Kitchen Renovation FAQ
These are the questions that come up while a kitchen is still being decided: how quoting and design fit together, what a scope covers, what moving a sink really changes, and how one material differs from the next.
Quoting, measure and selections
How does quoting actually work?
Quoting is the fourth of the twelve stages, and it sits there for a reason. Consultation, measure and design come first, because a figure is only meaningful once the layout, the cabinetry construction and the named surfaces are settled. What you receive is a scope written in the same terms as this page: carcass, doors, benchtop, splashback, hardware, and the trades required to install them.
Do I need a design before I know the cost?
Why is a site measure needed if I have plans?
Plans describe intent; a measure describes the room. Bentleigh’s older weatherboards and post-war brick homes rarely have square corners, level floors or walls that finish where the drawing says. Cabinetry is made to millimetres, so the measure records out-of-square walls, ceiling height, window reveals, and where existing services actually sit behind the plaster.
Can materials change after the quote?
Material selection is its own stage, sitting between quote and demolition, and it is the last comfortable point for change. Once cabinetry is cut and stone is templated, a substitution means re-drawing rather than re-choosing. Swaps within the same family — one engineered stone for another of similar thickness — are far simpler than moving from tile to slab.
Living in the house while the kitchen is out
Most households stay put. What makes it bearable is knowing which stages are noisy, which are dusty, and which simply need the room empty for a tradesperson to work.
Can we stay in the home during the renovation?
Usually. The kitchen itself is unusable from demolition until the benchtop is fitted and the sink reconnected, so a temporary setup elsewhere — kettle, microwave, fridge, a table for washing-up near the laundry — is worth organising before the first day rather than improvising on it.
What happens to the old kitchen?
Strip-out covers cabinetry, benchtops, splashback and the disconnection of appliances, with services made safe before anything is opened up. Walls and floors are protected on the route in and out, because the damage that annoys people afterwards is rarely in the kitchen — it is the hallway skirting and the doorway architrave.
Do we need to arrange our own plumber and electrician?
Moving services, and choosing surfaces
Does moving the sink or cooktop change the job?
It changes more than the drawing suggests. Moving a sink means new waste falls, and waste is governed by gradient, not preference — on a concrete slab that is a very different proposition to a timber floor with subfloor access. Moving a cooktop means new circuits and, for gas, a new run; relocating the rangehood adds ducting through the ceiling or wall. Keeping services where they are is the single cleanest way to hold a scope down.