If the cabinets are still sound, a facelift is often the sensible choice.
Facelift or a complete new kitchen
The first question at the survey is whether the cabinet carcasses are still firm and dry. If they are and the layout works for you, a facelift is enough. If there is water damage or the layout does not work, a new kitchen is the better choice.
- Facelift: the cabinets stay, the outside is new. New doors and drawer fronts, a different worktop, new handles and possibly a new sink or tap.
- Facelift with appliances: replacing single appliances, for example a gas hob with induction. The electrics must be suitable, so check the fuse box first.
- Complete new kitchen: the old kitchen out, pipes and electrics adapted, walls and floor repaired, and the new kitchen fitted and connected.
- Kitchen in a new place: drains, water and power move and the extraction is rerouted, for example when the kitchen moves into a new extension.
- Finishing around the kitchen: tiles behind the worktop, plastering, painting and a new floor, all in the same contract.
Fitting a kitchen you bought yourself
Many people buy the kitchen from a kitchen showroom or a flat-pack store and need someone for the building work around it. The water, drain and power points can be matched to the kitchen supplier's drawing, so everything lines up when the units arrive. Who supplies and fits the kitchen, and who is responsible for the parts, is agreed per project and set out in the quote.
Order only after the survey. The drawing should use the real measurements of your walls, which in an old building are rarely straight or square.
In an apartment: VvE rules, drains and extraction
Moving the kitchen can mean a new drain route to the shared drain stack, and working on shared parts needs VvE consent. Your splitsingsreglement, the building's deed of division, says what is shared. Replacing units in the same place usually stays inside your own apartment.
A cooker hood that vents outside needs a duct through the façade or roof. That changes a shared part of the building and can change how the façade looks, so the VvE, and sometimes the City's design rules, have a say. Run the Vergunningcheck for your address. A recirculating hood avoids the duct; discuss that in the design.
Floors come up in VvE rules too. The 2017 model rules many buildings use say that hard floors are not allowed without enough sound insulation, except in kitchens and sanitary rooms. Your building may have older or stricter rules, so check them before you choose a tiled floor for an open-plan kitchen.
Old Amsterdam buildings: pipes, walls and the stairs
Behind an old kitchen you often find old pipes. In homes built before 1945 lead water pipes were common, and homes from 1945 to 1960 can still have them. Inside the home, replacing them is the owner's responsibility, and a kitchen renovation is a natural moment to do it.
Materials from before 1994 can contain asbestos, for example in old wall panels or floor covering. Have that checked before demolition, because as the owner you are responsible for its removal.
A new kitchen arrives in parts and the old one leaves in parts. In an upstairs apartment without a lift, a long worktop has to go up a narrow staircase. Measure the stairwell before you order, so the worktop can be made in pieces if needed.
What decides the price of your kitchen
Every kitchen is custom work, so we do not publish a standard price. You get an itemised quote after the survey. For national guide prices, see renovation costs in the Netherlands. Be aware that many online prices for a kitchen renovation only cover new fronts, not demolition or pipework.
On VAT (btw): the reduced 9% rate only covers insulating, painting, plastering and wallpapering homes older than 2 years. Wall tiling and laying a floor fall under 21%, as does most installation work. A quote can therefore carry both rates.
- Facelift or a complete new kitchen
- Whether the kitchen stays in place or moves
- Front material, worktop and appliances
- The fuse box: switching from gas to induction may need a new circuit
- Old pipes, uneven walls and asbestos in older buildings
- Access: floor level, stairs and space to park and unload
Planning and noise
How long you are without a kitchen depends on the scope. With a facelift the cabinets stay, so it is short. With a new kitchen, demolition, pipework and drying times set the pace. You get a day-by-day schedule in advance.
Under the national building rules (Bbl, article 7.17), commercial construction and demolition work is only allowed on working days and Saturdays between 7:00 and 19:00. Outside those hours the City of Amsterdam requires a noise exemption. Tell your neighbours in advance when the noisy days are.