Did you know that, even with meticulous planning, 70% of kitchen remodels include change orders? Change orders are essentially inevitable in remodeling. So, you shouldn’t fear them. And your design-build remodeling company should explain its approach to change orders clearly. To brace yourself for the change orders you’re bound to need during your next kitchen remodel, learn why change orders happen, what they really cost, and how to prepare for them without getting blindsided.
Two Types of Change Orders
Discovery Change Orders: The Unavoidable Reality
Discovery change orders become necessary when the demolition process reveals an unknown and undesirable situation with your house. These may include unsafe plumbing or electrical systems, or load-bearing walls you’d planned to remove.
Your design-build company will investigate the space beforehand, but they can’t know what’s really there until they rip out floors, cabinetry, and drywall. Consequently, unforeseen issues aren’t anyone’s fault; they’re the results of working with existing buildings.
Usually, when remodeling older homes, we find outdated plumbing and electrical systems that aren’t up to current code. For example, opening up walls in an older house can reveal knob-and-tube wiring or cast-iron drain lines that looked fine from the outside but are disasters waiting to happen. Your permit inspector won’t let us ignore those issues, and frankly, you wouldn’t want us to either.
Fixing such structural problems requires change orders that will affect the total cost of your remodel.
Client-Initiated Change Orders: The Expansion Effect
You might request remodel change orders when the project momentum builds and you decide to expand the scope to include related areas. With a kitchen remodel, such change orders usually refer to an adjacent powder room. This kind of change order makes perfect sense because you’re already living in chaos, the tradespeople are already here, and you’re seeing how transformative the work is.
Change orders sometimes involve material upgrades. But if your design-build company has done its job right during the planning phase, your selections are locked in before the demo starts. Expansion requests are what really drive scope changes, and they’re often the smartest financial decisions you can make.
The Financial Impact
Change orders typically add 5-20% to the project cost. Those numbers may sound daunting. But understanding what drives that range is crucial for your financial planning.
A 5% change order might involve refreshing that powder room with new paint and countertops or switching from quartz to natural stone countertops. These changes are relatively contained, so they don’t require new permits or specialized trades.
A 20% change order is a different beast entirely. Such a change order adds a full powder room renovation, addresses major structural issues, or handles an extensive plumbing relocation. These changes often require new permits, licensed trades, and specialized materials that weren’t in the original project plan.
The Differences Between Mechanical and Cosmetic Change Orders
Many homeowners aren’t aware that mechanical change orders, such as plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, are exponentially more expensive than cosmetic ones. Materials and labor alone can’t account for the cost difference; rather, a cascade of additional steps greatly increases the project price.
When we need to reroute plumbing, we must call in licensed plumbers, obtain new permits, schedule additional inspections, and even open more walls or floors. As a result, a simple request to move the sink three feet to the left can trigger electrical work (new outlet locations), plumbing work (new supply and drain lines), and potentially HVAC adjustments (if we’re affecting airflow patterns).
The licensed trades command premium rates, and the permitting process adds both time and cost. Plus, mechanical changes often reveal other issues that weren’t visible during the initial planning.
Clearly, mechanical change orders can greatly alter your bottom line.
The Impact on Your Timeline
Change orders don’t just cost money; they cost time. And time costs money in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. A basic material change order might add a day or two while we wait for new deliveries. But a mechanical change order can add weeks to your project timeline.
When we discover old plumbing that needs to be replaced, we have to schedule specialized trades, wait for permits, and coordinate inspections. Each of these steps has its own timeline, and they usually can’t be rushed, regardless of how much you want your kitchen finished.
The ripple effect is real. That two-week delay doesn’t just mean two more weeks of eating takeout. It might also require rescheduling other trades, dealing with material price fluctuations, and managing the compounding stress of living with construction.
How We Minimize Change Orders
The best way to handle change orders is to prevent them whenever possible. For this reason, Capozzi Design Build invests heavily in the planning phase and doesn’t work with allowances. When you know exactly what you’re getting and what your project costs upfront, you’ll experience fewer surprises.
Our price promise guarantee states that unless an issue is truly unforeseen or you decide to change the scope, your price stays the same. We keep this promise through thorough initial assessments, transparent material selection processes, and extensive client education about how different choices influence both budget and timeline.
And this is a key Capozzi remodeling difference: we also prepare clients for the reality that discovery change orders might happen. No one can see through walls, and older homes in particular can hide issues that won’t reveal themselves until demo begins.
The Truth About Financial Planning
Smart homeowners budget for change orders from the beginning. We recommend setting aside 10-15% of your total project budget specifically for unexpected changes. Taking this step isn’t pessimistic planning; rather, it’s realistic planning based on decades of project experience.
If you don’t end up using that buffer, congratulations! You’ve got money for landscaping or other home improvements. But if you do need it, you won’t be forced into difficult decisions about which problems to address and which to defer.
Hope for Your Kitchen Remodel
Change orders aren’t failures of planning. They’re often the outcomes of working with aging houses and evolving client needs. To properly prepare for change orders, you should understand the differences between necessary discoveries and scope expansion, plan financially for both possibilities, and work with contractors who are honest about these realities from the beginning.
When your remodeling team brings you a change order, you should ask questions like these:
- Is this a discovery issue or a scope change?
- What are the alternatives?
- How does this affect the timeline and budget?
A good remodeling company will walk you through these details and help you make informed decisions.
Your design-build firm might not be able to avoid any change orders. But they can manage change orders professionally when they arise and ensure you’re prepared for the financial and timeline repercussions they create. If you’re ready for a kitchen renovation with minimal surprises and maximum enjoyment, contact us today!
