Kitchen Remodel Cost Calculator and Bathroom Remodel Budget
A kitchen remodel cost is the sum of its line items - cabinets, countertops by the square foot, flooring with waste, fixtures, appliances, labor, permits and demolition - plus a contingency reserve for what turns up behind the walls. In the illustrative example below, a 150 square foot kitchen comes to $39,290 before the reserve and $45,183.50 with a 15% reserve, which is $301.22 a square foot. A bathroom remodel budget works the same way with different lines; the example bathroom comes to $14,674 with the same reserve.
This post quotes no national average and no cost per square foot to compare against. Those numbers carry someone else’s room, cabinets and labor market. A budget built from your own quotes tells you what your remodel costs; a benchmark tells you about other people’s.
The formula
countertops = counter square feet x installed price a square foot
flooring = floor square feet x (1 + waste share) x price a square foot
budget = cabinets + countertops + flooring + fixtures + appliances
+ labor + permits + demolition
reserve = budget x contingency share
total = budget + reserve
per sq ft = total / room floor area
In a spreadsheet, put each line in its own cell and sum them; the reserve is one more cell that multiplies that sum by the reserve share.
Kitchen remodel cost: worked example
Every price here is illustrative, not a quote and not a benchmark.
| Line | How it is priced | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinets | quote | $12,000 |
| Countertops | 45 sq ft x $60, installed | $2,700 |
| Flooring | 150 sq ft + 10% waste = 165 sq ft x $6 | $990 |
| Fixtures: sink, faucet, lighting | quote | $1,800 |
| Appliances | quote | $5,000 |
| Labor not in a price above | quote | $15,000 |
| Permits and inspections | building department | $600 |
| Demolition and disposal | quote | $1,200 |
| Budget before contingency | $39,290 |
Labor is the biggest single line, 38% of the budget, ahead of cabinets at 31%. The lines priced by the square foot, counters and floor, come to $3,690 together, less than the cabinets alone: most of the money is in things counted one at a time, not by area.
Add a 15% reserve: $5,893.50, for a total of $45,183.50. Divided by the 150 square feet of floor, that is $301.22 a square foot with the reserve, $261.93 without. That figure describes this budget only.
The insight: plan the reserve as if you will spend it
Say the household’s limit is $45,000. The line items alone, $39,290, fit with room to spare. With the reserve they do not: the total is $183.50 over. There are two honest ways out, and both are arithmetic:
- Cut $183.50 from the line items, and keep the full reserve.
- Accept a smaller reserve: the largest that fits under $45,000 is 14.5%.
What the arithmetic rules out is treating the reserve as money that will probably not be spent and committing to line items up to the limit. A reserve is only a reserve if the budget still works when it is gone.
Bathroom remodel budget: worked example
The same sheet takes a bathroom: the vanity goes in the cabinets line, tile in flooring, and there may be no countertop or appliance line at all. These prices are this post’s illustration, not quotes.
| Line | How it is priced | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Vanity with top (the cabinets line) | quote | $1,200 |
| Floor tile | 50 sq ft + 15% waste = 57.5 sq ft x $8 | $460 |
| Fixtures: toilet, faucet, shower valve, fan, lighting | quote | $2,000 |
| Labor: plumber, electrician, tile setter | quote | $8,000 |
| Permits and inspections | building department | $300 |
| Demolition and disposal | quote | $800 |
| Budget before contingency | $12,760 | |
| Contingency at 15% | $1,914 | |
| Budget with reserve | $14,674 |
On 50 square feet that is $293.48 a square foot with the reserve, in the same range as the kitchen’s $301.22, for different reasons. Labor is 63% of the bathroom budget against 38% in the kitchen: a small room still needs a plumber, an electrician and a tile setter, so the cost does not shrink with the floor area. Comparing the two per-square-foot figures tells you nothing about either room.
Paying for it
Illustrative: put $15,000 of cash toward the kitchen’s $45,183.50 and borrow the other $30,183.50 at 8% over 7 years. The payment is $470.45 a month and the interest comes to $9,334.01, 20.7% on top of the project, for $54,517.51 in all. A shorter term raises the payment and cuts the interest. If you are drawing on a home equity line instead, the HELOC payment calculator works out the interest-only payment and the jump when repayment starts.
Comparing contractor bids line by line
Three illustrative bids, split into the same five lines. The lowest price on each line is in bold.
| Line | Bid A | Bid B | Bid C | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demolition | $1,500 | $1,200 | $1,800 | $1,200 |
| Cabinets, supplied and installed | $16,000 | $17,500 | $15,500 | $15,500 |
| Countertops | $3,000 | $2,600 | $2,900 | $2,600 |
| Flooring | $1,400 | $1,100 | $1,600 | $1,100 |
| Plumbing and electrical | $4,500 | $5,200 | $3,900 | $3,900 |
| Total | $26,400 | $27,600 | $25,700 | $24,300 |
Bid C is the lowest total at $25,700, $1,900 under the highest. But taking the lowest price on every line would come to $24,300, $1,400 less than bid C. That $1,400 sits in three of bid C’s lines: demolition ($600 above the low), countertops ($300) and flooring ($500). Those are the lines to ask bid C about.
The other direction matters too. Bid C’s plumbing and electrical is $3,900, against $4,500 for the next lowest. A line well below the others may mean less work or cheaper material, so read what each bid includes before treating the low number as a saving. Line-by-line comparison only works when each line covers the same work in every bid.
Doing some of it yourself
Illustrative: demolition, painting, flooring install and backsplash tile are quoted at $5,400 together and would take you 80 hours. With $400 of tools and your time valued at $35 an hour, doing all four saves $2,200. The break-even is $62.50 an hour: if an hour of your time is worth more than that, hiring all four costs you less. Count learning time and a possible redo in the hours. For a remodel bought to resell, the house flipping calculator puts the budget against the sale.
How these were calculated
Countertops are counter area times an installed price; flooring is floor area plus a waste share, times the price. The budget is the sum of the lines, computed both line by line and as materials plus labor-type lines. The reserve is a share of the budget, and the per-square-foot figure divides by the floor area. The loan is fixed-rate with level monthly payments and no fees, checked by paying the balance down month by month to zero. Bid comparison takes the lowest price on each line. DIY break-even is (hired prices - tools) / your hours.
The kitchen figures were computed twice - once by the code behind the calculator pack below, once by a separate implementation - and agree to the cent; the bathroom example uses the same layout. Every price, rate, bid and hour is illustrative, not a quote, a benchmark or a market rate. None of this is financial, legal or tax advice.
To run this on your own quotes - the line-item budget, the reserve against your limit, a loan or a HELOC, DIY against hiring, three bids side by side, and what might come back at sale on a recoup share you estimate - the pack below does it in linked spreadsheets with every formula visible.