Cost per square foot is an output, not an input
Every remodel conversation starts with a rate per square foot because it is the only number that transfers between projects. It is also the number that hides everything. Two jobs at the same rate can differ by a factor of three in what is actually being done — one keeps the kitchen and the windows, the other replaces both — and the rate only tells you that afterwards.
So this page runs it the other way. Price the pieces that can be priced, add them up, and let the rate per square foot fall out at the end as a description of the job you specified. That figure is then worth something: it is comparable to your own last project and to a bid you have in hand, because you know exactly what is inside it.
Note what the page does not do. It does not offer you a typical rate, a typical kitchen or a typical bathroom, because those numbers vary by region, by property age and by specification far more than any single figure could carry, and quoting one would make a guess look like information. Get the rate from bids you have received or from a job you or someone you know has finished.
The order in which money leaves
Across most whole-home projects the large lines are the same few, even though the amounts are not. Kitchens are the largest single room because cabinetry, counters, tile and appliances arrive together in one space. Bathrooms are the most expensive per square foot: demolition, waterproofing, tile, fixtures and the labour to sequence them, all inside a room the size of a hallway, which is why the number of bathrooms drives a budget more than the floor area does.
Windows are the line people cut first and regret, because they are the one item that changes how the building performs rather than how it looks. Carpentry — doors, trim, built-ins, levelling ceilings — is invisible in photographs and structural to the schedule, so it is hard to remove without the rest of the job showing it. Flooring and paint are area-driven, easy to estimate, and where specification changes move the number most predictably. Those quantities have their own pages: flooring, paint, drywall and tile.
What is behind the walls
On an older property the work that does not appear in photographs is the work that appears in change orders. Electrical capacity for a modern kitchen, supply and waste lines that were adequate for the fixtures they were installed with, venting, and whatever the inspector requires once a permit is open — none of it is optional and none of it is visible when the bid is written.
Ask before signing rather than after opening. A contractor who has worked on properties of that age will have an opinion about what is likely, and a line in the bid for investigation costs less than the same discovery three weeks in with the kitchen on the driveway. Removing walls or changing the layout brings permits and possibly structural review, and in a condo or an HOA it brings an approval process with a calendar of its own.
Contingency is not padding
The default here is 15 percent and it is a starting point rather than a safe number. It covers what is found after demolition, the material you change your mind about once it is in the room, the extra outlet, and the week the schedule slips. On a newer property with a tightly specified scope it can be less. On anything older, or where the scope is still moving, it is more.
A project without contingency does not come in on budget. It funds the overruns by removing the last things on the list, which are lighting, window coverings and furniture — the parts you see every day. That is why the furnishings figure is shown outside the construction total on this page: it is a separate budget that arrives after the construction money is gone, and hiding it inside the total is how it gets cut.
Before you sign
Compare bids on scope before price. Two numbers that differ by twenty percent are usually describing different jobs — one includes demolition and disposal, the other does not; one has an allowance for tile at a figure you would never choose, the other specifies the tile you asked for. Line the scopes up first, then the numbers mean something.
Then settle the mechanics in writing: the payment schedule tied to milestones rather than dates, what the workmanship warranty covers and for how long, who pulls the permits, and the rule that no change happens until its price is agreed in writing. That last one is worth more than any negotiation over the headline figure, because unpriced changes are where budgets actually go. And if the work means moving out for a stretch, put the temporary housing and the moving costs in the same spreadsheet — they are part of what the remodel costs even though no contractor invoices for them.
Questions people ask
Is a general contractor or managing the trades myself cheaper?
Managing it yourself removes the general contractor's margin and replaces it with your time and your risk. You are then the one sequencing trades, chasing the person who did not show, and deciding who is responsible when the tile fails over the waterproofing. That trade can work for a single-trade job — flooring, painting, a lighting swap — where there is nothing to coordinate. On a multi-trade remodel with a schedule and a permit, the coordination is most of the job, and doing it badly costs more than the margin saved.
How much contingency is enough?
It depends on how much is unknown, not on the size of the project. A cosmetic refresh of a newer property with a fully specified scope can run on ten percent. An older property where walls are opening, or a scope that is still being decided while work starts, needs considerably more — twenty percent or above is not unusual and is not pessimism. The test is simple: if the money is not there, what gets cut? If the answer is the lighting, the blinds and the furniture, the contingency was too small.
Do contractors include sales tax on materials in their bids?
Sometimes, and you have to ask. Sales tax in the US is set by states and frequently by cities and counties on top of them, so there is no single rate and no national rule — how it applies to construction materials and to labour also differs by state. Some bids are tax-inclusive, some show it as a separate line, some quote materials at cost plus tax. What matters is that you know which one you are holding before you compare two bids, because otherwise you are comparing numbers that were built differently.
How long does a remodel take?
Longer than the construction schedule, because the schedule usually starts when work begins and the clock starts when you decide. Cabinets, windows and anything custom have lead times measured in weeks, and they have to be ordered before the trades that install them are booked. Permit review is its own queue and does not care about your timeline. The practical planning rule is to place the long-lead orders and get the permit in before the demolition date, not after, since a job that stops waiting for materials still pays for the space it is occupying.