How Much Does a Home Renovation Cost in Idaho in 2026
In the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com), a midrange minor kitchen remodel cost $28,490 in the Mountain region, whose sample markets include Boise and Idaho Falls. Idaho carpenters earned a mean $26.96 an hour in May 2025, against $31.55 nationally (BLS). Remodelers, unless exempt, must register with the state (Idaho Code 54-5204).
Kitchen and bath numbers from the Mountain division, 2025
Cost vs. Value publishes no Idaho average. The report’s city menu for its Mountain region names eight sample markets: Boise, Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, Reno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque. The figures below describe that region, not your house.
The report’s defined midrange minor kitchen remodel cost $28,490 in the Mountain region; resale value was $31,417, so 110.3% of the cost came back. The national average for the same project was $28,458, with $32,141 of resale value and 112.9% recouped. A midrange bath remodel ran $24,920 regionally, returning $17,300 at resale (69.4%). Nationally that job cost $26,138 and returned $20,915, or 80%.
The report pages on file do not spell out what each project includes, so no scope is described here.
© 2025 Zonda Media, a Delaware Corporation. Complete data from the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.
What an Idaho carpenter is paid
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 8,380 carpenters (occupation 47-2031) on Idaho payrolls in its May 2025 wage estimates. Their mean pay was $26.96 an hour, or $56,080 a year; the median was $25.00, or $52,000. Across the U.S. the mean was $31.55 ($65,630), the median $29.12 ($60,580). Self-employed carpenters are not in these numbers. Pay is one input to a contractor’s bid, and the wage gap does not translate into a remodel price.
Contractor registration, and who is outside it
Idaho Code 54-5204(1) has required contractors to be “registered as required in this chapter” since January 1, 2006; doing that business, or holding yourself out as a contractor, without registration is unlawful. Before signing, look the name up on the DOPL registration search (the Contractors Board is part of the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses).
Exemptions are in Idaho Code 54-5205, and none of them covers anyone “acting with the intent to evade this chapter.” Subsection (1) deals with licensed trades; subsection (2) lists 18 more, lettered (a) through (r), from farm work to public utilities. Two exemptions shape a remodel (full list: Idaho Code 54-5205):
- Licensed trades. Subsection (1) does not require registration from people licensed or regulated by the state for their own trade, “including, but not limited to,” those under chapters 3, 10, 12, 19, 26, 45 and 50 of title 54. Chapter 10 covers electrical contractors and journeymen, chapter 26 plumbers, chapter 50 HVAC installers. None of them “may hold himself out as a registered contractor.”
- Doing your own house. Item (l) exempts “an owner performing construction on the owner’s personal residential real property, whether or not occupied by the owner.” The carve-out: an owner who is “otherwise regulated by this chapter” and builds “a building, residence or other improvement” there “with the intention and for the purpose of promptly selling” it loses the exemption, unless that owner lived there continuously as a primary residence for not less than twelve months before the sale.
Each item in subsection (2) carries one more condition: the person “does not hold himself out as a registered contractor.”
Paperwork owed before you sign a remodel contract
Idaho Code 45-525 covers a general contractor who deals directly with a homeowner on a contract of more than $2,000 to build, alter or repair improvements on residential property of one to four dwelling units. Before the contract is signed, the contractor has to give you a disclosure statement to sign as received, keep proof, and hand you a copy. It must say that you have the right, at your reasonable expense, to require lien waivers from the contractor’s subcontractors; the right to proof of general liability coverage, including completed operations, and of workers’ compensation for its employees; the opportunity to buy an extended title policy covering certain unfiled or unrecorded liens; and the right, at your expense, to require a surety bond of up to the project’s value.
A second document comes later. Within a reasonable time before your final payment, the contractor owes you a signed list of its direct subcontractors, material suppliers and rental equipment providers that supplied materials or did work worth more than $500. Leaving out any of these disclosures counts as an unlawful and deceptive act under the Idaho Consumer Protection Act (chapter 6, title 48). One carve-out: none of 45-525 applies if you, or someone acting for you, called the contractor first to fix a bona fide emergency or to make necessary repairs to the home’s electrical, plumbing or water system.
The building permit carries the registration number
Under Idaho Code 54-5209, the county, city or district office that issues building permits must first ask for an Idaho contractor registration number and enter it on the permit. An exempt applicant, such as an owner doing the work, gets a permit marked “no contractor registration provided”; the office need not verify the exemption. The posted permit must show that wording.
Idaho remodel questions
Can I remodel my own kitchen without registering as a contractor?
Yes, on your own residential property, under Idaho Code 54-5205(2)(l), as long as you are not evading the chapter or presenting yourself as a registered contractor. The prompt-sale limit above still applies, and your permit will read “no contractor registration provided.”
What should I have in hand on a bathroom job over $2,000?
The signed 45-525 disclosure before the contract, and the list of subcontractors and suppliers over $500 before the final check, unless the emergency or electrical/plumbing/water repair exception applies.