The average kitchen remodel cost is about $26,900, and most homeowners spend between $14,600 and $41,500. Those figures come from a survey of more than 10,000 homeowners.
A minor remodel that keeps the layout runs $10,000 to $20,000. A major remodel with new cabinets, counters and appliances runs $20,000 to $65,000. A complete gut that moves plumbing and changes the footprint starts around $65,000 and climbs past $130,000.
The national average is a poor guide for a Wilkes-Barre kitchen, and the reason has nothing to do with your kitchen. It’s one number about your house.
What each tier costs, and what you actually get
Cost pages throw one average at you. The average is close to meaningless on its own, because a kitchen remodel isn’t one product, it’s three.
| Scale of project | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Minor | $10,000 to $20,000 |
| Major | $20,000 to $65,000 |
| Complete | $65,000 to $130,000 and up |
A minor remodel leaves the layout alone. You paint, you refinish or reface the cabinet boxes or swap them for stock cabinets, you keep most of the appliances or replace one or two, and you put in new countertops, new flooring, a new sink and faucet. Nothing behind the wall gets touched.
A major remodel replaces the room without moving it. New appliances and disposal, upgraded flooring and countertops, semi custom cabinetry with new hardware, often an island, new lighting, better fixtures. The sink stays roughly where the sink was.
A complete remodel changes the footprint. Walls move, plumbing and electrical and gas get relocated, and the finishes usually climb to custom cabinetry and luxury countertops because nobody spends that on structure and then buys laminate.
Most homeowners who say they want a “full kitchen remodel” describe the major tier and price the minor tier. That mismatch is where the sticker shock lives.
What your kitchen costs by size
Per square foot is the number everyone reaches for and it’s the number that misleads most. Nationally, a kitchen remodel runs $75 to $250 per square foot.
| Kitchen size | Typical total |
|---|---|
| 75 square feet | $5,600 to $17,500 |
| 100 square feet | $7,500 to $25,000 |
| 150 square feet | $11,250 to $37,500 |
| 200 square feet | $15,000 to $50,000 |
Look at the 75 square foot row. The top of that range is more than three times the bottom, for the same room. Per square foot tells you almost nothing at small sizes, because the costs that don’t scale, the design work, the permit, the plumber’s minimum, the day the crew loses to demolition regardless, all get spread over very little floor.
That’s why small kitchens feel expensive. A small kitchen remodel averages about $12,750, which is less money than a big one and more money per foot.
The other trap is that two very different per square foot bands get published. The $75 to $250 band comes from homeowner survey data across every kind of project.
Pennsylvania design build firms publish $150 to $450, and they aren’t inflating. They’re pricing a designed, permitted, fully managed renovation with one contract and one warranty.
Both numbers are real. They describe different products.
Where every dollar actually goes
Here’s what the pieces cost on their own, which is the only way to sanity check a quote.
| Line item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Cabinets | $2,000 to $28,000 and up |
| Countertop installation | $1,800 to $4,400, more for premium stone |
| Backsplash | $500 to $1,500, or $15 to $40 per square foot |
| Flooring | $1,000 to $5,000 installed |
| Appliances | under $100 to $5,000 each, plus $125 to $300 to install |
| Sink and faucet | about $420 and $260 to install, sinks $210 to $2,000 |
| Lighting | $500 to $2,000, under cabinet runs $230 to $300 |
| Electrical | electricians $50 to $100 per hour, a new outlet $100 to $450, a panel $520 to $2,000 |
| Plumbing | plumbers $45 to $200 per hour, new pipework $1,500 to $15,000 |
| Moving a gas line | $375 to $750 |
| Painting the room | about $900 for a 150 to 250 square foot kitchen |
Cabinets are the biggest line by a wide margin, usually 30 to 40 percent of the whole budget. The tier you choose there moves the total more than any other decision: stock cabinets run $100 to $300 per linear foot, custom run $500 to $1,200. On a typical 20 linear foot kitchen that gap alone is worth roughly $8,000 to $18,000.
