A full kitchen renovation typically costs between £25,000 and £75,000, with most landing in the £30,000 to £50,000 range. A cosmetic refresh keeping the existing layout can come in well below that. A project involving structural work, new windows or a knock-through can go considerably above it.
The reason budgets go wrong is almost never the kitchen itself. It is everything around the kitchen. People get a cabinetry quote, treat it as the project cost, and then discover that the electrician, the plasterer, the flooring, the plumber and the making good add another 40 percent on top.
This guide covers the whole project rather than the units. Every trade, what each one costs, where they sit in the sequence, what can be discovered once the old kitchen comes out, and how long the room is genuinely out of action.
Written from over 20 years of running kitchen renovations across Jersey.
The whole-project breakdown
A typical full renovation at around £40,000, with the layout changing but no structural work.
| Element | Typical share | Cost at £40,000 |
| Cabinetry | 30 to 40% | £12,000 to £16,000 |
| Worktops | 8 to 15% | £3,200 to £6,000 |
| Appliances | 8 to 15% | £3,200 to £6,000 |
| Kitchen installation | 8 to 12% | £3,200 to £4,800 |
| Electrical | 4 to 8% | £1,600 to £3,200 |
| Plumbing | 3 to 6% | £1,200 to £2,400 |
| Plastering and making good | 3 to 6% | £1,200 to £2,400 |
| Flooring | 5 to 12% | £2,000 to £4,800 |
| Decorating | 2 to 4% | £800 to £1,600 |
| Strip-out and disposal | 1 to 3% | £400 to £1,200 |
| Contingency | 10 to 15% | £4,000 to £6,000 |
The cabinetry is around a third of the project. That is the single most useful number on this page, because it is the mental adjustment most people have not made when they start getting quotes.
The three levels of renovation
Not every kitchen project is the same job. Establishing which one you are doing changes the budget more than any other decision.
| Refresh | Replacement | Full renovation | |
| Layout | Unchanged | Largely unchanged | Changed |
| Services moved | No | Minor adjustments | Yes |
| Structural work | No | No | Possible |
| Flooring | Kept | Sometimes replaced | Replaced |
| Typical cost | £8,000 to £18,000 | £20,000 to £40,000 | £35,000 to £75,000+ |
| Room out of action | 1 to 2 weeks | 2 to 4 weeks | 4 to 10 weeks |
A refresh keeps the carcasses and replaces doors, worktop and handles. It works when the existing units are sound and the layout suits you. It is dramatically cheaper and the results can be excellent.
A replacement is new units in roughly the same positions, with services staying put or moving slightly. Most kitchen projects are this.
A full renovation moves services, changes the layout, and often involves other rooms. This is where costs escalate, because every service that moves brings a trade with it.
Trade by trade
Strip-out and disposal: £400 to £1,200
Removing the old kitchen, disconnecting appliances, and getting everything off site.
What affects the cost:
- Whether appliances need safe disconnection, particularly gas
- Whether tiles are coming off the walls, which is slower than it sounds and often damages the plaster underneath
- Access, since carrying a kitchen out through a narrow hallway takes longer
- Skip hire and disposal fees
Worth knowing: this is a job you can do yourself and save most of the cost, provided gas and electrical disconnection is done by a qualified person. It is unskilled, heavy work.
Structural work: £2,500 to £15,000
Only applicable if you are altering the building.
| Work | Typical cost |
| Removing a non-load-bearing wall | £800 to £2,000 |
| Removing a load-bearing wall with a steel beam | £3,500 to £8,000 |
| New or enlarged window opening | £2,000 to £5,000 |
| New external door opening | £2,500 to £6,000 |
| Structural engineer’s calculations | £500 to £1,200 |
| Building control application and inspections | £300 to £900 |
This is the line that turns a £35,000 project into a £55,000 one. A knock-through sounds like a day with a sledgehammer. In practice it means a structural engineer, a steel beam, padstones, temporary support, building control sign-off, and then plastering and flooring across a much larger area than you started with.
