Quick answer
A lump sum suits a one-off kitchen with a locked scope: one number, one decision. Unit rates (per metre for runs, per number for units) protect both sides on volume or changeable work, because variations price off the same rates with no renegotiation. Metre rates mislead at corners, appliance gaps and tall units, so agree the measurement rules first.
Key points
- A lump sum is cleaner on a locked one-off. Unit rates win wherever drawings might move or kitchens repeat.
- Variations off unit rates price themselves: 300 mm off the run is 0.3 m credited at the quoted rate, not a renegotiation.
- Lump sums hide scope lines. Metre rates expose them, which is exactly why some suppliers prefer the lump sum.
- Metre rates mislead at corners, appliance gaps and tall units. Those count per No. or need stated measurement rules.
- The strongest quote is unit rates with quantities and a stated total: rate protection with lump-sum readability.
Two quotes for the same galley sit on your desk. One reads 'supply and install kitchen as drawn' with a single number beside it. The other runs eleven lines: sink cabinet per No., dry cabinetry per metre, overheads per metre, benchtop per metre, down to the toe-kick. Same drawings, same spec, totals within cooee of each other. Most people pick the one-liner because it feels simpler, and on plenty of jobs they are right.
Then the wall moves. Or the client swaps the pantry for open shelving, or the three-bed types pick up a second drawer bank, or the developer trims 300 mm off every run to claw back a corridor. On the itemised quote each of those changes has a price before anyone sends an email. On the lump sum each one opens a negotiation, and you find out what the quote really contained by watching what the supplier charges to change it.
That is the real difference between the two methods. Not accuracy, not honesty, but what happens under change. Here is how each works, where each wins, and where the tape measure will mislead you if you let it.
What each method actually is
A lump sum prices the drawing: one number for the kitchen as shown, scope described in words, everything bundled. A unit-rate quote prices the elements: runs of cabinetry by the metre, counted items (sink cabinet, tall unit, stainless bench, splashback) per No., each line carrying a rate and a quantity, the total being the sum. Coded schedules like the ones on social-housing work are unit rates taken to their logical end, with a client-issued code on every line; kitchen Schedule of Rates codes explained walks that system line by line.
There is a third shape worth knowing: unit rates with a stated total. The quote shows every rate and quantity, then commits to the summed number for the drawn scope. You read it like a lump sum, you vary it like a rate schedule. On multi-unit work that hybrid is the strongest paper either side can hold.
When does a kitchen quote per metre protect you?
Unit rates earn their keep the day something changes, because a variation prices off the rate already on the page. The run shrinks 300 mm: the dry cabinetry, benchtop and toe-kick lines each credit 0.3 m at their quoted rates. A pantry is added: one tall-unit rate goes on. Nobody re-opens the whole price, nobody argues from scratch, and the paper trail is two lines long. Across a programme of forty units that discipline is the difference between variations being administration and variations being warfare, which is why it sits at the centre of keeping variations and RFIs off a kitchen package.
Rates also make quotes comparable. Two lump sums for the same kitchen can hide wildly different scope: one includes the splashback and the appliance gaps trimmed, the other does not, and the headline numbers tell you nothing. Two rate schedules for the same kitchen compare line by line in five minutes. The supplier who is dear on overheads and sharp on benchtops is visible, and so is the supplier who has quietly left the toe-kick out. If you have ever been burned by what a one-line quote failed to mention, how to read a kitchen quote and spot the hidden costs is the companion piece.
A lump sum is a price for a drawing. Unit rates are a price for whatever the drawing becomes.
Where a lump sum is the right call
Honesty cuts both ways here. On a genuine one-off with a locked scope, a homeowner replacing a kitchen in the same footprint, drawings settled, spec chosen, a lump sum is cleaner. One number to approve, one contract to read, no measurement rules to argue. The renegotiation risk that makes lump sums dangerous on changeable work barely exists when nothing is going to change, and plenty of residential jobs are exactly that.
A lump sum also suits work where the itemisation would be noise: a single small galley, a rental refresh, a job priced inside a week. If the carcasses are sound and you are replacing fronts and a benchtop, you do not need eleven coded lines; you need a fair number and a start date. The method should match the job's appetite for change, not anyone's ideology.
Where metre rates mislead
The metre is an honest unit on a straight run and a slippery one everywhere else. Three places catch people.
- Corners. An L-shape's corner consumes run length on both legs while yielding one awkward cabinet. Whether the quote measures through the corner once, twice, or per the cabinet's stated width changes the total, so the measurement rule has to be written down.
- Appliance gaps. A 600 mm stove gap is a metre-rate hole: no cabinet, usually no toe-kick, but the benchtop may still bridge a dishwasher space. Which lines skip the gap and which run through it must be stated, not assumed.
- Tall units. A 600 mm pantry occupies 0.6 m of floor but carries the cabinetry of three base metres stacked vertically. That is why talls price per No. on any sane schedule, and why a cheap all-in metre rate quietly punishes kitchens with pantries.
The same 3.6 m run, quoted both ways
Take a standard straight galley: 3.6 m wall, 600 mm sink cabinet under a stainless bench, 600 mm stove gap left for an appliance by others, 2.4 m of dry base cabinets, 2.4 m of overheads, laminate top on the dry run, glass splashback behind the cooker. A kitchen of that shape commonly sits somewhere in the roughly $5.5 to $8.5k supply band in Auckland depending on spec, so the question is not which method is cheaper. Priced properly they land in the same place. The question is what each document lets you do next.
