Tips to Reduce the Cost of Kitchen Renovations
A kitchen renovation is a major investment in your home. A kitchen renovation can cost between $9,000 and $27,500 depending on the size of your kitchen, the number of cupboards, your choice of building materials and your choice of kitchen appliances. With this in mind, many people are interested in ways to cut the cost of kitchen renovations. However, as a major investment in your home it is important that you don't take measures that would cause a poor quality kitchen renovation that effects both the value of your home and the living standards of your family. That said, in this guide we explore different ways that you could reduce the cost of a kitchen renovation without necessarily reducing the quality of the end result.
The cost of labour can be a big part of the cost of a kitchen renovation. By supplying your own labour, or properly preparing your kitchen for the professional tradespeople you hire, you may be able to cut the cost of the kitchen renovation. Ideas on saving on labour costs include:
- Undertaking the demolition and removal of the old kitchen yourself.
- Removing the old kitchen tiles and kitchen flooring if appropriate.
- Supplying labour to professional tradespeople such as cabinet makers, plumbers and electricians during their works.
- Attempting the finishing trades such as tiling and painting.
When you do hire professional tradespeople to undertake tasks that you cannot do yourself (such as plumbers and electricians), you can minimise the costs involved by maintaining the current kitchen floor plan. That way you do not incur additional costs for moving plumbing and electrical wiring. Also, it is very important to have clear specifications for exactly what you require of each tradesperson, that way they only undertake the exact work that is required.
Saving costs of kitchen materials and products also helps keep the cost of a kitchen renovation down. The elements of your kitchen are the kitchen benches and kitchen cupboards, kitchen appliances such as ovens, cook tops, rangehoods, dishwashers and fridges, kitchen fittings such as taps and sinks, and the finishing materials such as glass splashbacks and tiles. Here are some tips on saving money on kitchen materials and products:
- Recycle. Keep existing kitchen appliances and kitchen fittings that you're happy with.
- Buy in bulk. Often you can negotiate a better deal if you buy an oven, cook top, rangehood, dishwasher and fridge together, rather than buying them separately.
- Purchase a pre-fabricated kitchen. Outlets such as Ikea and Bunnings have a number of pre-fabricated kitchens at a fraction of the cost of a custom-built kitchen.
- Really consider how many cupboards you require. Each additional cupboard comes at an additional cost.
- Consider alternative ways to modernise your old cupboards. Options include creating an open design by removing the cupboard doors and painting the cupboards, or resurfacing the old cupboard doors.
- Avoid non-essential options such as waste disposal units.
- Dispose of all rubbish yourself.
Bonus Tip: The cost of your kitchen renovation should never exceed 7% of your home's value.
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