A kitchen renovation checklist is not a list of things to buy. It is the order in which decisions have to be made, written down before any trade is contacted, so that the quotes you receive price one kitchen rather than three. The reason most Irish kitchen renovations drift over budget is not poor workmanship — it is that decisions were made out of order, after the price was set, when each one became a variation rather than a choice.
A working kitchen renovation checklist closes that gap. It forces every decision that affects the price to be made before the price is quoted, and it sequences those decisions so that the layout is settled before the units are chosen, the units before the worktop, the services before the trades are booked. The prepared homeowner who works from a checklist arrives at the first quote conversation already knowing what the trade knows.
A kitchen renovation is decided on paper before any trade arrives; the checklist is where the real budget is set.
What follows is the definitive checklist for an Irish kitchen renovation — every decision, in the order it has to be made, with the planning, certification, and tax facts that quietly move the final invoice. Read it once and the kitchen is half-planned before you ring anybody.
Why a kitchen renovation needs a checklist before a quote
Because a quote is only as good as the brief it prices. When a homeowner asks three kitchen fitters to quote without a settled specification, each one fills the gaps differently — one assumes flat-pack units, one assumes the sink stays where it is, one quietly excludes the making-good and the appliance connection. The three numbers that come back are not comparable, because they are not pricing the same kitchen. The checklist is what makes them comparable.
The second reason is sequence. A kitchen renovation has a dependency order that does not bend: the layout decides where the services run, the services decide which trades are needed, the units decide a third of the budget, and the worktop cannot be templated until the units are set. A decision made out of that order is a decision made twice — once on paper and once again as a variation. A kitchen renovation checklist exists to hold the sequence so that no decision is paid for twice.
The third reason is leverage. Every decision a homeowner locks before signing is a decision the builder cannot reprice later. Every decision left open is a decision the builder gets to make on their terms, at their margin, after the contract is signed. The checklist is not paperwork — it is the homeowner keeping control of the decisions that set the cost.
What goes on a kitchen renovation checklist
Every Irish kitchen renovation moves through the same decisions in the same order. The checklist below is that order. Work down it before the first trade conversation, and the brief you hand out is specific enough that the quotes come back genuinely comparable. The on-site version of this sequence — the order the trades physically run in — is in the kitchen renovation order of trades.
- Write the brief around how you actually use the kitchen. Document, before anything else, how the household cooks, stores, and gathers — where the bins go, how many cook at once, whether the kitchen is also a dining or working space — because the brief is the single document every later decision and every quote is measured against.
- Set a real budget and confirm how the VAT will fall. Fix a number you can defend rather than an aspirational one, and confirm with each trade whether the job qualifies for the reduced 13.5 percent VAT rate or tips into the standard 23 percent under the two-thirds rule, because on a units-heavy kitchen that distinction is real money.
- Settle the layout and the work triangle. Decide the positions of the sink, hob, and fridge — the work triangle the kitchen is used through — before any units are chosen, because the layout decides where the services run and therefore which trades the project needs.
- Choose the units and the door profile. Lock the cabinetry range, carcase quality, and door style, because the units typically account for 30 to 40 percent of the total spend and are the single largest decision on the checklist.
- Specify the worktop material. Select the worktop — laminate, solid wood, quartz, or stone — knowing it cannot be templated until the units are installed, so the decision is made now and the measurement is taken later.
- Decide the splashback. Confirm the splashback material and extent, because tile, glass, and stone each carry different costs and different trade dependencies, and a late change here delays the tiler.
- Fix the hob, appliances, and the plumbing and electrical points. Decide every appliance and whether the hob is gas, electric, or induction, then mark every plumbing and electrical point on the layout, because moving a service after first fix is one of the most common and most expensive variations in any Irish kitchen.
- Plan the lighting in layers. Specify task, ambient, and feature lighting together with the electrician, because lighting circuits are set at first fix and adding a switched circuit after the walls are closed means opening them again.
- Choose the flooring. Select the floor finish and confirm it suits a kitchen — slip resistance, water tolerance, and how it meets the units and any adjoining room — so the flooring trade prices the right material and subfloor preparation.
- Check planning and the building-control position. Confirm whether the work is exempted development or whether an extension or material alteration brings it inside planning permission and the Commencement Notice rules, so a notification window does not stall the project before the first trade is booked.
- Sequence the trades and the long-lead orders. Map the order the trades run in and place the long-lead orders early — units and stone worktops in particular carry lead times that must start before site work, or the project waits on a delivery.
- Walk the defects list before the final payment. Inspect every element against the brief — unit alignment, worktop joints, sealant, appliance connection, and the Safe Electric certificate — before releasing the final payment, because the leverage to compel rework disappears the moment that payment clears.
Get your kitchen cost baseline first
The free Renovation Cost Calculator gives you a trade-by-trade estimate in under 5 minutes — before your first trade conversation. The number it produces is the benchmark every decision on the checklist is measured against.
Which decisions to lock before you get a quote
Not every item on the checklist carries the same weight at quoting time. Three decisions move the price more than all the others combined, and all three have to be locked before a single trade is asked to quote, or the quotes come back pricing different kitchens. The first is the units. Because cabinetry is 30 to 40 percent of the spend, a quote issued before the units are chosen is a quote built on a guess, and the gap between a flat-pack guess and a bespoke one is a third of the project.
The second is whether the services move. Leaving the hob, sink, and appliances where they are keeps the electrical and plumbing work to a minimum; relocating them pulls a registered electrician and a plumber onto the project, with the certification and making-good that follow. This single decision is what most often separates a 12,000 euro kitchen from a 22,000 euro one, and it has to be settled on the layout before anyone prices the job. Where homeowners most often get this wrong is covered in the most common kitchen renovation mistakes Irish homeowners make.
