Home · The Open Book · The Real Cost Guide The Open Book Every room. Every tier. The layer beneath the guide.

The Real Cost Guide, in full detail.

Most cost guides hide behind ranges. Ours tells you what "fixed-price," "allowances," and "open book" actually mean — and where your budget will move whether you remodel with us or somebody else.

Three things every prospective client deserves to know before signing a remodeling contract with anyone: what the words mean, where the risk lives, and what your project actually costs. In that order.

The Real Cost Guide · Detail

What it costs, room by room.

The cost guide sorts by scope; this is the layer beneath it. Every room you might remodel, priced across our four finish tiers — grounded in Icon’s own completed jobs and pressure-tested against the 2025 Chicago Cost-vs-Value data. The bigger projects further down are built from these same room numbers, so nothing ever contradicts.

Single-Room · By Room × Tier

A room, from standard to ultra-luxury.

The five spaces we price individually, each across the four finish tiers. You see exactly what a kitchen runs on the low end versus a bespoke build — the transparency no competitor pairs with this kind of presentation.

RoomStandardPremiumLuxuryUltra-Luxury
Kitchen$85–120K$120–185K$185–290K$290–500K+
Primary Bath$45–70K$70–110K$110–160K$160–225K+
Secondary Bath$30–55K$55–85K$85–125K$125K+
Basement$60–100K$100–160K$160–250K$250–500K+
Exterior / Outdoor$45–90K$90–150K$150–225K$225K+
Standard

Stock or semi-custom cabinets, entry quartz, standard appliances, builder fixtures. Cost-controlled.

Premium

Custom painted cabinets, quartz or granite, Bosch / KitchenAid, mid-high Kohler / Brizo. The bread-and-butter “nice” job.

Luxury

Full-custom inset cabinetry, marble or quartzite, Sub-Zero / Wolf, freestanding tubs, heated floors, millwork, Lutron.

Ultra-Luxury

Bespoke / European cabinetry, book-matched stone, La Cornue / Gaggenau, Waterworks, steam, full smart-home integration.

Exterior is a bundled scope (siding + windows + facade + porch, or a full outdoor-living build). A single element runs less — replacement siding ~$20–30K, windows ~$22–26K — and is quoted on its own. Icon’s minimum engagement is ~$100K, so a Standard single room is usually folded into a larger scope rather than sold alone.

The Bigger Projects, As Compositions

Everything else is rooms, stacked.

Rather than a separate per-square-foot model, the larger scopes are built from the same room numbers above — which is also how we estimate. It stays accurate, stays consistent, and teaches you to think in scope.

Multi-Room / Full-Floor

Typically a kitchen + an adjoining bath or two + the connective living space, reworked together  ≈  $150–500K

Whole-Home Remodel · Premium

Kitchen + primary suite + two baths + floors & systems across the house  ≈  $500–900K
As a check: luxury whole-home runs $250–400+/sq ft — a 3,000–5,000 sq ft home lands the same range.

Whole-Home Remodel · Luxury

The same rooms at the Luxury tier, with deeper millwork and systems  ≈  $900K–$1.5M+

Addition / Structural Expansion

A structural shell (foundation, framing, roof tie-in, systems) + the finished rooms inside it  ≈  $250–900K+
Per square foot: $250–350 Standard, $350–500 Premium, $500–700+ for a second-story or luxury build.