2026 local estimate · updated 2026-07-22
Cost to remodel a kitchen in Houston, TX
A typical kitchen remodel in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX area runs $65,296, with most projects landing between $9,328 and $121,264 — about 7% below the national average.
Low
$9,328
Basic materials, simple job
Typical
$65,296
What most people pay
High
$121,264
Premium materials or complex job
What's priced: Mid-range remodel of a typical kitchen — new cabinets, countertops, sink and fixtures — without moving walls or relocating plumbing. Excludes permits, structural repairs found mid-job, and premium upgrades.
Why Houston is cheaper than average
Almost entirely labor. Carpenters in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX area earn about 19% less than the national mean for the same occupation, per Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Because kitchen remodel is roughly 35% labor, that difference flows straight into the total.
Cabinets and countertops are the largest line items in a kitchen remodel and are bought rather than built on site, so materials carry most of the cost. Labor share rises on gut renovations that move plumbing or electrical, and falls on cabinet-and-counter refreshes.
Get a number for your own job
The figures above are for a standard project. Your size, materials, and access will move them. Run your own specification through the calculator, then apply the ×0.808 local labor factor to the labor portion.
Open the kitchen remodel calculator →Permits for a kitchen remodel in Houston
Issuing authority: City of Houston — Houston Public Works, Houston Permitting Center
Houston's Residential Remodel Permit covers this kind of interior remodel or conversion of an existing building, and the Houston Permitting Center's structural building fee starts at $47 for the first $7,000 of valuation, then adds $5.36 for each additional $1,000 up to $150,000, dropping to $5.03 per $1,000 for the portion between $150,001 and $200,000. That step-down means the marginal cost of a pricier remodel actually falls once the job's valuation clears $150,000.
On top of that, there's a $33.56 admin fee, and both plan review and inspection are required steps rather than optional ones — this permit type doesn't skip either. The permit is valid for six months once issued, and processing runs 1 to 15 business days depending on how the review goes, so it's worth building that window into the project schedule before the crew is booked to start. The city lists renewal for this permit as not required.
When a permit is needed
- “Residential Remodel Permit HPWCODE1135 Permit Description Residential construction. New homes or residential accessory structures, remodel or conversion of existing buildings or additions to existing buildings.” — Houston Permitting Center, Residential Remodel Permit (HPWCODE1135) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Fees
- “Structural Building permit Fee for valuations from $7,001 to $150,000 Base Charge for first $7,000 | Bldg. Code Sec. 118.2.1 | $47.00 | 01/01/2026” — City of Houston (Houston Public Works / Houston Permitting Center), City-Wide Fee Schedule (Building Code rows, effective 01/01/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Structural Building permit fee for valuation of $7,001 to $150,000 Base Charge plus Fee for each additional $1,000 valuation or fraction thereof above $7,000 valuation | Bldg. Code Sec. 118.2.1 | $5.36” — City of Houston (Houston Public Works / Houston Permitting Center), City-Wide Fee Schedule (Building Code rows, effective 01/01/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Structural building permit fee when value is $150,001 to $200,000 Base Charge plus Fee for each additional $1,000 valuation or fraction thereof above $150,000 | Bldg. Code Sec. 118.2.1 | $5.03” — City of Houston (Houston Public Works / Houston Permitting Center), City-Wide Fee Schedule (Building Code rows, effective 01/01/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Review time
- “Admin fee: $33.56 ... Plan Review: Required Inspection: Required Renewal: Not Required Valid Period: 6 Months Processing Time: 1-15 Business Days” — Houston Permitting Center, Residential Remodel Permit (HPWCODE1135) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Quoted verbatim; not recalculated.
Also covers The Woodlands
The Woodlands is named in the metropolitan area itself — Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX — so it is priced by exactly the labor data on this page. There is no separate Houston suburb estimate to look up: that community is priced by the same carpenters wage data as the figures above, so a kitchen remodel there typically runs $65,296, with most projects between $9,328 and $121,264.
Metropolitan-area membership follows the area definitions BLS publishes its OEWS metro estimates against — May 2025 reference period. What genuinely varies inside a metro is the individual property, not the labor market: roof pitch, access, and how much has to come off before anything goes on. Price your own job.
Nearby metros
- Kitchen remodel in Austin, TX — typically $65,615
- Kitchen remodel in Dallas, TX — typically $64,267
- Kitchen remodel in San Antonio, TX — typically $63,973
Compare kitchen remodel cost across every US metro we cover — the same labor-adjusted model as this page, ranked from most to least expensive, if you want the national picture rather than Houston alone.
Or step up one level: kitchen remodel cost across Texas — the average of all 6 Texas metro areas we publish, which is a coarser figure than Houston and is meant for comparing states rather than budgeting a job.
How we calculate this
We take a national installed-cost range, split it into labor and materials, and scale only the labor half by this metro's actual wage data. That is the whole model — no black box, and reproducible from the figures on this page.
- National range: $10,000–$130,000, from our kitchen remodel cost data (last verified 2026-07-13).
- Labor share: 35%. An industry rule of thumb, not a measured value — the softest assumption here, which is why we state it rather than bury it.
- Metro labor factor: ×0.808, being the mean annual wage for Carpenters in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX divided by the national mean for the same occupation.
- Materials: held at the national level. We vary labor by metro and hold materials at the national level. That is deliberate: shingles, copper, HVAC equipment, and cabinets are nationally traded and priced, and what actually varies locally is freight and sales tax — both small next to the labor spread. We have no metro-level materials index we can defend, so rather than invent one, we vary only what we can source.
Wage source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), metropolitan area estimates, May 2025. A U.S. Government work, in the public domain and free to reuse. Where BLS suppresses wage data for a metro, we publish no page for it rather than fill the gap with an estimate.
Educational estimate only. A real quote for your specific property beats any model, including ours — get at least three.
Related
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to remodel a kitchen in Houston, TX?+
A typical project in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX area runs about $65,296, with most falling between $9,328 and $121,264. Of the typical figure, roughly $19,796 is labor and $45,500 is materials. That puts Houston about 7% below the national typical cost of $70,000.
Why is it cheaper to remodel a kitchen in Houston, TX than the national average?+
Almost entirely labor. Carpenters in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX area earn about 19% less than the national average for the same occupation, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Because kitchen remodel is roughly 35% labor, that wage difference flows through to the total. Materials are priced nationally and barely move between metros.
What's included in these Houston, TX estimates?+
Installed cost — materials plus labor for a standard project of this type. It does not include permits, which vary by municipality, structural repairs discovered mid-job, or premium upgrades. The range reflects genuine variation in scope and material grade, not uncertainty about the metro. Always get at least three local quotes before budgeting; a real quote for your specific property will beat any estimate, including ours.
How is this different from a national average with the city name swapped in?+
We split the national installed cost into labor and materials, then scale only the labor half using the actual mean wage for Carpenters in this specific metro area, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Materials stay at the national level because we have no defensible metro-level materials index — shingles and HVAC equipment are nationally traded, and only freight and sales tax really vary. Where BLS suppresses wage data for a metro, we do not publish a page for it at all rather than fill the gap with a guess.