Can we redo our kitchen for under 10k?

Here is a video link to our kitchen http://youtu.be/_5m_WGAJhLU . The kitchen is approximately 15×12\. We would like to replace the floors, resurface the cabinets, install granite countertops, add a backsplash, add an island and since we’re replacing the sheetrock, replace or reinforce the the wooden studs. How long would you expect this kind of project to take? I know anyone can do shoddy work but what I am truly asking is can this be done with quality workmanship?

you expect someone to do the labor for free? because quality/attractive materials alone would cost you $10k+.

quality free labor only! nothing shoddy.

This can be done! But for that to happen, you MUST (!) be hyper-involved. And by that I mean: willing to do demo and dispose of it yourself, shop, shop, shop for the best deals for the finishes you want, plan meticulously leaving little room for error, and still need some luck for it all to be great. If you know how to tile a floor and can resurface cabinets (or have a very affordable place) then granite will be a huge part of the expense as you will be adding an island. If you plan right, this could be done in 10 days.

it’s doable, but totally depending on how fancy of the material you choose to use and who you hire. I’m also doing my kitchen and one contractor gave me a quote of $5800, and another guy gave me $2300 including removing all cabinets tiles floors and installation. We know the cheaper guy is not as artistic as the first one, but since we’re pretty hands-on people ourselves and just need man-labor to do exactly what we ask them to do, we went for the cheaper one and are prepared to get involved the shxt out of the whole progress. We’re using Caesarstone for our countertop and it’s $90/sf, with fabricating and everything it’s about $3500 we’re gonna spend. Granite should be a little cheaper. Flooring and tiling are depending on your material too. For my cabinet fronts, we’re getting it for around $3500 from Semihandmade. I think $12k is a reasonable estimate for your kitchen. I hate it when people tell me something is impossible. It’s usually cuz they’re lazy and don’t wanna do the research themselves.

thank you for those that provided constructive feedback. i should of added, i intended on doing the demolition (removing floors and drywall) and disposing the garbage myself.

Doable if you are willing to follow Bk One’s advice and do a lot of the leg and grunt work yourself. To hire someone who will come in and tackle the whole project? I don’t think so. I’m assuming that you are talking no permits, otherwise it’s definitely not doable. Without permits, keeping everything pretty much where it is now a reasonably handy person who wasn’t afraid of getting their hands dirty could do it for that. Finding someone with a fairly high skill level to do it for that price is going to be really tough. The rooms 15×12, let’s assume a straight counter on the long side only, so 15 feet at about $65 a linear foot which is about the cheapest that you’ll find granite with fabrication so that’s a thousand. If you want to add an island if it’s fixed, you really should add outlets even if you aren’t going with permits, so that means some electrical work and then probably four cabinets, two back to back. Let’s assume you can find something close to what you currently have at Ikea, that’s another $300 minimum for cabinets and then another $450 if you go with a matching countertop, so you’re up to $1,750 (since you decided to put the island on casters instead of having it fixed in one spot to save money). 180 Sq. feet of tile, it’s going to be tough to get that for less than $5 a square foot installed, and that’s assuming that you are able to go over the existing subfloor and don’t have to replace any sections and get a good deal on a closeout tile. So that’s $900 now you’re up to $2650\. Garbage disposal is a big pain in the neck in NY, the cheapest I’ve found for small jobs is $300 for a cargo van’s worth and that’s having it ready to load on the sidewalk. So assume you can get all the debris into one van (should be doable) you’re now up to $3,000 and you haven’t paid for the demo labor, re-facing the cabinets, sistering on some new studs, buying a new sink and faucet, sheet rocking, priming, painting, spackling, installing new lights, trim, saddles, etc. It’s the little stuff that’s going to kill you and you’ll end up with death by paper cut. I’m assuming you’ll be using the old appliances? Take a long hard look at the current cabinets. Are they even worth re-facing? Do the drawer slides function smoothly, are the cabinets plywood or particle board and if particle board is there any water damage (look for swelling at the base of the cabinets, especially the sink cabinet). Really make sure you are clear in your own mind what you can live with and what needs to be replaced. That ten your old fridge looks fine in a ten year old kitchen, but not so hot in a new kitchen. Good luck either way, but if you do decide to go for it, make sure you have a cushion for cost over runs just in case.

