Kitchen conversion, help needed please!!!

We were going to have two rooms knocked into one (our current kitchen and a "utility" room beside it, which is actually bigger than the kitchen itself), and a small extension built to square off the area, which would have been L shaped otherwise. I wanted the wall containing the very dated serving hatch between the kitchen and dining room opened out, to put a doorway in, and the door between the kitchen and the hallway widened just slightly.

Then having the kitchen fitted.

My husband thought that the building work would be around £5-6000, I thought he had under estimated and that it would be nearer to £15,000

We were both wildly out, as the three quotes we got were all in the range of £26,000 - £29,000.

And that was just the building work - not including the kitchen!

So be prepared for it to cost a lot more than you think.

Needless so say, our budget didn't run that far, and it didn't get done.

Suspect it depends on where you live. We had a load bearing wall taken down and an RSJ put up, previous kitchen was fully tiled and they were removed, whole area was replastered. Ceiling had to be removed and replaced for recessed lights to be fitted as there had been leaks from bathroom above. Electrics for new kitchen installed. Came to 12K. Then there was the cost of the kitchen and it’s fitting, tiling, flooring and decorating on top. Not much change from £30K altogether.
And it wasn’t a high end kitchen! These are Surrey prices for 2018. Still love it though. Wonderful to work in and a much better use of space. Oh and try to get the work done in the summer. So much easier to move cooking outside.

That sounds excessive to me. £5000-£12000 and that does not include the cost of the new kitchen? I should get some more quotes, perhaps neighbours who have had building work done recently can recommend their builder? Does your neighbourhood have a Facebook page? If so, ask on there. Remember that some builders will quote high if they don't want to take on your job.

We just did it ourselves (apart from the electrics and new ceiling) and the entire new fitted kitchen-diner, flooring etc. came in at £5,000!

Very (very) dusty and lots of hard work but all pretty easy and we had a temporary kitchen in the extension until it was over. The majority of expense goes on labour, so the more you can do yourself, the better. I really enjoyed taking down the wall!

(What we did)
Removed wall
Bricked up door half way, installed window
Moved plumbing for sink and dishwasher
Took down ceilings
(first fix electrics, new ceiling)
Installed cabinets/appliances
Installed bespoke worktops
(final electrics, cooker hood)
decorated
tiled
laid new floor

Thanks everyone, it really helps to hear about everyone else's experiences.

My son and DIL want to do something similar, and I think they had a quote of about £15,000 all in. Kitchen as well, but that was providing the job was straight forward! Sometimes the price can change on site, due to unforeseen problems, and that’s maybe what accounts for the difference in quotes. Some builders assume problems before they start. We’ve just had a kitchen refurb, £11,000. Magnet supplied the goods and were excellent. They have all the builders cards, and you can take as many as you like and get quotes. Howdens are the same. Do shop around, it’s a big job, and you need to be sure. Good luck.

We live in an apartment and have an open plan kitchen/lounge. The kitchen part is quite compact. We had the kitchen replaced about 3 years ago and the cost for taking out the old kitchen, replacing with the new, retiling and a new cooker was about 7k. This included the cost of the units and work tops.
My advice is try and get recommendations for the building work. I have heard some horror stories about unscrupulous builders.
Good luck.

I would be asking for builder/small tradesmen recommendations on the local town Facebook page and on the Nextdoor website, maybe getting more loval quotes in addition to the one’s you have if appropriate?

Had a kitchen/diner/utility refurb recently - chose a small family local company, they agreed they could do it in the 2 months that I was vacating the house for a roadtrip - so minimal intrusion for me. Alas they actually took 11 months.....

I suppose it can depend on where you live but from what you've described 12K does seem excessive. It's several years since we had major work done to our kitchen but I think the final bill, which included building work, the fitted kitchen itself together with integrated appliances and a range cooker was about 20K.

If one of the quotes was in the region of 8K I'd go for that I think.

It's a pain and no mistake having work done and then the new kitchen fitted. We ate out or had takeaways until it was finished. One of those jobs that you wish you'd never started but are so glad you did, when it's completed.

Hope it goes well.

I shall be very interested to hear this too, as am hoping to have my kitchen renovated! rather than having the wall knocked down, though, I would like to simply have a large hatch between the 2 rooms, to let the light in from the kitchen - as I said, I'll look forward to comments.