Use it before you sign anything — with us or with anyone. The pricing model, where a budget really moves, and the ranges by scope, all in the open. The words builders hide behind — “fixed price,” “allowances,” “open book” — are translated in Builder-ese.
How we make money — and what that should mean to you.
Most remodelers earn the bulk of their profit through flat markup applied across the entire job — every dollar of material, every fixture, every trade invoice carries the same percentage cushion. The bigger your project gets, the better the remodeler does — whether or not their expertise actually moved the needle.
We don't operate that way. Our pricing model is built around a single idea: alignment. We want to earn our living from the work that is genuinely hard for you, your designer, or any general contractor to do without us — not from a percentage on a sink.
Where the budget volatility actually lives.
Most cost guides talk about per-square-foot averages. Remodeling does not price that way — it prices by scope and by what your home is hiding. We're going to talk about the four things that determine whether your final number lands inside the range, above it, or far above it — whether you remodel with us or somebody else.
Read this section even if you never call us.
If you walk away from this page knowing only what these four risk vectors are and how to evaluate them in any remodeler's proposal, the page will have done its job. You should not sign a remodeling contract without understanding all four. And one plain truth to hold onto: no contractor can fixed-price what no one can see — the ones who claim to are pricing it into every job.
Permits, code & jurisdiction.
Every village in our service area runs its own review, timeline, and fees — and a remodel can trigger code upgrades the original house never had to meet. Open a wall in an older home and electrical, egress, or energy-code work often has to come current the same day. HOAs and architectural-review boards add their own approvals on top.
We carry the actual municipal and HOA requirements into Pre-Construction, so the rules are known before they cost you time.
What's behind the walls.
The single biggest difference between remodeling and new construction: your home already has a history, and some of it stays hidden until demolition opens it up. Behind finished walls in established North Shore and Lake County homes, it is common to find knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring, galvanized or cast-iron plumbing near the end of its life, framing that was never quite level or square, rot around old windows and wet walls, and — in homes built before the 1980s — asbestos and lead that must be handled to code.
None of this is cause for fear. It is the case for discipline: we document existing conditions and name every assumption in writing before we price your project, so the “we found something” surprise that defines a bad remodel is settled before your contract — not discovered during your build.
Structural & systems work.
What you see is finishes. What moves a remodel’s real cost is often what you cannot: removing a load-bearing wall and the beam and footings that replace it; bringing electrical service, HVAC capacity, and plumbing up to the demands of a larger, more open home; reframing for the ceiling heights and sightlines today’s designs call for.
A cosmetic refresh leaves these alone. A true transformation almost always touches them — and the more your design reshapes how the home lives, the more of this work it asks for. We size it during design, not after demo.
Finish level & material grade.
The same kitchen footprint can land at $90k or $390k depending on cabinet construction (frameless European vs. semi-custom domestic), counter material (mid-grade quartz vs. honed marble), appliance package, plumbing fixtures, and hardware. Multiply across baths, millwork, flooring, and lighting and you have a 3× swing on identical drawings.
This is the line item most under your control. The Selection Studio and Design Tips with Jenny exist so you make these calls with a number in front of you. Where a selection is still open at signing, it is bracketed with a written ceiling — never a guess.
What a remodel costs — by scope.
Remodeling is not priced by whole-house square footage; it is priced by how far you take it. Click any scope to drop into the room-by-room detail. These are the ranges Icon projects typically land in across the North Shore, Lake County, and the surrounding suburbs in 2026. Use them as directional starting points, not quotes — the four risk vectors in Section Two are what move you within a range or to the next one.
Icon takes on remodels starting around $100K. Our process earns its keep as the stakes rise — on the larger, more complex projects where the cost of getting it wrong is highest and a single accountable team matters most. These ranges include design and full construction; they do not include exceptional structural or hazardous-material conditions, which are sized per Section Two before contract. As for time: design typically runs 6–17 weeks, post-signature pre-construction 6–10, and the build itself 6–32 — a single room sits at the bottom of each range, a whole home at the top, and your written schedule is published at contract.
How to read another remodeler's bid.
If you're comparing Icon to another firm, here is the lens we'd use ourselves. The cheapest bid usually isn't. The most expensive isn't always worth it either. What separates a real number from a hopeful number is in the structure of the document, not the bottom line.
Red flags
- Single-line allowances ("$40,000 for plumbing fixtures") with no brand, no SKU, no quantity
- An "existing-conditions" or "unforeseen" allowance with no inspection notes or written assumptions behind it
- Round numbers for major trade categories — framing at exactly $40,000 is an estimate, not a quote
- A cost-plus contract presented as fixed-price because there's a "not-to-exceed" cap with exclusions
- No PM or leadership team named — ambiguity about who you call when something goes wrong
- An aggressive timeline without trade lock-in — the schedule depends on subs who haven't been booked
- Markup percentage vague or only quoted on labor (the line that doesn't move) and not materials
- No permit/fee line — permit costs vary by market and are never zero
What real numbers look like
- Itemized trade categories with specific quantities and unit rates
- A specification schedule by room: cabinet maker, counter brand, faucet brand, light fixture quantity and finish
- Trade Sub Agreements already signed (or named) at contract
- A named PM and leadership team, with their cell numbers in the contract package
- A documented existing-conditions review and a permit / HOA fee schedule pre-conferenced with the jurisdiction
- Buildertrend access referenced in the contract — you should log in on day one
- A plan-adjustment process spelled out: written change, written price, signed before work starts
- A defined warranty and visit cadence through year one and beyond — ours is a 1-2-10 warranty (one year workmanship, two years systems, ten years structural) with 45-day and 11-month visits, then annual
If a remodeler's proposal can't survive these eight flags and check most of these eight tells, you don't have a fixed-price bid — you have an opening number. Take it back to them and ask the questions. Their answers will tell you more than the price ever could.
If you'd like an outside read on any remodeler's proposal — including ours — take the Builder Evaluation Checklist. It's the same instrument we use internally to vet our own work.
This guide is yours. Use it on us.
If after reading this you believe Icon is the firm you want to talk to, begin your project. If you believe a different firm is the right fit, take this page with you and put it next to their proposal. We wrote it for both outcomes.