If you are considering it, get that element priced separately and early, before you commit to anything else.
Plumbing: £500 to £2,500
| Work | Typical cost |
| Reconnecting sink and appliances in existing positions | £300 to £600 |
| Moving the sink to a new position | £600 to £1,500 |
| New appliance feeds and waste | £200 to £500 each |
| Moving or replacing a radiator | £250 to £600 |
| Underfloor heating in the kitchen | £2,000 to £5,000 |
| Boiler relocation | £1,200 to £3,000 |
Moving the sink is the expensive decision. It needs both a supply and a waste run, and waste needs a fall, which means the pipe has to drop consistently toward the drain. In a solid floor that can mean lifting and relaying sections of concrete. On a suspended floor it is easier but still involves working beneath the boards.
Keeping the sink where it is can save £1,000 or more and rarely compromises a good design.
Electrical: £800 to £3,500
| Work | Typical cost |
| New socket | £60 to £120 each |
| Moving a socket | £70 to £150 each |
| Appliance circuits, cooker or oven | £200 to £450 each |
| Under-cabinet lighting | £300 to £1,200 |
| Ceiling lighting, including downlights | £400 to £1,200 |
| Extractor wiring | £120 to £300 |
| Consumer unit upgrade | £500 to £1,200 |
| Full rewire of the kitchen | £1,500 to £3,000 |
| Testing and certification | £150 to £350 |
Kitchen electrical work is notifiable, meaning it must be done by a qualified electrician and certified. This is not optional and it will matter when you sell.
The commonest surprise: an older consumer unit that will not accept the additional circuits a modern kitchen needs. Discovering this mid-project adds cost and a day or two of no power.
Plastering and making good: £600 to £2,500
Almost always needed and almost always forgotten.
Why it comes up:
- Removing wall tiles takes chunks of plaster with them
- Old units hide unplastered or poorly finished walls behind them
- Moving services means chasing channels into walls, which then need filling
- Removing a wall leaves scars on the ceiling and adjoining walls
- In older properties, removing a kitchen can reveal crumbling lime plaster that needs proper repair rather than skimming
Typical costs: skimming one wall £250 to £450, a full kitchen re-skim £900 to £2,000, patching and repairs £300 to £800.
Flooring: £1,500 to £6,000
| Material | Supplied and fitted, per square metre |
| Vinyl or LVT | £35 to £80 |
| Engineered wood | £60 to £130 |
| Porcelain or ceramic tile | £70 to £150 |
| Natural stone | £100 to £220 |
| Polished concrete | £120 to £200 |
Add £15 to £40 per square metre for floor preparation, levelling or removing the old covering.
A sequencing decision worth making early: flooring can go down before the units or after. Laying it first means a continuous floor under everything, which looks better and allows appliances to be pulled out. Laying it after uses less material and lets you change the floor later without removing units. Most fitters prefer floor first, particularly where there are integrated appliances.
Kitchen installation: £2,500 to £6,000
The fitting of the cabinetry, worktops and appliances.
What it covers: setting and levelling every unit, scribing panels to the walls, fixing into structure, hanging doors and adjusting them, fitting drawers, installing worktops or coordinating the stone fitter, fitting appliances, plinths, cornice and end panels.
In older properties this takes longer, because each carcass has to be levelled independently and the panels scribed to walls that lean or bow.
Decorating: £500 to £2,000
Painting walls and ceiling after plastering, plus woodwork. Usually the last thing before the kitchen goes back into use, and easy to do yourself if you want to save.
The costs people forget
Beyond the trades, these regularly appear late.
| Item | Typical cost |
| Temporary kitchen arrangements | £0 to £600 |
| Eating out while the kitchen is down | £300 to £1,200 |
| Skip hire, often more than one | £250 to £700 |
| New sink and taps | £300 to £1,500 |
| Splashback or tiling | £400 to £2,000 |
| Extractor ducting to an external wall | £200 to £600 |
| Window dressing | £200 to £800 |
| Building control fees | £300 to £900 |
| Storage of displaced furniture | £100 to £400 |
| Parking and access arrangements | Varies |
Individually small. Together they commonly add £1,500 to £4,000.