The same galley as one number and as unit rates. Both can be fair; only one reprices itself.
Now run the change through both. The architect shifts a doorway and the run drops to 3.3 m. On the unit-rate quote: dry cabinetry credits 0.3 m, benchtop credits 0.3 m, toe-kick credits 0.3 m, each at its quoted rate, and the per-No. lines do not move because the sink cabinet and stainless bench are still one each. Two minutes of arithmetic, documented. On the lump sum: an email asking what the credit is, an answer you cannot check against anything, and a number that mysteriously rounds in the supplier's favour. Multiply that by forty units and two design revisions and you have a relationship problem, not a pricing problem.
| Job | Better method | Why |
|---|---|---|
| One-off reno, locked drawings | Lump sum | One decision, no measurement rules to argue |
| One-off, design still moving | Unit rates with stated total | Changes price off the page, total stays readable |
| Five-plus repeated units | Unit rates | Variations and comparisons at programme scale |
| Coded head contract (social housing) | Unit rates against the issued codes | Claims must reconcile line by line anyway |
Choosing for the job in front of you
The decision rule is short: the more likely the drawings are to move, and the more times the kitchen repeats, the more the unit-rate quote is worth to you. A coded head contract removes the choice entirely, because your claims will be measured against unit rates whether your supplier quoted that way or not, and the gap between a lump-sum quote and a coded claim always lands on the party in the middle. Pricing kitchens to the Kāinga Ora Schedule of Rates shows what that gap costs at claim time.
Rates have one more quiet use: they show you where to save. When a budget needs trimming, a rate schedule tells you which lines carry the money and what each substitution is worth, so you can take cost out deliberately instead of squeezing the whole number and hoping. That is the working method behind value engineering kitchens without cheapening the build, and it only works when the quote has lines to work on.
What to ask for on your next quote
Ask for the itemised version: every element with a unit, a rate and a quantity, measurement rules stated for corners and appliance gaps, talls and sink benches per No., and the total summed at the bottom. A supplier set up for volume work will produce that without blinking. A supplier who resists is telling you something about how variations will go later.
We quote both ways from our East Tāmaki workshop depending on the job: lump sums on locked one-offs, full unit rates on multi-unit and coded work, and rates-with-a-total on anything in between. Send the drawings, or photos of them, with your quote request and the itemised price comes back within 24 hours with a reference number. Then keep the rate schedule somewhere safe, because the day the wall moves, that piece of paper is the whole negotiation.
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to get a kitchen quote per metre or a fixed price?
It depends on how likely the job is to change. A fixed lump sum is cleaner for a one-off kitchen with locked drawings: one number, one decision. Unit rates (per metre and per No.) are better wherever the design might move or the kitchen repeats across units, because every variation prices off the rates already quoted instead of opening a renegotiation. For multi-unit or coded contract work, unit rates are the only method that reconciles cleanly.
What does a price per metre usually include on a kitchen quote?
It varies, which is exactly the problem. A cabinetry metre rate typically covers carcasses, fronts and hardware along the run, with benchtops, sink benches, splashbacks and tall units on separate lines, but suppliers draw the boundaries differently. Before comparing rates, ask what the metre includes, where the run is measured, and whether appliance gaps are excluded. Two identical-looking rates can mean totals well apart.
What happens to a fixed price kitchen quote when the plans change?
The price stops being fixed. A lump sum prices the drawing it was quoted against, so any change reopens the number, and the credit or extra is whatever the supplier says it is, because there are no rates on the page to check it against. If you expect changes, ask for unit rates or at least an itemised breakdown up front, so variations price off quoted rates rather than goodwill.
How are corner cabinets measured in a per metre kitchen quote?
Inconsistently, unless you pin it down. An L-shape corner consumes run length on both legs but yields one cabinet, and quotes variously measure through the corner once, twice, or price the corner unit per No. None of those is wrong, but they produce different totals from the same rate. Get the corner rule stated in writing before you compare quotes or sign one.
Do pantries and tall units price per metre?
They should not. A 600 mm tall unit occupies 0.6 m of run but carries roughly the material and labour of a much longer base run stacked vertically, so schedules price talls per No. with their own rate. A quote that runs one blended metre rate across everything either loses money on pantry-heavy kitchens or pads the rate on everything else. Ask for talls as counted lines.
How do I compare a lump sum quote against an itemised one?
Make the lump sum itemise. Ask the lump-sum supplier to break their number into the same lines the itemised quote shows: cabinetry runs, sink cabinet, benchtop, stainless bench, splashback, toe-kick and the small items. If they will not, you are comparing a known scope against an unknown one, and the cheaper headline is frequently the quote with scope missing. Same lines first, then compare numbers.
Why do variations cost so much on lump sum kitchen contracts?
Because there is no agreed rate to price them from. Every change is negotiated from scratch, mid-project, with the supplier holding the schedule information you cannot see, and the price reflects bargaining position rather than cost. Under unit rates the same change is quantity times the rate already on the page. The cheapest variation is one whose price existed before anyone asked for it.