Typically $65,000 to $100,000+
Kitchen Renovations
Kitchen work at the scale that touches plumbing, electrical and sometimes structure. Not a refacing job.
Mid-Island Renovation Group renovates kitchens across Nanaimo and the corridor from Ladysmith to Qualicum Beach, with a kitchen commonly running $65,000 to $100,000+. The Town of Qualicum Beach exempts plumbing fixture replacement from permit only where supply, waste and vent pipes are not rearranged, so if we move your sink or your dishwasher, we file for it. In Cedar and Nanoose Bay the same job answers to the Regional District of Nanaimo instead. Relocating a wall in a 1970s home is a structural job before it is a finishes job, and we get it engineered rather than guessed at.
Kitchen $65,000 to $100,000+. Inside a larger whole-home project the same kitchen costs you less, because the walls are already open and the mechanical work is already scoped.
A kitchen that gets new cabinets is a different job from a kitchen that gets a new layout. A new layout moves plumbing, adds circuits, often removes a wall, and on a home built before 1990 opens up whatever is behind that wall. That's the kind of kitchen job we're talking about here, and it's also the kind that costs less inside a larger renovation than on its own, because the demolition, the mechanical rough-in and the inspections are already happening.
When a kitchen becomes a structural project
Opening a kitchen into a dining or living room usually means removing a wall, and in homes of the era common along this corridor that wall is often carrying load. We replace it with an engineered beam that has a designed load path down to the foundation — a different job from framing a doorway. The beam is not what costs you. Carrying that load down to the foundation at each end is, along with whatever we find when we open it up.
What gets found behind the walls
Kitchens concentrate the mechanical systems, so they concentrate what we find. Poly-B supply lines, whose replacement runs roughly $8,000 to $16,000 across a single-family home, show up in homes built from the late 1970s onward. Galvanized supply in a pre-1950s home runs $9,000 to $18,000 for us to replace. Kitchen circuits installed before modern requirements usually have to be added rather than reused, and where your panel is at capacity a 100 to 200 amp service upgrade runs about $3,500 to $6,500. If your house predates 1990, section 20.112 of the BC Occupational Health and Safety Regulation also applies — a qualified person inspects for hazardous materials before we begin, and sheet flooring and tile adhesive of that era are common places for it.
Permits for kitchen work
Moving fixtures triggers a permit. The Town of Qualicum Beach's building bylaw exempts replacing plumbing fixtures, but only if the supply, waste and vent pipes stay where they are. It also exempts repair and maintenance of lawfully conforming structures. Structural alterations are excluded from both. The Regional District of Nanaimo requires a permit to make interior structural renovations and to complete a previously unfinished area. A kitchen layout change involving a wall and relocated plumbing meets both tests, and filing for it is straightforward. We file it so the work is on record when you sell.
Doing it standalone versus inside a larger project
A standalone kitchen carries its own demolition, its own mechanical rough-in, its own inspections and its own protection of the rest of your house. Inside a whole-home renovation all of that is already under way, so the incremental cost of the kitchen is materially lower. If you are weighing a kitchen now against a broader renovation in two or three years, sequencing the two together is usually the cheaper path for you, and it means we are not demolishing new work later to reach something behind it.
How a kitchen project runs
Layout, structural check and services
We establish whether your wall is load-bearing, where the drains actually run, and whether your panel has capacity.
Hazardous materials check and permit
We survey pre-1990 construction. The permit application follows wherever we are relocating the sink, dishwasher or other fixtures, or altering structure.
Demolition and mechanical rough-in
We rough in plumbing and electrical and have both inspected before anything is closed in.
Finishes, millwork and deficiency walk
Cabinetry, counters, backsplash and appliances, then the deficiency list before final payment.
Kitchen permits by authority on this corridor
Four authorities govern this corridor, and a kitchen that relocates the sink or the range answers to whichever one your address sits in. The Town of Qualicum Beach exempts fixture replacement only where supply, waste and vent pipes are not rearranged; the City of Parksville and the Town of Ladysmith handle their own building permits; Cedar and Nanoose Bay answer to the Regional District of Nanaimo, which requires a permit for interior structural renovations. We confirm which authority governs your address before we file.
Kitchen scope
Kitchen renovation with layout change
Wall removal with engineered beam where required, relocated plumbing and new circuits, custom or semi-custom millwork, counters and appliance integration.
Kitchen within a whole-home project
The same scope sequenced inside a larger renovation, sharing demolition, mechanical rough-in and inspections.
Where kitchen budgets actually move
- The problem
- You've built your kitchen budget around what you can see: cabinets, counters, appliances and flooring.
- What makes it harder
- What moves your price is behind the finishes. A load-bearing wall that needs an engineered beam, poly-B or galvanized supply lines we have to replace once they're open, a panel without spare capacity, or pre-1990 materials that need a survey before demolition.
- What we do
- We run a structural check and a services check during design, and we price those four as line items wherever they apply instead of leaving them to a contingency.
People also ask
- Do I need a permit to renovate a kitchen?
- If we are relocating your fixtures or altering structure, yes. The Town of Qualicum Beach exempts fixture replacement only where supply, waste and vent pipes are not rearranged, and excludes structural alterations from its repair and maintenance exemption. The Regional District of Nanaimo, which governs Cedar and Nanoose Bay, requires a permit for interior structural renovations. If you are replacing cabinets and counters in the existing layout, that generally does not trigger one.
- Can a wall be removed to open up the kitchen?
- Usually, with an engineered beam and a designed load path to the foundation. An engineer has to determine whether a wall is load-bearing — you can't tell just by looking at it. Most of the cost is at the two ends of the beam, where the load has to get down to the foundation.
- How long does a kitchen renovation take?
- Cosmetic renovation work takes 8 to 16 weeks. A kitchen where we remove a wall, relocate plumbing and add circuits runs longer, because the structural and mechanical inspections sit in the middle of the sequence and we order your cabinetry against final field measurements taken after framing rather than off the drawings.
- Is it worth doing the kitchen inside a bigger renovation?
- Generally yes, on cost. Demolition, mechanical rough-in, inspections and site protection are already scoped in a whole-home project, so what the kitchen adds is less than the standalone price we would quote you. It also keeps us from opening up new work two years later to reach something behind it.
Related: whole-home renovations · home additions · bathroom renovations · the renovation process · Ladysmith · Cedar · Nanoose Bay · Parksville · Qualicum Beach
We would rather price your layout change before you choose cabinetry than after. The questionnaire covers scope and budget in about two minutes.
Project inquiry
Tell us about the project
Five questions covering scope, budget, timeline and property. Enough for us to tell whether we are a fit for your project before either of us books a site visit.
Planning a major renovation?
Start with the project questionnaire — five questions covering scope, budget, timeline, and property. That tells us whether we're a fit for your project before either of us books a visit.