I'm interested in building a 2nd kitchen on my property and was wondering what others have done and how much it cost to do. Did you find it to be more cost efficient then renting kitchen space?

Thanks for your input! Michele

What you do would depend on what is required by your health dept or dept of agriculture. For example, where I am you do not need commercial grade equiptment, so if you are in an area like mine you wouldn't need to spend the extra $. If you can use standard litchen equiptment, it would be a big cost saver.

We are building a commercial kitchen on our property. I just paid $5,000.00 today for the installation of a grease trap, septic system and new drain
field. The plumbing and electrical work has to be done by a certified commercial plumber and electrician around $4,000.00 each. I have paid almost $1,500 for permits and still have one more to purchase. I do have to have a commercial oven, bathroom, mop sink, commercial sink and hand sink.
There are no commercial kitchens to rent in my area, so, I had no other choice. We are looking at $35,000 to $40,000 and that does no include stock or supplies once we finish.
So it is expensive.

I converted a garage and I have spent about $17,000.

I'm a little cheaper. I have a great 8-foot ceiling basement. It has it's own entrance and access to water and gas are right there in the ceiling because my kitchen is directly above. My total budget for everything, beginning ingredients as well, is $7,000. I have to paint a fresh coat down there, put up a partition wall with a door, I have to buy a oven (I'm starting with just one, but I would like to build two wall ovens in the future). I have to put in a large work table in the center with a sink and counter in the corner , I have a fridge to use already. I also have a heavy lab table that my husband picked up from a construction site (FREE!!!!!) that will be my mixing table, but he will build custom "stuff" under the table for storage.

I'm hoping for find a 12-quart mixer, but I really don't know if I'll have the money. I have two commercial kitchen-aids to get me started, but I really want a bigger one. I already own so much cake stuff over the past 20 years that I really only need a drawing machine and a good line of commercial icing colors, maybe a few extra cake pans in the popular sizes.

It's slow going, saving the money and spending slowly, but it's happening!!

Tami

Already had a walkout finished basement with a bathroom and laundry room. My husband and I did all the work except gas line hook up but that didn't take much since the line was already down there. We removed the carpet and painted the floor. Had to buy a stove and refrigerator. We purchased a couple of unpainted kitchen cabinets and counter tops from Menards to install. Had a huge cabinet and built in cupboards and shelving already down there. My brother found a 12 quart Hobart mixer that someone was throwing away and it works great! He also snagged a 20 quart mixer for me but I won't be getting that from him until this fall. bonus!! The church my husband belongs to gave us a stainless steel cart for the mixer for free and we also had a stainless steel cart in the garage that I had to paint the legs on. We purchased a couple of wire rack stands from Sams Club. I already have a pro Kitchen aid mixer and lots of other cake stuff. My husband installed a three hole sink for me also. I am thinking we spent around $4000 to do our basement. It sure saves a lot of money when you have a handy man husband!

Yes, a handy husband is key for do-it-yourself!! BUT, I also have an Amishman's number and for $200 a day brings two Amishmen and two Amish boys as apprentices. He looked it over and could do everything I needed (including building the table for me) in 3 days, I buy the materials and pick them up in the morning, return in the evening. Hopefully my husband will be able to schedule his vacation in early fall for the work, if not I'll go the Amish route.

Tami

$25,000. But we are both contractors and that saved thousands. The prices we got from contractors was double. Mostly because they thought we were stupid homeowners. One quoted double the wiring we needed at $8.00/ft.. Another quoted triple the hours to do the plumbing. We decided to contract it ourselves. We could pull our own permits and hire workers to do what we said to do. We did have an electrician move the wiring. Our grease trap was $2500.00, but again, we were the general contractors. The space was already finished living space.

For anyone getting prices, even when you get several bids, all could be overpriced. Hopefully, you can have someone you know or trust go over the quote, especially the materials list. Those extra materials will go to another job where the contractor offers to buy the materials. For wiring and piping, measure the linear feet yourself. I'm sure this practice isn't only in my area.

This is all great information! All the different scenarios are eye-opening. I hope more will keep chiming in with their experiences.

LKing12, you mentioned a new septic and drain field. I'm interested to know if it was an upgrade to your existing home system, or a completely separate addition? (And also if it had to meet commercial specs).

That is the grease trap. Every area will have a code for this that could be completely different from the next area. Usually they are required in areas where there is a septic system. It is an environmental issue. The grease trap stops the grease from flowing into your septic tank. It can be drained. In areas where there is public water and sewer, usually an under-sink model is sufficient. They can be emptied. The reason for the difference is because public water systems are designed to get rid of the grease at the filtering plant.

My grease trap was 500gal and about 4 x 5 x 4. It is about 1.5 feet under the ground. The cost was $900 for the tank and $1600 for the hole and hookup. these were contractor rates. The good thing about the grease traps (attached to the septic system) is that your license is a full commercial kitchen license with no restrictions. For example, your house has more value because it can also be used for catering. I believe that the grease trap can have its own drain field also. The grease stays at the top of the tank while the rest falls to the bottom.

If you hook into city sewer systems, they will probably require a grease trap. They did for my coffee shop.