Kitchen Renovation Cost in Ontario (2026): The Whole Job, Trade by Trade

The three kitchens people actually buy

All three are on the reference kitchen used across this site: a 150 square foot room, 18 feet of base cabinets along the walls, a 6-foot island, mid-range finishes, in a detached house built after 1980, with a contractor running the job. Your room goes into the renovation cost calculator and comes out with its own version of this table.

Rounded from the calculator with its default rates. The refresh assumes the cabinet boxes are worth painting, which in a 1990s kitchen they usually are and in a 1970s one they usually are not. Premium cabinets add about $10,000 to the middle two columns; luxury adds $20,000 and up.

Where the money goes

On the middle kitchen, which is the one most people build, the budget splits roughly like this. The proportions hold across most Ontario kitchens; the numbers scale with the grade.

Every line, what it is, and what it costs

Cabinets: $3,400 to $40,000 and up

Sprayed in place at about $140 per foot of run if the boxes are sound; refaced at $260 per foot if you want new doors on good plywood boxes; new from $230 per foot of base run for builder grade to $900 for luxury, installed with trim. The grades, the box specs and the IKEA question are in the cabinet cost guide. Lead time is six to ten weeks for semi-custom, which is why the cabinet order date sets the whole schedule.

Countertop: $2,700 to $9,000

Laminate at $45 per square foot to porcelain at $150, with mid-tier quartz at $105 being the Ontario default. The reference kitchen has 59 square feet. Templated after the cabinets are in, installed a week or two later, and the sink is out of action in between. The countertop guide has the materials and the seams.

Backsplash: $600 to $3,000

Ceramic tile installed at about $22 per square foot over the 27 square feet behind an 18-foot run is $600. Mosaic or handmade tile doubles it. A slab backsplash in the counter material is $2,800 and up and is the current fashion. The tile goes on after the counters and before the final electrical.

Flooring: $1,200 to $2,700

Vinyl plank at $8 per square foot, engineered hardwood at $13, porcelain tile at $18, installed on a prepared subfloor. The floor goes in before the cabinets in a proper job, so the cabinets sit on it and the dishwasher can come out later. Levelling compound on an old subfloor is the surprise line here.

Electrical: $1,800 to $4,500

A kitchen under the current Ontario Electrical Safety Code wants dedicated circuits for the fridge, the dishwasher, the microwave and the range, split or 20-amp counter receptacles, an outlet on the island, and GFCI protection near the sink. Updating a 1990s kitchen to that is about $1,800 with pot lights and under-cabinet lighting. A 1960s kitchen with a 60-amp panel is a rewire and sometimes a panel upgrade, which is the $4,500. The work needs an ESA permit and inspection, which your electrician pulls; a contractor who skips it is saving $150 and leaving you with an uninsurable kitchen.

Plumbing: $800 to $4,500

Same spots is a reconnect: new supply lines, a new trap, the dishwasher and the fridge water line, $800. Moving the sink along the same wall is a drain extension and a vent check, $2,500. Sink to the island or a new wall is a new drain run under the floor, a vent through a wall or roof, usually a permit, and the floor opened up, $4,500 and climbing. The sink location is the single biggest cost decision in a kitchen layout, and the drawing never shows it.

Walls: $1,500 to $9,000

Closing a doorway is $1,500. Removing a non-load-bearing wall is a day of demolition and two of drywall, $2,500. Removing a load-bearing wall means an engineer’s letter, a beam sized for the span, posts carried down to the foundation, a building permit and an inspection, $9,000 on a typical span and more on a long one. The wall between the kitchen and the dining room in a 1970s side-split is load-bearing about half the time. Find out before you fall in love with open-concept.

Demolition and disposal: $1,200 to $3,200

Cabinets and counters out, $1,200. Full gut to the studs and subfloor, $2,200. Add a wall and ceiling, $3,200. Two people, a bin, a dump run, and a report on what they found behind the old cabinets, which is the first contingency spend.

Drywall and paint: $900 to $3,500

Every kitchen needs some: the wall behind the old uppers is a different colour and has holes in it. A same-layout job is patch, skim, prime and paint, $1,800. A gut is new drywall, $3,500. Primer matters in a kitchen more than anywhere else in the house.

Appliances: $5,000 to $35,000

A budget set of fridge, range, dishwasher and hood is $5,000. Mid-range is $9,000. Premium with a panel-ready dishwasher and a counter-depth fridge is $18,000. Built-in with a 36-inch range and a column fridge is $35,000 and up. Pick them before the cabinet drawing is final; the openings are sized to them.

Permit and design: $500 to $2,500

A municipal building permit for a kitchen with plumbing, structural or significant electrical changes is a few hundred dollars and two to four weeks; the municipality sets it and your contractor should be the applicant. A same-layout cabinet swap does not need one. A kitchen designer for drawings and selections is $1,500 to $2,500 and worth it on a layout change, less so on a same-layout job where the shop’s designer does the drawing in the price.

Contractor coordination: 15 to 20% of the trade work

What a renovation contractor charges to own the schedule, the trades, the permit, the problems and the phone. Applied to the trade work and finishing, not usually to the cabinets, counters and appliances, which pass through at a smaller margin already in the price. On a same-layout kitchen it is $1,500 to $3,000; on a layout change it is $5,000 and up and worth every dollar.

Contingency: 10%

Spent, on average, on what is behind the wall: a rotted subfloor under the dishwasher, a vent stack where the island was going, aluminum wiring, a floor that is an inch out across the room. On a house built before 1980, budget 15%. The contingency is not optional; the only question is whether it is in the budget or on a credit card.

Contractor or do it yourself?

The lines that show up after you sign

1. Subfloor. The dishwasher leaked for six years before anyone noticed. $600 to $2,000 of new plywood and the floor schedule slips a week.
2. The panel. Three new circuits and no spaces. A panel upgrade is $2,500 to $4,000 and an ESA inspection.
3. The vent stack. It is in the wall you wanted to remove, or exactly where the island sink drain needs to go. Rerouting a stack is $1,500 to $3,000 if it can be done at all.
4. Asbestos. Vinyl floor tile and the adhesive under it, drywall compound and some ceiling textures in houses before about 1985 can contain it. Testing is $100 a sample; abatement of a kitchen floor is $2,000 to $5,000 and a week.
5. The floor is not level. An inch out across twelve feet means levelling compound under the new floor and shims under every cabinet. $500 to $1,500.
6. The appliances changed. The fridge you bought on sale is two inches deeper than the one on the drawing. The cabinet shop charges for the new panel and the install waits for it.
7. Eating. Eight weeks of takeout for a family is $2,000 to $3,000. Put it in the budget and stop being surprised by it.

How to pay for it without getting hurt

A good contractor’s payment schedule is tied to stages, not dates: a deposit at signing, a payment when cabinets are ordered, one at rough-in inspection, one at cabinet install, one at substantial completion, and 10% held back until the deficiencies are done and the lien period has run. Ontario’s consumer guidance says keep the deposit small, get it all in writing, and know that a final price cannot be more than 10% over a written estimate without your written agreement; the province spells it out on its renovation rights page. A contractor who wants half up front, or who is paid in full before the counters are in, has moved the risk from their business to your kitchen.

Before you sign anything, put the three quotes on one grid using the quote comparison guide. Renovation quotes hide more than cabinet quotes do, because there are more lines to leave off.