A remodeling estimate, line by line

The homeowner wants the sink under the window. Right now it is on the opposite wall. That one request pulls in a plumber, an electrician, a drywall crew, a countertop fabricator and an inspector — and it is the reason a remodeling estimate cannot look like a repair estimate with bigger numbers on it.

Below is a full estimate for a kitchen gut, phase by phase. Every dollar figure here is invented for illustration. Labor, materials and permit fees swing hard by region and by year, so take the structure and put your own numbers in it. See DoneQuote for remodeling contractors for phase-by-phase quoting in larger jobs.

The estimate

Harbor Construction LLC · License #GC-0041982 Estimate #2026-118 · Issued August 23, 2026 · Valid 30 days

For: M. and R. Ellison, 412 Rockhill Ave

Scope: Gut a 180 sq ft kitchen in a 1994 house to the studs, with one non-bearing partition out, a new window opening, and the sink moved to the exterior wall. Four to five weeks on site.

Overhead and profit sit inside these unit prices, not on a line of their own. Sales tax is not included: whether remodeling labor, materials or both are taxable — and whether you owe it or collect it — depends on your state. Check with your state revenue department before you quote a tax-inclusive number.

The allowance lines are a third of the price

Two of those lines are allowances, and together they are $12,776 — about a third of the job. That is normal. The customer has not picked cabinets yet, and you cannot hold a firm price on a product nobody has chosen.

An allowance is a placeholder with rules attached. Put the rules on the estimate:

Cabinet allowance: $9,500 for cabinets, hardware and delivery. The customer selects from any supplier. Actual invoiced cost replaces this figure — under budget is credited on the next draw, over budget is added by change order before the order is placed.

Say exactly what the number covers, or the $400 of pulls becomes an argument. Set a selection deadline — cabinets picked three weeks late stall every phase behind them. And say the difference moves both ways. An allowance that only ever goes up reads like a bait price.

Installation labor stays firm and separate. The $2,590 to hang 14 boxes does not move whether the customer buys stock or custom. That is the point of splitting them: the firm part is genuinely firm.

The exclusions list is long on purpose

Remodels touch other people's scopes on every side. Write down where yours stops:

• Appliances (customer-supplied; installation is included)
• Window unit, blinds and window treatments
• Structural repair, rot, mold or pest damage discovered during demolition
• Panel upgrade, if the existing service cannot carry the new circuits
• Asbestos and lead-paint testing and abatement, which are separately licensed scopes in most states
• Relocating gas service
• Permit fees themselves, billed at cost when the jurisdiction issues them

Homeowners assume the general contractor owns everything in the room. The list is how you find out before demo day, not after.

One thing you cannot exclude, though. EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires the firm doing the work to hold firm certification and use lead-safe work practices whenever a renovation disturbs paint in housing built before 1978. Very small repairs are exempt, but demolition of painted surfaces and window replacement are covered at any size — which is most of a gut kitchen. Some states run their own EPA-authorized version instead of the federal rule, so check epa.gov/lead and your state program. The 1994 house here falls outside it.

Price the surprise before you open the wall

A change order in remodeling is often not a design change at all. It is what is behind the drywall: rot at a sill plate, knob-and-tube wiring, a cast-iron drain, no insulation at all. You cannot price that in advance. You can price the rate, which takes the negotiation out of the worst possible moment.

Concealed conditions: work required by conditions not visible at the time of this estimate is billed at $95 per carpenter-hour plus materials at cost plus 15%. Work stops, the condition is photographed, and a written change order is signed before it resumes.

Many states regulate the form and timing of residential change orders, and unsigned extras are hard to collect on anywhere. Your licensing board or a local construction attorney can tell you what yours has to say.

Payment follows the phases, not the calendar

A five-week job on deposit-and-balance means you float somebody else's cabinets. Tie draws to phases the customer can see finished:

The cabinet draw is sized to the cabinet allowance for a reason: the money arrives when the invoice does. Do not copy the 15% at signing without checking your own state. Several states cap what a residential contractor may collect up front — California limits the down payment on a home improvement contract to 10% of the price or $1,000, whichever is less — and others regulate where the money sits. New York requires payments taken before completion to be held in escrow unless the contractor posts a bond or letter of credit. Your state licensing board publishes the current rule.

Two more things ride on the signature. An estimate is not a contract, and many states require residential remodeling above a dollar threshold to be sold on a written home improvement contract with mandated contents. And when the homeowner signs at their own kitchen table, the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule generally gives them until midnight of the third business day to cancel a sale of $25 or more made at their residence, and obliges you to hand over a cancellation notice at signing. Some states add their own version on top.

Keeping this estimate reusable

The phases above are the same on the next kitchen. What changes is the square footage, the allowance amounts and which subs are on it. In DoneQuote you save those lines once as priced services, then describe the job — or paste the homeowner's email — and the assistant drafts it against your own catalog. You set this job's quantities and allowances, and send.