What a kitchen renovation quote actually includes
Two kitchen quotes showing the same final figure can contain very different work. The gap is almost never the units — it is what goes behind them.
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Short answer
What should a complete kitchen quote contain?
A complete kitchen quote has seven blocks: strip-out and certified waste disposal, plumbing, electrics, builder’s work, units and worktop, appliances with the extraction route, and paint plus making good. A full kitchen in Barcelona runs from €4,500 to €16,000, with most projects near €7,900 and about 18 working days on site. The units matter less than people expect. When two offers separate sharply on price, the difference is usually in four items that are not optional: dedicated electrical circuits, a genuine extraction route, new pipework with accessible stopcocks, and making good. A cheap quote is rarely a cheaper kitchen — it is a shorter list.
If you are buying this from another country, the quote is also your specification, your defect list and your evidence. It is worth more than the price it carries.
The seven blocks
Where the money actually goes
| Block | What it covers | Commonly missing from cheap quotes |
|---|---|---|
| Strip-out and waste | Removing units, tiles, floor; skip and disposal | Certified disposal with a licensed carrier |
| Plumbing | Supply, waste runs, accessible stopcocks | New waste run when the sink moves |
| Electrics | Dedicated circuits for oven, hob and dishwasher | Circuits with their own protection; the boletin |
| Builder’s work | Tiling, floor, chasing in, levelling | Making good where old units are removed |
| Units and worktop | Cabinets, fronts, worktop, fitting | Worktop template and the sink cut-out |
| Appliances and extraction | Hood plus the route the air actually takes | The duct run — quoted as a hood only |
| Paint and making good | Painting, trims, final clean | Almost always the item that disappears |
The units are not the story
Cabinets are the visible part and the easiest to compare, so that is where buyers focus and where suppliers compete. But in a full kitchen renovation they rarely reach half the cost. The blocks that decide whether the kitchen works for ten years — circuits, waste, extraction — are invisible the day the job finishes.
Why identical totals mean nothing
Ask both contractors to price the same seven blocks and the totals stop being comparable by accident. Any figure that arrives as one line saying "kitchen renovation" is not a quote; it is a number.
The four omissions
The items that separate two offers
Dedicated circuits and the boletin
A modern kitchen needs its own circuits: oven, hob and dishwasher each draw enough to trip a shared line. Many Spanish flats were wired when a kitchen meant a fridge and a light. If the work touches the consumer unit or increases contracted power, an authorised installer issues a boletin — the certificate that lets the supply be reconnected or upgraded. Ask whether it is included and who registers it.
Extraction that goes somewhere
A hood is an appliance; extraction is a route. In older buildings the air leaves either through the original chimney flue or through a shunt — the shared ventilation duct — which needs a non-return damper so you do not receive your neighbour’s cooking. Venting through the facade is a different matter entirely: the facade is a common element and that is a decision for the owners’ meeting, not for your builder. A quote listing a hood but no duct is quoting half the job.
Waste runs when the sink moves
The bajante, the vertical waste stack, is a common element and does not move even where it crosses your flat. Relocating the sink means running waste at a constant fall under the units, and that consumes usable height inside the cabinet. It is real work and it belongs in the quote as its own line.
Making good
Removing old units exposes untiled walls, unpainted patches and a floor that stops where the old cabinets started. Someone has to close all of it. This is the single most frequently omitted item, and the one most likely to appear later as an extra, when you have no leverage left.
The legal layer
Permissions, VAT and who decides what
The permit follows the work, not the room
A kitchen replaced in the same position is a minor works notification — in Barcelona an assabentat, filed and effective immediately. Move a stack, touch structure or change the facade and you are into a different, slower permit. The quote should say which route applies and who files it. "We do not need anything" is an answer worth testing.
Ten per cent or twenty-one
Renovation work on a home finished more than two years ago can be invoiced at the reduced 10 % VAT rate, provided the contractor does not supply materials above the legal threshold of the taxable base. Above it, the whole job goes to 21 %. On a kitchen that gap is significant, and a serious quote states the rate and why.
What the building has to agree to
The inside of your flat is yours. The facade, the stack, the shunt and the roof are not. Anything that punches through or hangs off a common element is a comunidad decision, taken at the owners’ meeting. If you are not in Spain, that meeting still happens — you attend by written proxy through the administrador, and it needs to be arranged before the trades are booked, not after.
Buying it from abroad
How to compare quotes you cannot walk through
Make them quote the same seven blocks
Send both contractors the same list and ask for a price per block. Any item they intend to exclude has to be written as excluded. This one request converts two unreadable numbers into a genuine comparison, and it costs you nothing.
Milestones, not a lump sum
Tie payments to visible stages: strip-out complete, first fix done and photographed, units fitted, worktop templated, handover. A deposit followed by a large payment against nothing verifiable is how remote projects go wrong — the schedule of payments is the only remote control you actually hold.
Photos before things close
- Open walls with the new circuits and pipework visible, before tiling
- The extraction duct along its full route, before the ceiling is closed
- The waste run under the units showing the fall, if the sink has moved
- The base cabinet with the sink dry-fitted, before the worktop is templated
- The consumer unit with the new circuits labelled, plus a copy of the boletin
Keep the paperwork
Invoices with the VAT rate stated, the boletin, the appliance warranties and the notification reference belong in one folder. You will want them if you sell, if you let the flat, or the first time something needs fixing and you are 2,000 km away.
Frequently asked
Common questions
Seven blocks: strip-out and certified waste disposal, plumbing, electrics with dedicated circuits, builder’s work, units and worktop, appliances with the full extraction route, and paint plus making good. Anything arriving as a single line saying "kitchen renovation" is a number, not a quote.
Usually because of four items rather than the units: dedicated electrical circuits with their certificate, a real extraction route rather than just a hood, new waste pipework when the sink moves, and making good after the old kitchen comes out. The cheaper quote is normally a shorter list, not a cheaper kitchen.
Replacing a kitchen in the same position is normally a minor works notification, effective on filing. Moving the waste stack, touching structure or altering the facade requires a different and slower permit. The quote should state which route applies and who is responsible for filing it.
Not as a purely private decision. The facade is a common element of the building, so opening it is a matter for the owners’ meeting and in protected buildings may not be permitted at all. The usual routes are the original chimney flue or the shared shunt duct with a non-return damper fitted.
Quote the same seven blocks with both contractors, tie payments to verifiable milestones, and require photographs at the points where work becomes invisible: open walls before tiling, the duct along its whole run before the ceiling closes, and the labelled consumer unit with the boletin. Those three images cover most of what cannot be checked afterwards.
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Daniel GarganoFebruary 2026
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