Labor is the other large share, commonly about 25 percent of the bill, which works out to roughly $2,500 for every $10,000 of project. A general contractor’s fee usually sits at 10 to 20 percent of project cost on top of the trades.
Permits are cheaper here than the national numbers suggest. Nationally, remodeling permits average $460 to $2,770.
In Wilkes-Barre the building permit fee is set by the cost of the work: $59.50 under $2,500, $114.50 up to $4,999.99, $169.50 up to $7,499.99, and $224.50 up to $9,999.99, with larger jobs on a separate schedule and a $4.50 state training fee on every permit. Those are the city’s published figures.
It’s a rare line where a local number beats the national one outright, and it’s worth knowing before a quote tries to bury it. The full picture on what permits cost and how long they take covers the timing side.
What actually moves the price
Four things do most of the work, and only one of them is about taste.
Whether the services move is the fork. A kitchen where the plumbing, gas and wiring stay put is a finish carpentry job with appliances.
Move the sink and you’re paying to reroute supply lines and a drain that has to fall at a fixed slope all the way to the stack. Move the range and you need a gas line relocated or a new high amperage circuit. Each one is a trade, a schedule slot and an inspection.
That single decision is usually the difference between the major tier and the complete tier, and it’s the reason two identical looking kitchens come back twenty thousand dollars apart. The complete kitchen remodeling guide walks through how that decision sets the calendar and the permit as well as the price.
The cabinet tier comes next: stock, semi custom or custom. See the numbers above. Nothing else you choose has that range.
The condition behind the wall is the one nobody prices. In housing as old as most of Wilkes-Barre’s, opening a kitchen wall regularly turns up knob and tube wiring, galvanized supply lines, or a subfloor that has been quietly wet under the dishwasher for years. None of it is visible at quoting time, and all of it is real money.
The allowances in your estimate do the rest. An allowance is a placeholder for something you haven’t picked yet, usually tile, fixtures or countertops, and anything you choose above it comes out of your pocket at the end.
Two bids can look thousands apart purely because one carried realistic allowances and the other carried optimistic ones. That’s also the most common reason a project ends up over budget without anyone doing anything wrong, and it sits alongside the other costs that nobody warns you about.
What a kitchen remodel costs in Northeast Pennsylvania
The same homeowner survey that produces the national average also breaks out by region, and almost nobody quotes that part. In the Northeast, kitchen remodels run $10,800 to $40,400. That’s a lower ceiling than the national spread and a much lower ceiling than the Northwest’s $25,600 to $61,100.
Now the number that actually matters, and it isn’t about your kitchen at all. It’s your home’s value.
The common guidance is to budget 5 to 10 percent of a home’s value for any substantial renovation that needs a general contractor. Wilkes-Barre’s median home sale price was about $183,000 over the three months ending May 2026, roughly 57 percent below the national median.
Run that math and the picture gets very clear. Five to ten percent of a typical Wilkes-Barre home is $9,000 to $18,000, which lands squarely in the minor tier. A $65,000 complete remodel on that same house is more than a third of what the entire property is worth.
That doesn’t make a $65,000 kitchen wrong. If you’re staying fifteen years and you can afford it, buy the kitchen you want. But it does mean the national average is the wrong anchor here, and it means the resale argument stops working long before it stops working in a market where houses sell for four hundred thousand.
One more data point fits neatly with this. In the most recent national Cost vs Value report, a minor kitchen remodel cost $28,458 and returned $32,141 at resale, recouping 112.9 percent. It was the only interior project in the top five, and a major kitchen recoups roughly half.
In a modestly priced market, the tier that pays you back is also the tier your house supports.
How to get your own number this week
Averages are for orientation. Here’s how to replace them with a figure that’s actually yours.
- Measure the run and count the linear feet of base and wall cabinets you’ll replace. That one number drives the biggest line on the estimate.
- Answer the services question honestly. Is the sink moving? Is the range moving? Is the fridge going somewhere new? If all three answers are no, you’re pricing the major tier at most.
