How Much Does a Home Renovation Cost in New Hampshire in 2026
New England’s midrange minor kitchen remodel averaged $28,936 in the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com), which sampled no New Hampshire city. Carpenters here earned a mean $30.82 an hour in May 2025 (U.S.: $31.55). The state still licenses no general remodelers.
Zonda’s New England page, read for a Granite State kitchen or bath
Zonda Media prices 28 projects in 119 U.S. markets. Its New England page, the region covering New Hampshire, names three sample markets: Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine. With no Concord, Nashua or Seacoast market in the sample, treat these as neighboring metros’ numbers.
For the report’s defined midrange minor kitchen remodel, New England shows a job cost of $28,936 and a resale value of $38,865, scored as 134.3% of cost recouped; nationally, $28,458 and 112.9%. The report’s defined midrange bath remodel comes in at $27,559 in the division, $24,937 at resale and 90.5% recouped, against $26,138 and 80% across all markets. The captured pages give no size or finish level for either project; for scope, see kitchen budgets at each price point and bath remodels from refresh to gut.
© 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 New Hampshire carpenters were paid in May 2025
The Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey (May 2025, occupation 47-2031) estimates 3,760 carpenters on New Hampshire payrolls, at a mean of $30.82 an hour ($64,100 a year), a little under the national $31.55. The median ran the other way: $29.42 here, $29.12 nationally. Self-employed carpenters are left out. Crew pay is one input to a price, not a quote.
No contractor license, and a study committee reporting November 1, 2026
The Attorney General’s consumer alert of March 10, 2022 is direct: “In New Hampshire, contractors do not need to be licensed.” It flags as a warning sign any contractor who says they can do “electrical work, inspections, plumbing, septic, well pump work, asbestos abatement, or lead abatement without a license”, trades a kitchen or bath gut can involve.
Senate Bill 523, enacted as 2026 chapter 258 and effective July 2, 2026, created no license either. It formed a legislative committee to study “a statewide registration system for residential builders and contractors,” meaning builders whose “primary source of income is derived from the construction, reconstruction, or substantial renovation of residential properties consisting of 4 or fewer dwelling units in a single building.” Its report is due “on or before November 1, 2026.”
A remodel sold in your living room: RSA 361-B
When a seller solicits and closes a sale of goods or services “priced at $150 or more” anywhere other than its permanent place of business, RSA 361-B treats it as a home solicitation sale. The seller must hand you a receipt and contract with a boldface notice beside your signature saying you may cancel “any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction.” In its place the statute accepts the Federal Trade Commission’s door-to-door cancellation notice, so long as it gives at least equal information about your right to cancel, or a written guarantee on the face or back of the ticket, receipt or contract that you may at any time cancel, refuse delivery or return the goods for a full refund. Mail written notice (certified or registered mail is preferred) or return the goods in person; the seller then owes back your payments, trade-in and any note within 15 days. Demolition inside that window does not shrink the refund: RSA 361-B:2, I(b-1) bars deducting the value of work that “physically altered the property,” and where the room can reasonably be put back, you may demand restoration instead.
Existing-building code: the 2024 editions since July 1, 2026
2026 chapter 49 (House Bill 1159, approved May 8) moved RSA 155-A:1, IV to the 2024 International Existing Building Code, Residential Code, Plumbing Code and Mechanical Code, among others, effective July 1, 2026. Electrical work follows the 2023 NEC, except that RSA 155-A:2, XI bars enforcing arc-fault circuit interrupter protection beyond what the 2014 NEC requires; energy stays on the 2018 IECC. RSA 155-A:2, I puts “alteration, renovation, rehabilitation, repair” under the state code, and the edition in force when your town receives the permit application governs that permit’s work.
Permits and fees are reserved to towns, cities, counties and village districts that have set up enforcement under RSA 155-A:3. Where a municipality has no building official or other enforcement mechanism, RSA 155-A:2, III lets the state fire marshal set permit fees by rule.
Houses built before 1978: EPA runs the lead-safe rule here
New Hampshire is not on EPA’s list of states authorized to run their own Renovation, Repair and Painting programs, so EPA administers it directly. Under 40 CFR 745.82 the rule covers “all renovations performed for compensation” in pre-1978 “target housing” and child-occupied facilities, and firms need EPA certification. Exemptions include, among others, components a certified inspector, risk assessor or renovator has found lead-free, and “minor repair and maintenance,” which disturbs 6 square feet or less of painted surface per room inside or 20 outside, uses none of the work practices prohibited or restricted by 40 CFR 745.85(a)(3), and involves no window replacement or demolition of painted surfaces, with non-emergency jobs in the same room within 30 days counted as one job (full list: 40 CFR 745.82, 745.83 and the target-housing definition in 745.103). EPA says the rule does not reach owners working on their own homes unless they rent part of it, run a child-care center there, or flip houses. Search EPA’s certified firms.
Remodeling questions from New Hampshire owners
I applied for my permit in June 2026. Does the new code apply?
No. RSA 155-A:2, I keeps the code in effect when the application was received for the duration of that permit’s work. For six months after July 1, 2026, a new applicant may pick either edition, “but not a combination of the 2 codes.”
My 1962 cape needs new bathroom walls. Does the crew need lead certification?
If they are paid and the work goes past the minor-repair limits, the firm needs EPA certification and a certified renovator must direct the work; other workers may be trained by that renovator (40 CFR 745.81(a)(2)-(3)). That holds unless an exemption in 40 CFR 745.82 applies, such as a finding that the affected components are lead-free.
Same house, other bills: the New Hampshire roof cost page and heating oil in New Hampshire.