IKEA Kitchen Installation Costs By The Foot

Part Three in a three-part series about understanding IKEA cabinet installation costs

We’ve all heard the saying “measure twice, cut once.”We can tell you that phrase really applies to measuring your IKEA kitchen, especially when budgeting for installation costs.

As experts in all things IKEA, we can also tell you this has a really practical application aside from making sure your cabinets look good (which of course they must!) and function well. Measuring properly will greatly reduce parts and labor costs associated with your installation too.

But don’t take our word for it.Michael O., owner of IBEA Builder based in San Francisco, CA, has installed over 300 IKEA kitchens in the last eight years. He explains: “The two most important things for a smooth installation are communication and measurements. Whether the customer is doing it themselves or having a service provider do it, it’s all about measurements, measurements, measurements. And if they’re dealing with a service provider to do it for them then clear communication is so important.”

As we’ve covered in our three-part series on understanding IKEA kitchen installation costs, your installer may calculate his fee one of three ways: Per cabinet (you can expect to spend between $150 – $500 per cabinet); for the entire job; and by the linear foot (you can expect $150 – $380 per linear foot for total installation). Here, we’ll explain how installers charge by the foot for installation jobs.

Let’s take a look!

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IKEA Kitchen Installation Costs and Measurement

IKEA customers beginning their IKEA kitchen remodel should be aware of how IKEA charges as well as how independent IKEA installers charge too.

IKEA’s design services offer a swift quote for a standard kitchen measurement. This is unreliable (for budgeting purposes) because IKEA bases those quotes on a 10’x10’ standard kitchen layout. Many retailers (including IKEA) and cabinet manufacturers use the 10’x10’ standard kitchen measurements because they’ve neglected to compare the linear feet (LF) to the final price for a range of actual designs. Correctly calculating non-standard kitchen measurements is the most accurate method to determine real-life linear feet pricing. If you want to get a quick and approximate idea of what your IKEA kitchen cabinets will cost then you’ll need accurate linear foot pricing, not abstract pricing.

Holly Arroyo, owner of Habitation Inc. in Albuquerque, NM, offers: “We don’t do remove and replace very often, but if we did, I could see pricing by a linear foot.”

“I would imagine that for installers that charge per foot, the installation costs probably even out [compared to charging by the box],” adds Andy Steffl, owner/installer of Kitchens and Carpentry-WI in Oak Creek, WI.

As we discussed in Part One and Two, there are factors that may cause costs to vary. The same holds true with measurements. This is where your layout configuration comes into play. For instance, if you have a 10’x10’ kitchen it might have only three walls (in an open floor layout, for example) and your linear footage would be different than a 10’x10’ kitchen with four walls. “[With U-shaped kitchens] you’re usually talking about custom work on top of the pre-set rate for assembly and installation, so the cost of the kitchen will go higher,” says Ron Malka, owner of Kitchen Assembly in Miami, FL.

And if you’re tempted to provide your own measurements of the space for the installer, you can — but with a caveat, Holly says.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a client provide me measurements, but I wouldn’t object to it. I’d probably have them sign a disclaimer if they wanted us to order a kitchen based on their measurements. In reality, we’d have to take our own measurements. It’s too critical when you get to tight spaces and have two corners and then a sink in the middle. This can be a game of inches. When you’re ordering cabinets you want to make sure you have the space that you need to put them in,” she concludes.

Working Together

Holly, who does a lot of work with first-time home buyers, says that having the client and contractor on the same page regarding the scope of the IKEA remodel is critical.

“That is best handled by walking through the space together because the contractor may have ideas the client didn’t think about — there are a lot of things you just won’t see until you’re in the space,” she says. “This is especially true regarding electrical, gas, and water lines. Some kitchens are very easy to move things [while] in other kitchens, if it is a concrete slab it can be a little problematic.”

To that end, she offers some advice to IKEA customers for a successful installation.

“The most important thing is to think about what you want and write that down. So, if you plan to have a couple of contractors quote the project, you’ll want an ‘apples to apples’ quote. Do you want under cabinet lighting, white cabinets or wood cabinets, or a certain type of backsplash?

It’s better to have that written down so you can communicate to the contractor exactly what you want. Things can get really misconstrued as to what the expectations are [if you don’t do that].”

She adds: “The more clearly you identify the scope of the work, and all the little things that are part of that work, the more likely you are to have a contractor that envisions a finished outcome that the client is thinking about. In the end, you have to protect yourself as the client and that protection is the detail.”

Now that you’ve been introduced to some of the factors involved in IKEA cabinet installation costs, we trust that you feel more prepared to begin your IKEA kitchen project. Remember, there are many high quality independent IKEA installers available who can guide you through the installation process. This means that instead of spending extra time assembling and installing the cabinets yourself,you can relax knowing your IKEA kitchen is being installed properly and keeping you within budget at the same time.

Learn more about how we can design your IKEA kitchen, bath, laundry room and other rooms at inspiredkitchendesign.com.