How long the kitchen is out of action
This matters as much as the money, and people consistently underestimate it.
| Stage | Duration | Kitchen usable? |
| Design and drawings | 1 to 2 weeks | Yes |
| Workshop build and finishing | 3 to 6 weeks | Yes |
| Strip-out | 1 to 2 days | No, from here |
| Structural work, if any | 3 days to 2 weeks | No |
| First fix plumbing and electrics | 2 to 4 days | No |
| Plastering | 2 to 3 days, plus drying | No |
| Flooring, if laid first | 1 to 3 days | No |
| Unit installation | 3 to 5 days | No |
| Worktop templating | Half a day | No |
| Worktop manufacture | 1 to 2 weeks | No |
| Worktop fitting | 1 day | No |
| Second fix plumbing and electrics | 1 to 2 days | Partially |
| Appliance installation | 1 day | Partially |
| Decorating | 2 to 3 days | Mostly |
| Snagging | Half a day | Yes |
Realistically the room is unusable for three to six weeks, and the worst part is the stone worktop gap. Once the units are in, the templater comes, and then you wait one to two weeks with base units and no surfaces on top of them. It is the single most frustrating stretch of any kitchen project.
Ways to shorten it:
- Choose a worktop that does not need templating, such as laminate or timber, which can be cut on site
- Have the worktop templated as early as the fitter allows
- Get all materials and appliances on site before strip-out begins
- Use one company coordinating the trades rather than booking them yourself, which removes the gaps between them
Plan a temporary kitchen. A microwave, a kettle, a toaster and a fridge in another room, with a washing-up arrangement in a bathroom or utility. Six weeks of takeaways costs more than most people expect and gets old quickly.
What can be discovered once the old kitchen comes out
This is why a contingency is not optional.
- Damp behind units. Common on external walls, particularly where a unit has sat against unsealed plaster for decades.
- Rotten floor structure. Usually beneath a sink or dishwasher where a small leak has been running quietly for years.
- Inadequate electrics. Old wiring, insufficient circuits, or a consumer unit that will not take the load.
- Walls that cannot take fixings. Crumbling plaster, soft masonry, or in older properties rubble infill with nothing solid to screw into.
- No lintel over an opening. More common in older buildings than anyone expects.
- Asbestos. In properties from roughly the 1950s to the 1990s, in floor tiles, textured coatings or insulation board. Requires specialist removal.
- Leaking or failing pipework. Old copper or lead runs that need replacing while they are accessible.
- Levels nobody knew about. A floor that falls by 30mm across the room, which changes how every unit is set.
Budget 10 to 15 percent as contingency on a modern property, and 15 to 20 percent on an older one. Most projects use some of it. Projects that do not use any are the exception rather than the rule.
Getting the sequence right
The order matters, and getting it wrong costs money.
- Design and order everything before strip-out. Appliances especially, since cabinetry dimensions depend on exact models. Starting demolition before materials are on site is how projects stall.
- Structural work first, because everything else depends on the final room shape.
- First fix services next, while walls and floors are open.
- Plastering after services, so chases are filled and covered.
- Flooring usually before units, unless there is a reason not to.
- Units, then worktop templating, which cannot happen earlier.
- Second fix services after the worktop, since sinks and hobs cut into it.
- Decorating near the end, once the dusty work is finished.
- Snagging last, a week or two after everything else.
One coordinated project or separate trades? Booking trades yourself saves the coordination margin, typically 10 to 20 percent. It also means you own every gap in the schedule, every disagreement about who does what, and every delay when one trade cannot start because another has not finished. For a full renovation, most people find single-point responsibility worth paying for.
Where the money is best spent
If the budget will not stretch to everything, some things repay the spend more than others.