I have been watching this and wondering when and if I should weigh in – and I have decided I will. From a contractor’s perspective, this job will be hard. It is not that I think it will be impossible to complete for that price, but to set a budget on what you want to spend and then shop around to find a good contractor who thinks he can do it within that budget is troubling. it has been said on here, get three quotes and go with the middle one. realistically, when you do that, you are allowing the contractors to tell you what they think they can complete the job for and maybe allow a little here and there in case something does not go the way everyone thinks it will and not have to go back to the well for more $. if you set a dollar limit like that, you will scare some of the better contractors off and draw in some of the lesser experienced ones willing to take the challenge because they are newer to the game. Even if you don’t say it outright, that you have a budget, you yourself will eliminate those who don’t meet the budget and you will keep talking to the ones who do; in essence, it can become a race to the bottom and with each lower step in price you will introduce new challenges. newer contractors may be just as good and may work for less, but they also may over look something during the bidding process and may have to come back to you with their hand out for more money or maybe they will overlook the finances and not be able to complete the job – or will rush at the end when it is most important to take one’s time because that is where the real quality – or lack there of – will show. Do yourself a favor, call in three known contractors, get three quotes, and look at those quotes. if you are comparing apples to apples and you still cannot do the job, either change the scope of the work or wait until you can do it. there are all sorts of stories out there from customers who shopped around for a contractor who said they can do a job within a certain budget, usually one which is unrealistic, and both the customer and contractor ended up unhappy. Here is the goal: you want a good job and the contractor has to eat and pay his bills. that is the truth right there like no one on here will say it. Steve

I haven’t done this, but have seen others do it, so here’s my 2 cents. It can be done, but I’m not sure it can be done by you. Because the people I’ve seen do it have gone for quality materials, but not flashy, expensive ones. You state you want granite, so to me that puts you in flashy, expensive land. (Without even getting into all the choices that I think are aestetically way better than granite.) I’d go for a qualtiy material that is way cheaper – since the labor you likely will have to hire out will not come cheaply in NYC for qualtiy labor, the only way this can be done is with quality but inexpensive materials. They do exist. I agree you probably don’t want to keep your existing cabinets in a new reno – think hard about this resurfacing idea. (I’ve seen more kitchen renovations with new coutnertop and floor and appliances, using existing old cabinets, which I think were a complete waste of money, because, if done for sale purposes, the next owner will want to rip it all and start over due to those ugly old cabinets, or, if just for you, who are going to live there longterm, ask yourself if you would pick your cupboards if picking cupboards now – if the answer is no, replace them, as you will later wish you’d done so.) Ikea cabinet boxes are a great thing – sturdy, hardwearing, really cheap, and you can put them together yourself (and probably even install them yourself.) They are so plain that they have no style – you can make them into any style with the doors you choose, end panels, and trim. The not so great quality thing about them are the doors, but you can have other door made for them, even solid wood doors (either now, or go with a cheap Ikea door now, and decide some years from now if you want new doors..the cabinets last forever, the doors, often not.) Go to Ikea and price them…you’ll be amazed at how cheap they are. Check out their wood butcher block countertops while you are there…by far the nicest and cheapest of inexpensive countertop materials. If you want something expensive for the countertop still, check out other options besides granite – there are the synthetic stone materials, and Icestone made from recycled glass – it is about as expensive as granite, but far nicer, I think. Floors, you can also go expensive or quality but cheap materials. Nice, basic tiles can be really cheap, and you can lay them yourself, if tile’s your thing. What’s there now? Keeping original wood floors is always my favorite option. I don’t like tile – I’d do something softer underfoot, like real linoleum, before I’d do tile. Laying new basic hardwood may be a quality choice that is not that expensive – it is quality because it lasts longer – can be refinished, unlike tile, once it ages. Appliances, like cabinet doors, you can replace now, or do later – as long as you leave the right amount of space for what you think your later purchased appliances will be. Unless I had relatively new ones, I’d purchase new ones in an inexpensive style for now. I think it makes more sense to build up from a solid base, and change things on top later if you don’t want to spend the money now. First, put in a floor you will love for the long term. Then, cabinets bases. Do the structural work, the plumbing, and electrical work you will want for the long haul. Then, if this takes up your money, use a cheaper but nice countertop and sink- you can always replace that later if you aren’t happy and want to spend more. Ditto for the appliances. And the cabinet doors. But you can’t so easily change the floor, cabinet boxes, or plumbing or electrical work, so I’d start with getting the basics right, and change what’s easy to change later if you want.

