You did the sensible thing. You got three quotes. Now, you are sitting at the kitchen table with $34,000, $42,000, and $50,000 in front of you for what you are fairly sure is the same kitchen, wondering whether the cheap one is a bargain or a trap.
It is usually neither. The gap between kitchen renovation quotes is rarely one company being greedy and another being generous. It is three documents describing three different amounts of work, presented as though they describe the same one.
Why do kitchen renovation quotes vary so much?
Kitchen quotes vary mainly because of scope, not price. Two quotes for a similar-looking kitchen can differ by thousands because one excludes appliances, one puts the benchtop in as an estimated allowance, and one leaves the electrical work to a separate trade you will have to arrange yourself. The headline figure is the least informative number on the page.
Sort that out, and the comparison becomes straightforward. Here is how.
The same kitchen, three ways
This is an illustrative example rather than real pricing, but the shape of it will look familiar to anyone who has collected three quotes.
| Line item | Quote A: $34,000 | Quote B: $42,000 | Quote C: $50,000 |
| Cabinetry | “New kitchen cabinets” | Moisture-resistant board carcasses, hardware brand named | Same, plus named door finish and edging |
| Benchtop | “Stone benchtop” allowance, $3,000 | Material and edge profile named, measured on site | Named material, edge profile, waterfall end |
| Appliances | Not included | Allowance of $6,000 | Supplied and installed, models listed |
| Electrical and plumbing | By others | Included, two new circuits | Included, plus switchboard allowance |
| Splashback and tiling | Not mentioned | Included | Included |
| Variations | Not stated | Cost plus a stated margin | Trade rates listed |
| Type of number | Estimate | Fixed, allowances flagged | Fixed |
Now, do the arithmetic nobody does. Add appliances to Quote A at the same standard as B. Add the electrical and plumbing. Add the splashback. Then, top up that $3,000 benchtop allowance to what the stone you actually want costs. Quote A is no longer $34,000. It is somewhere in B’s neighbourhood, except that you are now project managing two trades yourself and carrying the risk on every allowance. The $16,000 gap was never $16,000.
Read what’s missing before you read what’s priced.
The most useful thing in a quote is usually the exclusions list, which is why some quotes don’t have one.
Work through this before comparing any numbers:
- Appliances. In or out? This single line accounts for more quote confusion than everything else combined.
- Electrical and plumbing. Included, or “by others”? If the latter, that is two more quotes to chase.
- Demolition and rubbish removal. Someone has to take the old kitchen to the tip.
- The splashback and any tiling. Frequently sits outside a cabinetry-only quote.
- Flooring and patching. The old kickboards leave a gap. Who fills it?
- Painting and making good. Walls behind an old kitchen are rarely presentable.
- Delivery, installation and final clean. Usually included. Occasionally not.
None of these is dishonest omissions. A cabinetmaker quoting cabinetry is quoting cabinetry. The problem starts when you compare that document to one that covers the whole project.
There is a related question the quotes rarely answer: who is coordinating everyone? If the plumber, electrician and tiler are all yours to book, that job has quietly landed on you, and it is the part of a renovation that eats the most time. Ask who sequences the trades and who is responsible if the benchtop templater arrives before the cabinets do. Ask about lead time on the cabinetry, too, since manufacture is usually the longest part of the program and the two quotes in front of you may be weeks apart on it.
Allowances: The numbers that move
A prime cost item, usually written as a PC sum, is an allowance for something you have not chosen yet, a tap, a set of handles, an oven. A provisional sum is an allowance for work that can’t be priced precisely yet.
Both are estimates sitting inside a number that looks fixed, and both adjust when reality arrives. This is where a “competitive” quote quietly becomes an expensive one.
Check what each allowance is actually pegged to. A $3,000 benchtop allowance and a $6,000 appliance allowance are meaningless in isolation. Ask what product that figure buys, then go and look at it. If the allowance corresponds to something you would never choose, the quote is lower than the job.
There is nothing wrong with allowances. They are how a kitchen renovation quote gets produced before every selection is made. What matters is whether they are realistic, and whether the quote tells you they exist at all.
The specification you can’t see
Two cabinets can look identical on a showroom floor and behave very differently after five years of school lunches.
The board behind the cabinet door is the first thing to ask about. Moisture-resistant board in the wet areas, the thickness, and the edging on every exposed face. This is the real difference between custom cabinetry and a flat-pack kitchen, and it is seldom visible in a photo.
Hardware is the second. A quote that names the runner and hinge brand is telling you something. A quote that says “soft close” is telling you nothing. If your kitchen is getting deep drawers loaded with cast iron, the weight rating on those runners matters more than the door colour.
Then the surfaces. Ask which material, thickness, and edge profile for the benchtop, because the shift toward porcelain and sintered stone has changed both fabrication and pricing. Also ask what finish is on the doors and panels, as the gap between melamine and a two-pack painted finish is one of the largest single levers in the whole quote for a kitchen renovation.
The NSW paperwork test
Five minutes of checking, and it separates the field fast.
Residential building work over $5,000 must be done by a licensed contractor, and you can verify any licence on the Building Commission NSW public register. Work over $20,000 requires home building compensation cover, and the certificate has to exist before anyone takes a deposit. Speaking of which, the Home Building Act caps a deposit at 10% of the contract price. Anyone asking for more is asking for something they are not entitled to.
Statutory warranties apply regardless of what the contract says: six years for major defects, two years for everything else. And if your job involves moving walls rather than swapping cabinetry, check early whether it needs development approval or a complying development certificate, because that affects the project more than the price.
Five questions that make three quotes comparable
Send these to all three. The replies will tell you more than the quotes did.
- What is excluded from this price?
- Which items are allowances, and what product does each one buy?
- What board and hardware are the cabinets built from?
- How are variations priced if something turns up during demolition?
- Is this a fixed price or an estimate?
A company that answers all five in writing has done this before. One that gets vague around question two is the one to watch, and it is usually the cheapest of the three.
If you would rather start with a quote that already answers those questions, Krauss Kitchens has been manufacturing in Unanderra since 1974, quoting on a fixed-price basis with pricing set out upfront. A free in-home consultation is the quickest way to get a figure for your own kitchen, and a useful benchmark even if you are still collecting comparisons.
Knowing what the market looks like first helps, too. That is why it is worth understanding what a kitchen renovation costs in the Illawarra before you read a single quote.
This article is general information about comparing residential building quotes in NSW. The three quotes described are an illustrative example and do not represent actual pricing from Krauss Kitchens or any other company. Confirm licensing, insurance and contract requirements with Building Commission NSW before signing.
