Kitchen renovations in Canberra
A kitchen isn't one job. It's five or six trades in a fixed order, and the order is where the money goes. Post it once here and we'll put it in front of people who quote whole kitchens, not just their bit of one.
The three kitchens people actually buy
Doors and benchtop only
Carcasses stay, fronts and benchtop change. No trades beyond a cabinetmaker and a plumber to disconnect and reconnect. Fastest and cheapest by a mile, and from three steps back it looks like a new kitchen.
Same footprint, all new
Everything out, everything new, but the sink, the stove and the fridge stay roughly where they were. Services barely move, so the electrical and plumbing stay small. This is the sweet spot for most Canberra homes.
New layout
Island added, sink moved, wall opened up. Now you're shifting waste pipes and adding circuits, and maybe touching structure. Different price bracket, different kind of quote — ask for staged pricing.
Who has to come, and when
This is the order a kitchen actually runs in. If a quote doesn't account for a trade coming back a second time, it's probably light.
- Strip out — old kitchen out and carted away. Cheap to do yourself if you're handy, and worth asking whether that takes money off the quote.
- Plumber and sparky, first visit — services capped, moved or roughed in while the walls are open. Skip this and you've got an extension lead behind the toaster forever.
- Plaster and paint — patching where the old kitchen was, and it's far easier to paint now than around new cabinetry.
- Flooring — either now or after cabinets, depending on the floor. Ask which, because it changes what happens when you replace a dishwasher in five years.
- Cabinets installed — then, and only then, the benchtop gets templated.
- Benchtop fabricated and fitted — the wait in the middle of your kitchen reno.
- Plumber and sparky, second visit — sink, dishwasher, cooktop, oven, rangehood connected. Splashback goes in around here.
What to tell us when you post it
- A photo from the doorway, plus one down the length of the bench. Two photos answer more than three paragraphs will.
- Rough measurements of the bench runs. Paced out is fine at this stage.
- Are you moving the sink or the stove? That's the single biggest price question in a kitchen.
- Gas or electric cooking, and whether you're thinking of switching. An induction cooktop usually wants its own circuit run back to the board.
- Benchtop material you've got in mind — laminate, engineered stone, natural stone, timber. Say "not sure" if you're not sure; a good quoter will price two options.
- Appliances: keeping yours, or buying new? Sizes need locking in before the cabinetry is made, not after.
- Are you living in it while the work's on, and is there a hard date — a tenant moving in, family at Christmas?
- Age of the house. In an older Canberra home — and there's plenty of that stock through Belco and Tuggers — the wall behind the kitchen can hold surprises, and everyone would rather know now.