Why, why, why would you want to invest in a counter top that is expensive, isn’t really considered green, nor is it even attractive – especially on that type of budget? With all the shine and glare you get from granite, you might be better off cutting costs and installing mirrors as your counter top. Not to mention, it isn’t the greatest to take care of either! As for green, it really isn’t due to it having to be quarried from the earth, thereby leaving huge empty pits. Granite is a non-renewable resource. Not to mention, granite products come from Russia, India, Brazil, Yugoslavia, and other faraway places, requiring major transportation costs which increases the price of the surface for your renovation. When you renovate, keep in mind the fads of past decades!!!!!! Those who have to jump on the “fad bandwagon” may well tear out the granite well before it’s time, and that might be you, too! If you want to be green and stretch your bucks, consider terrazzo, recycled glass, bamboo butcher block, paper composite, or recycled glass tile. But, reconsider granite!

Do-it-your-selfer here. My wife and I just finished our second kitchen ourselves (check out our blog gowanusrenovation.com for a lot of pics, tips and comic relief). I watched the video you posted and I think it’s doable but there are a lot of unknowns in terms of what you want (an island, new floors, new appliances etc..). I highly highly recommend you keep the cabinets and paint them white to match your appliances and install new knobs. That in total will cost about 200 or 300 at most. That way you can spend money on more important things that surround the kitchen like new floors (I’m thinking if you get standard oak it’s around $1,000 or less if you install yourself, YES YOU CAN 🙂 and a kitchen island. You have a lot of space, but one downside is the baseboard heater that I see under your windows. It would be nice to wrap cabinets all the way around. That being said, you could also install some shelves between those two windows to house your microwave and maybe create a better location for your garbage can (but a new island would be best for that). Lastly, that cabinet at the end of the row is strange given it’s shortened height. You might want to consider mounting the microwave under that so that to even out the look. I love this type of stuff and would have happy to share more tips. Reach out if you want more free advice.

There has been a lot of good advice here. My husband and I are also do-it-yourselfers. It’s not impossible but you will have to get your hands dirty and make some compromises. If you get a fabricator and go to a granite yard in brooklyn you can do it for $45/sq foot installed. We did that for our rental kitchen and it worked perfectly. We also tiled the backsplash ourselves, which was not too difficult. We installed the flooring ourselves too (high quality laminate) but I would not recommend doing this project yourself. It was significantly harder than any other project we did ourselves, and we have done many. I would recommend new appliances as well – we drove a truck to Delaware to the Sears Outlet (no tax, best prices) and picked up a Bosch dishwasher for $500 brand new in box and a very high end fridge for $1600\. You could get something really nice for much less. Prices are truly at least 50% off retail. I’m wondering why you want to replace the sheetrock and wooden studs? Do you know there is a problem? In my experience the second you open up a wall you will find things that need fixing and eat into your budget. Realistically you might want to do this in stages, or plan to spend more and get it over with all at once. Good luck to you.

As someone who regularly does kitchen renovations with counters that cost more than 10K, I’d have to ask what your expectations are for your budget? Sure, if you provide all of the labor, do Ikea cabinets, and laminate counters, you can probably get by with 10K. But, you only did the cosmetics and didn’t address any of the infrastructure needs such as electrical or plumbing. Those HAVE to be dealt with. By professionals. And there goes your 10K budget. Average kitchen remodels in the US are 52K. Even with a smaller footprint than the average suburban kitchen, you’re not going to to get “average” results here without spending at least that much. The labor rate is too high. The logistics are just too difficult. Have you rented a dumpster for the trash for the demolition lately? What route is that giant slab of granite going to take to actually get into the space? Can the joists support the weight of all of that new stuff? Do you have an idea about how to adjust the straight shiny new cabinets to the wonky dusty and old walls and floor?