Kitchen remodel contract template — cabinet orders and the counter gap

The kitchen contract turns on the cabinet order: a large non-refundable deposit, a long lead time, and a visible idle gap while counters are templated.

Read this before you use it

This is a checklist of what a kitchen remodel contract has to settle — not a ready-to-sign legal document, and not legal advice. Most states regulate home improvement contracts: required disclosures, cancellation windows, deposit limits and licence display all vary, and some trades carry extra rules. Adapt this, then have a lawyer in your state review it before you put it in front of a customer.

kitchen remodel contract checklist

Download as a spreadsheet to work through, or print it to sit alongside your own agreement.

Checklist (Excel / Sheets) Printable PDF

What a kitchen remodel contract has to settle

A kitchen contract has to handle money that leaves the contractor's hands before any work happens. The cabinet deposit goes to a supplier and is usually non-refundable once the order is placed, so cancellation terms must exist and be understood at signing. Lead times and the template-to-install gap belong in the schedule, because a customer without a working sink for ten days will assume they have been abandoned unless the contract told them it was coming.

Clauses it needs

Parties, licence number, and the contract sum with the cabinet allowance shown
Cabinet order: supplier, specification, deposit, and the point it becomes non-refundable
Lead times stated, and who stores the delivery until install day
The countertop template-to-install gap, named in the schedule with its duration
Appliances: who purchases, receives, and installs each
Allowances per category with reconciliation rules
Draw schedule tied to stages: demo, rough-in, cabinet set, counter, finish
Kitchen-down period: whether a temporary sink or cooking arrangement is provided
Change orders after the cabinet order, and the cost of altering a placed order
Substantial completion, punch list and its deadline

What kitchen remodel contracts actually get argued over

Layout changed after the cabinets were ordered, with no clause pricing it
Appliance specs wrong against the cabinet order, with rework unassigned
The counter gap read as abandonment because the schedule never mentioned it
Scribe and filler labour for out-of-plumb walls, billed without prior mention

The estimate this contract is built on

A contract can only be as clear as the scope it references. BidWand drafts the itemised estimate — labour, materials, exclusions and assumptions — that the scope and exclusions clauses point at.

Free kitchen remodel estimate template →

Draft the kitchen remodel estimate this contract references

This generates the estimate, not the contract — describe the job and you get the itemised scope to attach. No email needed to see the first one.

What you get — see the format first

A complete estimate you can send to the customer, built from the rate you enter:

Description	Qty	Unit	Unit price	Total
Labor — itemized by task	hrs	hour	your rate	—
Materials — with your markup applied	qty	ea / sq ft	cost + markup	—
Permits, disposal, access	—	—	—	—

Plus a plain-English scope summary, assumptions (what had to be guessed), exclusions (what you are not doing — the section that prevents most change-order arguments), and a validity period. Printable, or send the link.

Every figure comes from the rate and markup you supply. We never fill in a market price for you.

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