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Kitchen Quote Review: A Builder Reads Your Quotes Before You Sign
Kitchens & BathroomsIndependent Review
A Builder Reads Your Kitchen Quotes Before You Sign Them
Line by line, on the same scope, with a plain answer. No shop behind it, no commission on what you buy.
A kitchen is the most expensive thing most people buy without a second opinion. The car gets a mechanic. The house gets an inspector. The $25,000 kitchen gets a salesperson and a feeling. This is the second opinion, and it costs less than one upper cabinet.
Pick the one you need
Quote Review
$149Up to three quotes. HST added at checkout.
- Every quote put on the same scope, line by line
- What each one leaves out, in dollars
- Box, door and hardware spec read for what it actually is
- Whether the price is fair for Ontario in 2026, with the range
- A plain answer: sign it, go back with these questions, or walk
Layout Review
$199One drawing or IKEA plan. HST added at checkout.
- Clearances checked against the NKBA guidelines and real life
- Corners, fillers, appliance landing space, door swings
- Drawers versus doors, pantry and island sizing
- What a shop will charge extra for that the drawing hides
- Marked-up drawing back, with the changes I would make
Schedule and Scope Package
$449Both reviews plus a written scope. HST added at checkout.
- Layout review of your drawing or plans
- A cabinet-by-cabinet schedule with sizes and types
- A written scope any shop can price without changing it
- An installed budget range for the schedule
- Quote review of the three quotes that come back
A quote review or layout review is credited in full against the package if you upgrade within 60 days. If your kitchen is in Simcoe County, Muskoka or the Georgian Bay area and we end up quoting it ourselves, the review fee comes off the job.
How it works
- Order. Pick the review and pay by card. HST is added at checkout and you get an emailed receipt and a page telling you exactly what to send.
- Send the paper. Reply to the receipt email with the quotes as PDFs or photos, the drawing, your plans, and the footage from the calculator if you ran it. Phone photos of a paper quote are fine. Blurry phone photos are not.
- Three business days. I read everything, build the grid, check the numbers against current Ontario rates, and write it up. If I have a question that changes the answer, I email you before I finish.
- You get a written review. A PDF, two to four pages, that you can forward to the shops. Most people do, and the quotes get better.
What a review actually says
Here is what one reads like, written on the three quotes from the worked example in the quote comparison guide, mid-grade painted shaker with quartz:
Quote B, $19,800. This is the only quote of the three that includes installation, crown and the demolition, so it looks expensive and is the middle price. The box spec in writing is 3/4-inch melamine with a 1/2-inch back, which is the best box of the three and the reason I would not try to beat them down. The $4,000 countertop allowance is low for 60 square feet of quartz; expect $6,200 to $6,800 from a fabricator, so budget the kitchen at about $22,500 before HST, not $19,800.
Quote A, $14,200. Cabinets only. Add install, trim, demolition, runners and the four extra drawer stacks your scope asks for and it is $21,650 with the thinnest box of the three. This is the one to set aside, politely.
What I would do: sign B, after asking them to replace the countertop allowance with a fabricator’s quote on your actual slab choice, and to confirm the undermount runner brand in writing. Both are fair asks. Neither should change the cabinet price.
That is the whole product. Not a report with a cover page. An answer, with the reasons, from someone who has no reason to want you to sign any of them.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Worth it if
You have two or three quotes and they are thousands apart. The shop’s drawing has a corner you do not understand. The deposit asked for feels high. You are about to order an IKEA kitchen from the planner and nobody has checked it. The quote has the word “allowance” on it more than once.
Not worth it if
You have one quote from a shop a friend used and you trust it. The kitchen is under $8,000. You just want someone to tell you the quote is fine, which I will only do if it is. Or you want a designer; this is a builder’s read on cost, fit and what will go wrong, not a mood board.
The one promise
If the review does not tell you something you did not already know, or does not find at least the fee’s worth of difference between what you were about to sign and what you should, say so when it arrives and the fee comes back. Kitchen quotes are not written for the reader, so I do not expect to pay that out often.
Independence is the other promise. No shop pays to be mentioned. If a review says a quote is good, it is because the quote is good. If your kitchen is outside our own service area and you ask, we can introduce one vetted shop in your region, and we say so plainly when we do.
Want to ask something first?
The Order buttons above take you straight to secure card checkout. If you would rather ask a question before paying, or you are not sure which review fits, fill this in and press Send. Your email program opens with the request filled in; attach anything useful. We reply within one business day.
Questions people ask
Do you sell kitchens? How is this independent?
We build houses in Simcoe County and around Georgian Bay, and in that area we will sometimes quote a kitchen ourselves. Everywhere else in Ontario we do not sell cabinets, do not install them and do not take a cut from the shop you choose. If your kitchen is in our area, we tell you up front and credit the review against any job we do.
What do I need to send?
For a quote review: the quotes, every page, including the drawing the shop based it on. For a layout review: the drawing or the IKEA planner export, your room dimensions, and where the window, doors and existing plumbing are. For the package: house plans or a measured sketch, and what you want the kitchen to do. Phone photos of paper are fine if they are legible.
Can you review an IKEA planner file?
Yes. Export the plan as a PDF from the IKEA kitchen planner, or send screenshots of the plan view and the item list. The item list is the important part; it is where the missing panels and fillers show up.
Will you tell the shop what you found?
No. The review is yours. Most people forward it to the shops themselves, and most shops respond well to it, because it is a list of specific questions rather than “can you do better.”
Is three business days firm?
Yes for the quote and layout reviews. The package takes five because the schedule is built from scratch. If a shop has given you a deadline, say so in the order and I will tell you straight away whether it can be met.
What if my quotes are for a whole renovation, not just cabinets?
Send them. The review covers the cabinet, countertop and installation lines in detail and reads the rest, flooring, electrical, plumbing, for the usual gaps. If the whole-renovation side needs more than that, I will say so rather than pretend.
Before you sign anything
Three quotes on one scope, a small deposit, the box spec in writing. If you have done all that and still cannot tell which one to sign, that is exactly what this is for. If you have not done it yet, start with the guide to comparing kitchen quotes; it is free and it might be enough.
