,000 for a basic cooktop, rangehood and oven, $5,000 to $10,000 for the good European and New Zealand brands, and $10,000 to $20,000 at the top. The builder installs the fixed ones because they need a licensed electrician, and a margin of around 20 per cent covers ordering, delivery and coordination. Sinks and tapware run from $500 for stainless and a standard mixer to $3,000 to $10,000 for designer tapware and a composite sink. Handles are $5 to $100 each and a kitchen has fifteen to twenty-five of them, which is how a small thing becomes a line.

The three decisions that move the total

First, whether the kitchen stays where it is. Same position keeps the plumbing and electrical to a few thousand; a new position adds around $8,000 to $9,000 before anything is built. Second, the door finish. Standard melamine is the cheapest; textured woodgrains, super-matt anti-fingerprint finishes and thermolaminated doors sit in the middle; two-pack polyurethane paint, with any colour you like, is the most expensive. A pair of pocket doors that hide an appliance bench is about $7,000 on its own. Third, the benchtop. An entry-level engineered stone, a mid-range engineered quartz and an ultra-compact porcelain surface can differ by tens of thousands across a kitchen with an island.

What is in the price and what is not

A fixed price from us includes demolition and removal, the joinery and benchtop, the plumbing and electrical, flooring and tiling where drawn, the fixed appliances if you have chosen them, and our labour. What people forget: the painting of the room afterwards, the window if the sink moves under a new one, and the wall that turns out to be carrying the roof when the kitchen opens to the living room. We price from finished drawings and a selections schedule, so those are in the number, not in a variation. Our note on fixtures, fittings and allowances explains how to read a quote for the lines that can still move.

How to spend less without it showing

Keep the kitchen where it is. Keep the appliances that work. Put the good finish on the doors you touch and the plain one inside the pantry. Choose a mid-range stone in a quiet colour rather than a premium one in a loud one. Skip the pocket doors. And decide everything before the price is fixed, because a decision made on site is the most expensive kind.

When the kitchen is part of something bigger

In a Queenslander the kitchen is rarely renovated alone. Taking the back walls out to make one room for cooking, eating and living, with a deck off it, is the most common job we do, and the kitchen is a third of it. If that is the project, the kitchen budget above sits inside a larger renovation and the structure, the deck and the doors are priced with it. Bring a photo of your kitchen and a rough plan of the back of the house to a free meeting at the studio and we will give you a range for both.