Sneaky Hidden Costs To Consider When Remodeling Your Kitchen

Before beginning any sort of home remodeling, we (and probably any industry professional you ask) highly recommend coming up with a realistic budget for the entire project. This budget should ideally cover professional fees, labor charges, materials, furniture, and supplies. In most cases, it’s also smart to plan for unexpected costs—especially in kitchen remodeling.

While most professional design-build companies will help break down the remodeling expenses to keep everything as transparent as possible, there’s still the possibility of sneaky hidden costs. These refer to the unexpected fees you’ll have to pay for factors related to the remodeling that only pop up during the process. We’ve listed the four common ones below:

Eating Out/Take-Out

Many professionals recommend allotting a separate space in your home to act as a temporary kitchen or food prep area while the kitchen remodeling is going on. If you don’t, there’ll be a lot of ordering in or eating out in the foreseeable future. And if there are a lot of you in the family, the costs will add up.

If you don’t have a separate room set up—like an outdoor kitchen or barbecue area—try meal prepping at least a week’s worth of food in advance. Alternatively, you can borrow a cooler or mini refrigerator to keep things fresh. You can even try cooking in the living room using a camping stove or portable gas stove. It might be tricky at first, but such devices are simple and straightforward enough to handle light meals like breakfast or lunch.

Minimize the need to order food outside and you’ll effectively minimize your hidden expenses.

Hidden Structural Issues

Knocking down some columns here or tearing a wall over there might leave you with more than just a pile of rubble. For all you know, the wall that’s going down to make room for your kitchen expansion might be the one thing holding up part of the second floor.

Sounds far-fetched, but unless you’re a contractor, engineer, or architect, you can never be 100% sure. And if you damage load-bearing walls or walls with critical wiring, pipes, or ductwork in them, the repair costs alone can bring your total bill up to astronomical proportions.

Before you take a sledgehammer to anything involving the original foundation of your home, ask your design-build company or contractor if they can first determine its purpose. Their industry experience and technical expertise should be enough to tell whether a wall is decorative or structural, although they may ask to see a copy of the house’s blueprints to confirm their suspicions.

Other potential structural issues may pop up during kitchen remodeling, such as unstable plaster or structurally unsound joists. Not everything can be foreseen, so prepare for the worst and budget accordingly.

Wiring and Rewiring

We earlier mentioned walls with critical wiring, pipes, or ductwork in them. While consulting a blueprint can certainly preserve the integrity of the important walls, wiring is a completely different story.

Say you want to move your refrigerator to a different area or you’re thinking of adding a microwave, toaster oven, and electrical stove. If you didn’t have enough outlets before the remodel, the design-build company you’re working with will obviously suggest you get a couple more installed to freely accommodate the new appliances.

This will call for additional wiring (or rewiring) work, which can be a pretty costly service. The technician you call in will also require a professional fee—yet another item to factor in to your overall expense.

Want to Ensure Smooth Sailing Throughout Your Kitchen Remodeling Process? To Achieved That, Here’s an Ultimate Guide You Might Need!

Pets

This might sound far-fetched as you’re reading this, but your pets can be a wildcard during the actual kitchen remodeling process. You’d be surprised to know how many homeowners have had to board pets they otherwise thought would be fine during the renovation, all because the presence of too many strangers in the house (i.e. the design-build team) or the renovation sounds have put them on edge.

If this happens to your pets and you don’t have any friends or relatives who can take them on for free, you’ll have to pay to board them somewhere safe for the next few days.

Budgeting expenses for kitchen remodeling isn’t as difficult as you think, especially if you’ve got a design build company to guide you. However, hidden charges can really hike those prices up if there are no contingencies to fall back on—which is why it’s so important to keep these potential factors in mind and plan accordingly. Avoid Surprises and achieve your dream space.