- Pick your cabinet tier before you shop finishes: stock, semi custom or custom. Everything else is rounding by comparison.
- Price the appliances you’d actually buy, not the display models, and add $125 to $300 each to install.
- Add 25 percent for labor if you’re assembling this yourself, or expect a general contractor’s 10 to 20 percent on a managed job.
- Add a contingency of 10 to 20 percent, and 20 to 30 percent if the house predates 1940, where the wall usually hides something.
- Get written estimates with the allowances spelled out, then compare them line against line rather than total against total. The method for comparing estimates without getting fooled matters more on kitchens than on any other room.
Where to save without regretting it
Some savings are free and some are borrowed against your future self.
Genuinely free savings: keep the layout, reface sound cabinet boxes instead of replacing them, choose quartz over marble, use luxury vinyl plank instead of hardwood in a room that gets wet, buy last year’s appliance models, and do your own demolition and painting if you have the time and the back for it. Doing some of the labor yourself can offset $3,000 to $6,000.
Expensive savings: skipping the permit, accepting a bid with no allowance detail, hiring the cheapest of three quotes without asking why it’s cheapest, and buying cabinets built to a price that will sag in five years. A bid that lands 20 to 30 percent under the others is usually a scope gap or a material downgrade rather than a bargain.
The one to think hardest about: cabinet hardware and lighting are the cheapest things in a kitchen that change how it feels every single day. Knobs run $1 to $2 apiece at the low end and $500 each at the top. Under cabinet lighting is $230 to $300 installed. Skimping there saves almost nothing and costs you the finished feeling you paid for.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a kitchen remodel cost on average?
About $26,900, with most homeowners paying between $14,600 and $41,500, based on a survey of more than 10,000 homeowners. In the Northeast the range narrows to roughly $10,800 to $40,400. Where you land inside that depends mostly on whether the plumbing moves and which cabinet tier you buy.
Is $30,000 enough for a kitchen remodel?
Yes, for a solid major remodel: new semi custom cabinets, new countertops, new flooring, new appliances and new lighting, with the layout unchanged. It isn’t enough for a gut that relocates plumbing and gas, which starts around $65,000. In the Wilkes-Barre market, $30,000 buys a genuinely finished kitchen.
What is the most expensive part of a kitchen remodel?
Cabinets, at 30 to 40 percent of the total. They run $2,000 to $28,000 or more, and the tier decides it: stock cabinets cost $100 to $300 per linear foot while custom cabinets cost $500 to $1,200. Labor is the next largest share at around 25 percent.
How much should I spend on a kitchen based on my home’s value?
A common guideline is 5 to 10 percent of the home’s value for a substantial renovation. On a $183,000 home, which is close to the Wilkes-Barre median as of spring 2026, that’s $9,000 to $18,000. Spending more can still be right if you plan to stay for years, but it stops being a resale decision and becomes a lifestyle one.
How much does a small kitchen remodel cost?
Small kitchen remodels average about $12,750, and small kitchens usually run 70 to 100 square feet. Expect the per square foot figure to look high, because design fees, permits and trade minimums don’t shrink with the room.
Why are kitchen remodel quotes so different from each other?
Three reasons, in order: different allowances for materials you haven’t chosen yet, different scope where one bid includes electrical or drywall repair that another leaves out, and different assumptions about whether services are moving. Ask each contractor what their allowances assume and the spread usually explains itself.
Can you remodel a kitchen for $10,000?
Yes, at the bottom of the minor tier. That budget covers painting, refacing or refinishing existing cabinet boxes, new countertops in laminate or entry level quartz, a new sink and faucet, new hardware and new lighting, with everything staying where it is. It does not cover new cabinet boxes or any plumbing work.
How much do new kitchen cabinets cost?
Between $2,000 and $28,000 or more installed, depending on tier and how many linear feet you need. Stock cabinets run $100 to $300 per linear foot, custom cabinets $500 to $1,200. On a 20 linear foot kitchen that’s roughly $2,000 to $6,000 for stock against $10,000 to $24,000 for custom.
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