Kitchen renovation payments: structuring a £30k to £80k job

Kitchens are financially odd projects. On a £30,000 to £80,000 renovation, a large slice of the money buys things manufactured weeks before anyone touches your house, while the rest pays for site work that only starts once those things are on a lorry. Paying for both halves the same way is how kitchen projects go wrong. This guide covers how to split supplier payments from installer payments, and a template milestone schedule for the installation itself.

Why kitchen payments are different

A kitchen renovation splits your money across two different kinds of risk: a product order with a supplier and a labour contract with an installer, and they should not be paid on the same terms. The supplier risk is about lead times and delivery: units are commonly made to order, four to twelve weeks out is normal, and bespoke or imported ranges can run longer. The installer risk is the usual building-work risk: quality, sequence and completion.

Lead times also force an awkward ordering of commitments. To avoid living without a kitchen for months, you order units before strip-out begins, which means committing money to a supplier while the installation contract has barely started. Worktops add a further wrinkle: stone is templated only after the base units are fitted, then takes a week or two to cut, leaving a built-in pause near the end of the job. A good payment schedule respects all of this rather than fighting it.

Supplier deposits vs installer payments

Money paid to a kitchen supplier before delivery is an unsecured prepayment, so pay it by credit card wherever you can. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, the card provider is jointly liable with the supplier for purchases over £100 and up to £30,000, even if you only put part of the price on the card. If the supplier fails before delivery, that protection is often the difference between recovering your money and joining a queue of creditors.

Keep the two money streams formally separate. Contract with the supplier for the units and appliances, and with the installer for the labour, each on their own terms. Routing your unit budget through the installer's account muddies both relationships: if anything goes wrong with either party, you no longer know who holds your money or what it has been spent on. The exception is a genuine supply-and-fit company contracting for the whole job under one agreement; there, make sure the payment schedule still separates product payments from installation stages.

The installer side should follow the standard rule for all building work: pay against completed, checkable stages, not against the calendar and not in advance. The simplest way to hold that line is to ask your builder to use milestone-based payment protection, so each stage is funded before it starts and released when you approve it.

A template milestone schedule

A workable kitchen schedule has five or six milestones, each tied to something you can stand in the room and verify. For the installation contract, adapting the percentages to your project:

The supplier payment sits alongside milestone 1 in time but on the supplier's own terms, ideally on a credit card. Inspect the delivery on the day it arrives and note any damage immediately: doing it three weeks later, mid-installation, makes it your word against the depot's.

What to check before each release

Check first fix before anything is boarded over: pipe and cable routes match the design, because moving a socket costs pounds now and hundreds later. At units-fitted stage, check the run against the drawings, doors aligned and the layout as sold. Gas work, such as moving a hob or boiler, must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and notifiable electrical work needs certification under Part P. At second fix, confirm the electrical certificate is on its way, and for a boiler move the Building Regulations certificate for the gas work. Swapping a hob isn't notifiable, so ask the engineer for their own record of the work instead. At completion, run every appliance, fill and drain the sink, and close the snag list before the final milestone releases.

Keeping the schedule honest

A schedule only protects anyone if the money moves exactly with it. The pattern above still fails if invoices are paid late, or early, or on trust that the next stage will follow. Milestone escrow fixes the mechanics: each installation milestone is funded and held securely before that stage begins and released when it is signed off, so installers are paid for completed work, and the money is released to them as soon as it is approved. Renopay works this way. Client funds are held by OPP, an FCA-authorised electronic money institution. Neither side can touch a milestone until the work is signed off.

If you are running the trades yourself rather than using one firm, the same logic applies trade by trade, and our guide to self-managing a renovation covers that setup. Either way, start by building your schedule with the free stage planner. Ask your builder to set it up on Renopay when the project is ready to fund.

Frequently asked questions

How much deposit should I pay for a new kitchen?

Supplier deposits for made-to-order units vary by company; whatever the figure, pay by credit card so Section 75 protection applies to orders over £100 and up to £30,000. Your installer is different: any upfront payment should be small, and stage payments should cover the rest.

Should I pay my kitchen fitter upfront?

No. Pay the fitter against completed stages: first fix, units in, worktops, second fix and completion. A fitter asking for a large upfront payment before any work starts is asking you to fund their risk, and it is reasonable to say no.

How long do kitchen units take to arrive?

Four to twelve weeks from order is common for made-to-order kitchens, with bespoke and imported ranges taking longer. Order before strip-out begins and confirm the delivery date in writing, because the whole installation schedule hangs on it.