Planning & Budgeting
Kitchen Renovation Planning Checklist
A practical list of decisions to lock down before your kitchen renovation scope is sent to any contractor for pricing.
Decide what stays and what goes before you call contractors
A kitchen renovation quote only becomes meaningful once the scope is specific. Before you start collecting prices, map the existing kitchen and mark every element you plan to keep, replace, or relocate — cabinets, countertops, backsplash, sink, hob, hood, fridge cavity, island, and lighting. Ambiguous scope is the single largest cause of pricing differences between contractors.
Keeping or relocating plumbing and electrical points materially changes cost. List whether any water points, gas points, or electrical sockets need to move, and by how many metres if you can measure it.
Settle material expectations before the quote
Material choices dominate the final kitchen bill. Quartz, sintered stone, and laminate countertops sit at different price points and have different lead times. Cabinet carcass material (plywood, melamine, HDF) affects longevity and price. Door finishes (laminate, HPL, PET, solid wood) are not interchangeable when you are comparing quotes.
Put your baseline material assumptions in writing before asking for a quote, so every contractor is pricing the same thing. This is also what lets you negotiate confidently: if one contractor is cheaper, you can see exactly which material assumption they swapped.
Lock your appliance sizes first
Appliance cut-outs drive cabinetry. If you are replacing appliances, buy or confirm the exact model numbers before finalizing cabinetry. A 60 cm dishwasher and a 45 cm dishwasher are not minor-change items — rework at installation is expensive and delays the whole project.
Plan around two move-in realities
First: kitchens are used daily, and small decisions compound over years. Work triangle (sink / hob / fridge), drawer versus door storage, socket location, and lighting are the things you will feel every day. Second: kitchens are the room most likely to generate variation requests during work, because site conditions (pipe routing, wall squareness) emerge once demolition happens. A milestone-backed payment structure protects both sides when those changes happen.
Frequently asked questions
Should I fix the budget before the design?
Fix a budget range first, then design against it. Designing first almost always produces a kitchen your budget cannot build.
Is a turnkey package always cheaper than piecing it together?
Not necessarily. Turnkey simplifies coordination but can bundle in markups and make it harder to see what is driving the price. Itemized quotes let you compare apples to apples.
How we charge
Free to start and explore. Any fees are shown explicitly before you commit — never hidden in contractor quotes or platform processes.
Put this into practice
Use milestones, evidence capture, and protected releases inside a Project Workspace to run your renovation under one governed record.
Create your Project WorkspaceRelated reading in Planning & Budgeting
Guidance only — not legal advice. Every renovation has project-specific constraints; use this content as a starting framework, not a substitute for professional counsel where your situation warrants it.