If you are considering a kitchen remodel for your New York City apartment, your biggest question and potential hiccup might be what you are looking at in terms of costs. General guidelines suggest an NYC kitchen remodel can cost anywhere from $25,000 to $250,000! While this a quite a big range, not every New York City apartment owner is ready to drop $250,000 on a kitchen remodel but would like to know the costs of specific parts of a kitchen remodeling so they can invest in a product that meets their price range. Here are some basic cost guidelines for a kitchen renovation.
Basic Cost Estimate
Before getting into specifics, a kitchen remodeling contractor or design build firm will start with square footage. The range of cost per square foot is anywhere from $75 to $250 per square foot. Therefore, if you happen to have a 1000 square foot kitchen and you do a full gut and upgrade, that is the rare scenario where you could have a kitchen renovation go for $250,000.
However, like most NYC kitchens, you may be looking at a base cost of $7500 if you have a 100 square foot kitchen with basic repairs. It is recommended that you spend anywhere between five to fifteen percent of your apartment’s value towards a kitchen renovation. This model does not give you a real accurate cost but can at least get you to know early on a reasonable range to look at.
In order to keep a project south of $30,000, you would likely be dealing with a smaller sized kitchen, approximately 100 square feet, and would have to limit yourself to basic tasks such as painting, refacing existing cabinets, and tile back-splash. After that, what drives the cost up substantially is what you choose to replace, and the labor to remove old fixtures and replace with new fixtures. What can drive the cost up even further is when you start looking into a new layout, that involves moving pipes and electrical outlets. This involves the most labor, as now you must open walls and apply for more permits.
Breakdown of Costs
Costs of specific line items can vary substantially but approximate costs can be derived. The first key line item is if you decide to use a design build firm to design your new kitchen. In a full kitchen remodeling project, a design will add up to about five percent of your project cost. The biggest line items to consider will be the installation, new appliances, and new cabinetry. Labor is a larger project that will be about a sixth of the total project cost, while appliances are about fifteen percent.
If you do the full remodel, cabinetry will be your priciest item, which would contribute to around thirty percent of your project cost. Counter-tops in a full remodel would be about ten percent of a project. Other costs that are less than ten percent would be line items such as lighting, flooring, doors and windows, and plumbing. So, keep in mind these are percentages based on a full remodel, so if you take something away, that will drive the percentages up substantially.
Design and Labor Costs
Costs that you can control come down to the quality of appliances and fixtures you choose to invest in. However, in most cases, labor and design are uncontrollable costs because the workflows do not really change the kitchen to the kitchen. Whether you are using high-end cabinetry or knock-off materials, the man-hours required to replace them are generally the same. So, keep in mind that when you hire a designer to do your apartment remodel, expect a cost of around $1000 in most standard remodels, assuming a rate of around $100 per hour for 10 hours of design work.
As mentioned, labor costs in a full remodel come to around 17 percent of a total project cost in New York City. A kitchen remodeling contractor may be your best option, if you are looking at a full, remodel and want to get the most bang for your buck as their expertise should maximize efficiency. Labor costs are usually around $3500 to $6000, again based on how much is being replaced.
Kitchen Cabinets
As shown above, the most expensive part of a remodel is the kitchen cabinetry. When you do a full replacement of kitchen cabinets, this part of the project is thirty percent of the total cost. However, depending on what you do, this part of the project has the most flexibility in terms of cost adjustment. The biggest factor is whether you go with pre-made vs custom design.
Pre-made cabinetry can be found in a home warehouse store, but because they are machine made at standard measurements, this substantially drives cost down, costing anywhere between $75 to $150 per square foot. The only setback is a lot of kitchens may not have the measurements to fit perfectly only pre-made and so there will be gaps in some places. However, if this tolerance is acceptable, pre-made products are anywhere from 10% to 1000% cheaper than customized products.
Additionally, you can save more money by either refacing or repainting existing cabinetry. This eliminates the cost of material and then focuses on labor only. Refacing can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $9,500 while repainting can be $1,500 to $4,000. Depending on the size of your kitchen you may find refacing and repainting are much cheaper options.
Conclusion
Overall, there are many considerations in determining a kitchen remodeling cost in New York City, but these estimates above capture the major costs and how certain considerations can adjust the price. Like in any apartment remodel, you always must factor in specific tasks like design and permit, but after that, there can be a lot of flexibility. It all comes down to working with your designer or contractor to understand what your budget is and what you can reasonably do within your space.
