2026 local estimate · updated 2026-07-22
Cost to remodel a kitchen in Portland, ME
A typical kitchen remodel in the Portland-South Portland, ME area runs $70,368, with most projects landing between $10,053 and $130,683 — about 1% above the national average.
Low
$10,053
Basic materials, simple job
Typical
$70,368
What most people pay
High
$130,683
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 Portland is more expensive than average
Almost entirely labor. Carpenters in the Portland-South Portland, ME area earn about 1% more 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 ×1.015 local labor factor to the labor portion.
Open the kitchen remodel calculator →Permits for a kitchen remodel in Portland
Issuing authority: City of Portland (ME) Permitting and Inspections Department
Portland's permit list covers interior remodels and renovations, including drywall replacement, and both plumbing and electrical work each require their own permit; a kitchen remodel with a new sink pulls in the plumbing schedule, which has a minimum fee of $40 for up to four fixtures and $10 for each additional fixture, plus a $10 city surcharge on every plumbing permit. Electrical work carries its own $75 administrative/minimum fee.
The base cost-of-work fee is $25 for work up to $1,000, then $15 for each additional $1,000, and that estimated cost should include the electrical and plumbing work but can leave out HVAC, which gets reviewed under its own sub-permit. Plan on the review taking a while: average turnaround across all permits, including any back-and-forth on plan revisions, runs about 4 to 6 weeks.
When a permit is needed
- “Examples of projects that require a permit include: ● Interior remodels and renovations ● Removal or replacement of drywall” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Rev. Date 12/1/2025 (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “An HVAC permit is needed to install furnaces, heat pumps, and other mechanical equipment. All plumbing and electrical work also requires permits.” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Rev. Date 12/1/2025 (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Fees
- “Cost of work fees and amendments to application: Up to $1,000 worth of work $25.00 Each additional $1,000 worth of work $15.00” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permits and Inspections Fee Schedule (Revised 7/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Estimated cost of construction must include electrical and plumbing work, but you can exclude HVAC and fire alarm/sprinkler work that will be reviewed under a separate sub-permit.” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permits and Inspections Fee Schedule (Revised 7/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Plumbing code fixture fees: Minimum fee (up to four fixtures) $40.00 Each additional fixture $10.00” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permits and Inspections Fee Schedule (Revised 7/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “City surcharge for all plumbing permits $10.00” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permits and Inspections Fee Schedule (Revised 7/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Administrative Fee / Minimum Fee (applies to all electrical permits) $75.00” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permits and Inspections Fee Schedule (Revised 7/2026) (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Review time
- “The average turnaround time for all permits, including waiting for additional information or plan revisions from the applicant, is about 4 to 6 weeks.” — City of Portland (Maine) Permitting and Inspections Department, Building Permit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Rev. Date 12/1/2025 (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Quoted verbatim; not recalculated.
Rules set by the state of Maine
- Maine does not license remodeling contractors at state level: Maine Office of the Attorney General (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Nearby metros
- Kitchen remodel in Albany, NY — typically $70,343
- Kitchen remodel in Pittsburgh, PA — typically $70,343
- Kitchen remodel in Kiryas Joel, NY — typically $70,392
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 Portland alone.
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: ×1.015, being the mean annual wage for Carpenters in Portland-South Portland, ME 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 Portland, ME?+
A typical project in the Portland-South Portland, ME area runs about $70,368, with most falling between $10,053 and $130,683. Of the typical figure, roughly $24,867 is labor and $45,500 is materials. That puts Portland about 1% above the national typical cost of $70,000.
Why is it more expensive to remodel a kitchen in Portland, ME than the national average?+
Almost entirely labor. Carpenters in the Portland-South Portland, ME area earn about 1% more 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 Portland, ME 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.