Worth prioritising:
- Carcass quality and construction, because it determines whether the kitchen lasts fifteen years or twenty-five
- Worktop, since it is the most used and most visible surface in the room
- Electrical work done properly, because redoing it later means pulling the kitchen apart
- Sealing and moisture resistance, particularly in a coastal climate where humidity works on anything unsealed
- Layout, because a well-planned kitchen in modest materials beats a poorly planned one in expensive ones
Can wait or be trimmed:
- Premium appliances, since mid-range models do the same jobs
- Integrated lighting, which can be added later
- Specialist internal fittings such as carousels and pull-outs
- Splashback material, where tile or paint serves until budget allows
- Handles, which are the cheapest thing in the room to change
Three renovations and what they cost
Composite examples of how the numbers fall.
A £17,000 refresh in a modern house. Existing carcasses sound and the layout already working. New sprayed doors and drawer fronts made to fit the existing units at £7,500, new quartz worktop at £4,000, new sink, taps and handles at £1,200, new appliances at £2,500, fitting and making good at £1,800. No trades beyond an electrician for half a day. The room was out of action for eight days. The single cheapest way to transform a kitchen, and available more often than people realise.
A £38,000 replacement in a granite cottage. New bespoke cabinetry in roughly the existing layout, with the sink staying put. Cabinetry £16,000, timber worktop £4,800, appliances £5,200, fitting £4,000. Then £8,000 of everything else: plumbing £900, electrical £2,200 including a consumer unit that could not take the new circuits, plastering £1,600 after tile removal took the plaster with it, flooring £2,700, decorating £600. The contingency absorbed a section of rotten floor under the old dishwasher. Five weeks unusable.
A £62,000 full renovation with a knock-through. Removing a load-bearing wall between kitchen and dining room, with a steel beam, engineer’s calculations and building control. Structural work £7,500, cabinetry £19,000, quartz worktops including an island £8,500, appliances £7,000, fitting £5,500, plumbing £2,200 for a relocated sink, electrical £3,400 across a now much larger space, plastering £2,800, flooring £5,200 across both areas, decorating £1,400. Nine weeks from strip-out to finish. The structural element added roughly £18,000 once the knock-on plastering and flooring across the enlarged room are counted, which is the point people miss when pricing a knock-through.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I budget for a kitchen renovation?
For a full renovation, £30,000 to £50,000 covers most projects. Take whatever the cabinetry quote is and expect the total to be roughly two and a half to three times that figure once every trade, the flooring and the contingency are included.
What is the most expensive part of a kitchen renovation?
The cabinetry, usually around a third of the total. But the fastest way to escalate a budget is structural work, since removing a wall brings an engineer, a beam, building control and then plastering and flooring across a much larger area.
How long is my kitchen out of use?
Three to six weeks for most projects, longer if there is structural work. The most frustrating stretch is the one to two weeks between units being installed and a stone worktop being fitted, since it cannot be templated until the units are in.
Can I save money by managing the trades myself?
You can save the coordination margin, typically 10 to 20 percent. You also take on every scheduling gap and every dispute about who does what. For a refresh it is usually manageable. For a full renovation, most people find single-point responsibility worth paying for.
How much contingency should I hold back?
Ten to 15 percent in a modern property and 15 to 20 percent in an older one. Damp, rotten floor structure, inadequate electrics and walls that will not take fixings are all common discoveries once the old kitchen comes out.
Do I need building regulations approval?
Not for replacing a kitchen in the same layout, though electrical work must be certified. You will need approval for structural alterations, new window or door openings, and certain changes to drainage. Check before committing to a knock-through.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation covers the whole project rather than the units: whether the layout is changing, whether services are moving, what the floor is doing, and what your total budget is including everything outside the cabinetry. A survey then establishes what the walls, floors and services are actually doing, which is what turns a range into a real figure.
Davision Interiors Ltd has carried out kitchen renovations across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, handling the full project from strip-out to snagging, including the cabinetry, the fit-out and the coordination of the trades around it, with spray finishing and French polishing carried out in house. One point of responsibility means no gaps between contractors and nobody pointing at anyone else. Every project starts with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.