The third is the specification of everything the trades will quote against — worktop, splashback, appliances, flooring — locked in writing so that three quotes price one kitchen. A specification left open is an invitation for each trade to assume the cheapest version, win the job on the low number, and recover the difference as variations once the work has started. Lock the three, and the quotes are comparable. Leave any open, and every quote is a different project.
Units, whether the services move, and the written specification. Settle all three before you request a single quote, and the quotes that come back are comparable. Leave any of them open, and every quote prices a different kitchen.
Units set 30 to 40 percent of the spend. Service relocation decides whether the trades list is short or long. The specification is what stops a low quote becoming a high invoice.
What the 13.5 percent VAT rate means for your budget
VAT is the cost line most Irish homeowners get wrong on a kitchen, because renovation work is not all charged at the same rate. Renovation and installation services are generally charged at the reduced 13.5 percent VAT rate rather than the standard 23 percent — a meaningful saving on a labour-heavy job, and a genuine reason to keep the supply and the fitting on the same invoice rather than buying the units separately. The reduced rate is the default for the fitting of kitchens, plumbing, tiling, rewiring, and plastering.
The catch is the two-thirds rule. If the cost of the materials supplied exceeds two-thirds of the total VAT-exclusive price, the whole job is charged at the standard 23 percent rate instead of 13.5 percent. The mechanics are set out by Revenue, and on a units-heavy kitchen — where expensive cabinetry is the bulk of the invoice — the rule is easy to trip. The practical effect is that how a job is structured and invoiced can change the VAT due, so it is worth confirming with the trade before signing how the materials and labour will be split.
This is not a detail to leave to the final invoice. A kitchen quoted at the reduced rate and then re-rated to 23 percent because the units pushed the materials over the two-thirds threshold is a kitchen that has quietly gained nearly ten percent in tax. The current rates and the qualifying-services detail are set out by Citizens Information. Build the VAT treatment into the budget at the start, not the finish.
Where the checklist fits the bigger system
A kitchen renovation checklist is the room-level expression of a larger sequence. Every renovation — kitchen, bathroom, or whole house — moves through the same twelve phases from brief to sign-off, and the checklist above is those phases applied to a kitchen specifically. The decisions change room to room; the order does not. The full sequence every renovation runs through is laid out in The 12-Phase System.
What the checklist does is convert that sequence into a working document the homeowner can hold a project to. The brief is phase one. The budget and VAT position are phase two. The specification is phase three. The trades and long-lead orders are phases four through seven. The defects walk is phase eleven. A homeowner who can point to a settled decision for each line is a homeowner who is genuinely at the phase they think they are at — and not, as so often happens, three phases behind the calendar.
That is the difference between a kitchen that finishes close to the agreed price and one that does not. The checklist is the prerequisite; the system is what carries it through. A homeowner who works the checklist and then runs the phases in order is the homeowner the trade prices accurately rather than the one the trade prices to.
See The Kitchen Renovation Blueprint
Every decision on the checklist, run through every phase of an Irish kitchen renovation — the specification to lock, the certificates to demand, the contingency to protect — before each one needs to be made.
If the cost baseline is the right first step, use the free Renovation Cost Calculator — a trade-by-trade estimate for your specific kitchen, in under 5 minutes, before any trade has quoted.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a kitchen renovation checklist in Ireland?
A kitchen renovation checklist should run, in order: the brief built around how the household uses the kitchen, the budget and VAT position, the layout and work triangle, the units and door profile, the worktop, the splashback, the hob and appliances and the plumbing and electrical points, the lighting, the flooring, the planning and building-control check, the trade sequence and long-lead orders, and the defects walk before final payment. Working the list in that order is what makes returned quotes genuinely comparable.
What decisions should I lock before getting a kitchen quote?
Lock three decisions before requesting any quote: the units, because cabinetry is 30 to 40 percent of the spend; whether the hob, sink, and appliances relocate, because moving the services pulls in a registered electrician and plumber; and the written specification of the worktop, splashback, appliances, and flooring, so every trade prices the same kitchen. Leave any of the three open and each quote will price a different project.
What VAT rate applies to a kitchen renovation in Ireland?
Renovation and fitting services are generally charged at the reduced 13.5 percent VAT rate rather than the standard 23 percent. However, under the two-thirds rule, if the cost of the materials supplied exceeds two-thirds of the total VAT-exclusive price, the whole job is charged at 23 percent instead. On a units-heavy kitchen this is easy to trip, so confirm with the trade before signing how the materials and labour will be invoiced.
Do you need planning permission to renovate a kitchen in Ireland?
Usually no. Internal kitchen renovations are generally classed as exempted development, so no planning permission is required, provided the use of the building and its external appearance are unchanged. Planning permission is only needed if the work involves an extension above the exemption limits. Where the work is a material alteration to the structure, a Commencement Notice must be lodged with Building Control between 14 and 28 days before work begins.
In what order should kitchen renovation decisions be made?
The order follows the dependency chain: the brief first, then the budget, then the layout and work triangle, then the units, then the worktop, then the splashback, then the hob and the plumbing and electrical points, then lighting, then flooring. The layout has to be settled before the units because it decides where the services run, and the worktop cannot be templated until the units are installed. Making a decision out of that order means making it twice.
Do I need a certified electrician for kitchen electrical work in Ireland?
Yes. All domestic electrical work must be carried out by a Safe Electric registered electrician, who issues a Completion Certificate for the work. Any gas work, such as relocating a gas hob, must be carried out by a Registered Gas Installer. These certificates are proof the work is compliant and should be in hand before the final payment is released, because a missing certificate can become a problem when the home is later sold.