Set A Budget
This is one of the most important steps, if not the most important step, in planning a successful kitchen remodel.
Setting an overall budget for your kitchen renovation project will help all bidding contractors determine exactly what your possibilities and limitations are when it comes to choosing kitchen materials or upgrading and downgrading certain aspects of your kitchen remodel to meet your budget.
It’s also extremely important to set aside an additional 10-15% of your overall budgeted amount as a buffer for any potential unexpected remodeling costs that may be incurred during the actual renovation process.
This may include unexpected expenses involving plumbing, electrical, and structural components such as adding additional joists to support the removal of a load bearing wall.
Researching and understanding the true cost of hiring a professional kitchen remodeling contractor in your area may help you set a realistic budget prior to getting contractor bids.
For example, in the Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio area most complete kitchen renovations will cost anywhere from $20,000, all the way up to $100,000 or more for large high-end custom kitchens.
Research Desirable Ideas
Having a somewhat basic understanding of what you want your finished kitchen to look like is an important step to have completed prior to speaking with the kitchen contractors in your area and receiving kitchen renovation bids.
There are numerous online platforms available for homeowners to help them get started with kitchen design and material selection ideas for their home.
Currently, some of the most popular kitchen idea generating platforms include general Google image searches, Houzz, and Pinterest.
These platforms have highly sophisticated search capabilities that narrow down the image results to extremely detailed aspects of a kitchen such as cabinet style, cabinet color, countertop types, backsplash options, and appliance combinations.
Another popular option for homeowners that may prefer to see kitchen materials in person would be to drive out to home improvement stores, tile shops, and local kitchen cabinet centers.
All these locations will more than likely have hundreds to thousands of kitchen remodel materials on display that may help you get started with at least some of your kitchen selections.
Many homeowners also claim to have received their kitchen design ideas from remodeled kitchens they’ve personally seen at their family and friend’s homes.
If all else fails, most kitchen remodeling contractors are more than happy to make suggestions to potential clients based on current popular trends in the kitchen remodeling space. They can help guide you in making design selections that make sense for both your homes style and layout.
Make A Top 10 List (This includes wants vs needs and things with different price points)
Once you’ve found numerous kitchen material ideas and remodeled kitchen examples that you love, one extremely helpful step that we recommend for most homeowners is to make a Top 10 list.
This list should consist of the most important, or must-have, items for your new kitchen at the very top. The bottom half of the top 10 list should include potential upgrades or things that you really like but are okay with possibly missing out on.
Assuming you’ve set an overall budget for your kitchen remodeling project, the top 10 list will help the bidding kitchen remodeling companies focus on your most important kitchen upgrades to ensure that they come in at or below your specified budget.
Custom kitchen cabinetry will generally eat a large chunk of a kitchen remodeling projects budget as it is.
The addition of upgrades or high-end materials such as full plywood construction cabinets, quartz countertops, full stone backsplashes, and under cabinet lighting can significantly increase the cost of a kitchen remodel.
Assuming you have a budget for your kitchen remodel, prioritizing certain aspects of your ideal kitchen design will help make the kitchen remodel with your general contractor flow smoothly from start to finish.
Set Realistic Expectations
This is an extremely important step in preparing for your kitchen remodeling project.
Setting realistic expectations for the overall new kitchen budget, design, and project timeline will help things flow smoothly if any hiccups may appear regarding those three major components of a kitchen remodel.
As we mentioned earlier, the pricing of a new kitchen can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the design, the type of materials which are installed, and the current state of your kitchen which can include electrical, plumbing and wall locations.
That is why it’s important to get some ideas of what you would like your kitchen to look like, as well as to speak with your kitchen remodeling contractor to see if that is realistic with your budget and current kitchen layout and design.
Many online images of kitchens may look appealing, beautiful, and modern, but they can also come with a hefty cost that many homeowners underestimate.
Get Multiple Contractor Bids
One mistake that many homeowners make in the planning stage of a kitchen remodel is only speaking with one contractor, getting one bid, and immediately making a final decision to move forward with that single contractor.
There are many reasons to get multiple bids for a project, and very few reasons not to.
Getting multiple bids helps ensure that you are not overpaying for kitchen remodeling services, or underpaying at the start, only to be left with a huge bill at the end because of ‘unexpected’ contractor costs.
Getting three to five contractor bids for a kitchen renovation project is highly recommended. It helps to weed out the contractors that truly don’t want or need your project, as well as any contractors that may underbid a project, only to keep increasing the costs while the work is being done.
We always suggest moving forward with a contractor that has a good local reputation, has good communication with the homeowners and has a price that falls somewhere in the middle of the three to five bids received.
Make Material and Design Selections
The kitchen design and material selections are some of the toughest choices that any homeowner must make during the kitchen remodeling process.
There are truly an endless number of combinations with cabinets, countertops, backsplash, appliances, hardware, and everything else that you envision in a perfectly designed kitchen.
Unless a homeowner knows exactly what their end product and ideal design should look like, we recommend that some decisions be made during the renovation process instead of prior to the start of the remodel.
In our experience, it’s much easier for homeowners to choose a kitchen countertop once the cabinets and hardware have been installed. Likewise, it’s much easier to choose a backsplash once the countertop has been installed.
That is why we recommend you gather multiple ideas and colors for your countertop, backsplash, flooring, and finishes prior to the work being started by your contractor.
As certain aspects of your kitchen renovation are completed, you can then finalize certain selections based on what looks the best in person, removing guessing from the process completely.
Plan For Loss of Use
One thing that many homeowners forget is that a kitchen remodel takes time. There are generally multiple trades involved in the renovation process, and even minimal wait times are almost inevitable.
Electricians, carpenters, painters, countertop fabrications, and plumbers are just a small list of some of the trades that are generally needed in a standard kitchen renovation project.
Many homeowners make the mistake of thinking that all trades will show up to work on the same day and complete their kitchen in only a week or two.
This is usually not the case, as most kitchen renovations generally take between four to eight weeks from start to finish. With luxury high-end and large kitchens even taking as much as 12 weeks.
That is why we always tell homeowners to prepare to be without a fully functional kitchen for at least 4-8 weeks.
