The cheapest sensible way to get a glass splashback in Hobart.
Cheapest that is still worth doing: one 6mm toughened panel behind the cooktop, stock colour, no cutouts, $550 to $850 fitted. The tier most Hobart kitchens should actually buy is a full colour matched run with two power point cutouts at $900 to $1,500. Premium, meaning low iron glass or a printed image across several panels, is $1,600 to $2,800. Strip the old tiles yourself and you take $150 to $400 off any of those.
A glass splashback is one of the few kitchen upgrades where the cheap version and the good version look almost the same on the wall, and where the difference in price is mostly scope rather than quality. That makes it easy to save real money if you know which corners are safe to cut. It also makes it easy to be quoted $480 for something that is not toughened glass at all. Here is the whole picture, in 2026 Hobart prices.
Three tiers, what you get and what you give up.
Prices are supplied, back painted, delivered and fitted in Hobart in 2026, assuming the wall is already flat and made good. Our standard band on the price list is $600 to $1,300 for a kitchen run: the premium tier sits above that band because it is a bigger scope, not a bigger margin.
| Tier | Real 2026 price | What you get | What you give up | Who should pick it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget Cooktop panel only | $550 - $850 | One 6mm toughened panel up to roughly 1200 x 600, stock colour (white, off white, grey, black), polished edges, silicone fixed, one visit to measure and one to fit. | No cutouts, no returns, no colour matching, the tiles either side stay, you strip and patch the wall yourself. | Rentals, a kitchen you will replace within five years, or anyone who just wants the grout behind the burners gone. |
| Mid Full run, colour matched | $900 - $1,500 | Whole bench run in 6mm toughened, two or three panels with tight butt joins, colour matched to a paint chip or a benchtop sample, two power point cutouts, a proper template measure, sanitary silicone at the bench and neutral cure at the wall. | Standard float glass, so a very pale colour reads slightly green at the edges. No printed artwork, no window return. | The right answer for most Hobart houses and the tier we fit most often. Pick this unless you have a specific reason not to. |
| Premium Low iron or printed | $1,600 - $2,800 | Low iron glass so whites and pale greys stay true, or a digitally printed image, multiple panels including a window return or an island end, cutouts for power and a rangehood, plus a second template check before manufacture. | Money, and some resale flexibility if you choose a strong image. Lead time also stretches to about 3 to 4 weeks. | A kitchen renovation you plan to keep for ten years, or a pale colour scheme where a green cast would annoy you every day. |
Add roughly $40 to $90 per power point cutout, $80 to $200 for a rangehood cutout, and $150 to $400 if we remove and dispose of the old tiles. Send the quote form with the bench length for a firm figure.
Where you can safely save money.
These are the savings that cost you nothing in quality. We suggest them to customers before they ask.
- Strip the old tiles yourself, $150 to $400. It is a weekend job with a bolster and a hammer. Do it before the template measure, not after, because the finished wall is what we template to. Wear eye protection and expect to patch.
- Stay with a stock colour, $80 to $250. Stock whites, greys and blacks are mixed in volume. A custom colour match to a paint chip costs more and adds a few days.
- Keep the run simple. Every internal corner, return and shaped cut adds time at the factory and risk at the fit. A straight run of two panels with one butt join is cheaper than three panels with a mitre, and it looks cleaner.
- Do it in the same visit as other glass. If you also need a mirror, a shower screen or a broken window replaced, one measure trip and one fit trip removes a second call out. That is worth $120 to $180 on the smallest jobs.
- Book off peak. Kitchen glass is busiest from October to December when people renovate before Christmas. February to June is quieter and lead times are shorter, which also means fewer rushed remakes.
- Stage it. Panel behind the cooktop now, the rest of the run next year, is a perfectly reasonable plan as long as you use the same colour code. Keep the code on the invoice.
- Measure roughly yourself for the quote. Bench length, height from bench to the underside of the cupboards, and the number of power points is enough for an accurate indicative price. Our glass sizing calculator turns that into square metres in about a minute.
Want all three tiers priced on your kitchen?
Send the bench length and a photo. We come back with budget, mid and premium side by side so you can see exactly what the extra money buys.
Five savings that get paid for twice.
- Acrylic instead of glass behind a cooktop. Acrylic sheet is $250 to $500 and looks convincing for about two years. It scratches when you clean it, it yellows above a cooktop, and it is a combustible material in the one place in the kitchen where you do not want one. It has a place on a laundry wall. It has no place behind burners.
- Four millimetre glass because it is cheaper. Behind a cooktop you want 6mm toughened. Thin glass is more prone to bowing on an uneven old wall, and the price difference across a whole kitchen is usually under $120.
- Painting the wall behind clear glass. A clear panel over a painted wall sounds clever and costs less than a back painted panel. Every brush mark, every patch and every silicone smear then shows through, and the paint at the cooktop end discolours with heat. Back painting is done under controlled conditions and bonded to the glass.
- Skipping the template measure. Toughened glass cannot be cut, drilled or trimmed after it is made. A panel ordered from your own tape measure that turns out 6mm too wide is not adjustable, it is scrap, and you buy it twice. The template visit is the cheapest insurance on the job.
- The cheapest silicone. A general purpose silicone at the bench line goes black in a Hobart kitchen within a couple of winters. A sanitary grade with a mould inhibitor costs a few dollars more per tube and is the difference between a clean line at year five and a strip out.
What a suspiciously low splashback quote has left out.
If a quote comes in well under $500 for a full kitchen run, one of these is missing. Ask which one before you sign anything.
- The glass is not toughened, or the quote does not say. Ask for the words toughened and AS/NZS 2208 in writing, and look for the stamp in the corner on delivery.
- There is no template measure, only a phone estimate. In an old Hobart kitchen with a wavy wall that is how remakes happen.
- Cutouts are excluded. Two power point cutouts is $80 to $180 that has to appear somewhere.
- Tile removal, rubbish disposal and making the wall good are excluded, which is $150 to $400 of real work plus a plasterer if the lining comes away.
- Delivery and freight are excluded. Some colours and printed panels are processed on the mainland and shipped across, and freight on a large panel is not trivial.
- There is no allowance for the wall being out of square, which in a pre 1960 Hobart kitchen is close to guaranteed. A good quote says how a 10mm variation will be handled.
- No written warranty on the fit or the back paint. Read what a glazing warranty in Tasmania actually covers before you decide the paperwork does not matter.
Rebates, concessions and schemes in Tasmania: the honest answer.
There is no rebate for a splashback. Tasmanian household programs target energy use, not kitchen finishes, so nothing on this page attracts a government contribution. Three things are still worth knowing because they change the maths on the wider job.
- Energy programs apply to glazing, not splashbacks. Tasmania has run a no interest Energy Saver Loan Scheme for household energy upgrades, with glazing products among the eligible items. Programs open, close and change their eligible lists, so confirm the current position directly with the administering body before you count on it. If your kitchen job includes replacing the window over the sink, that part may be the piece that qualifies. See single versus double glazing for what that change is worth in a Hobart winter.
- Insurance sometimes pays. If the existing splashback or the tiles were damaged by an insured event, a broken pane, a burst flexi hose or an impact, the replacement may sit inside a claim rather than your renovation budget. Our insurance claim guide covers how to document it and we itemise invoices for claims as a matter of course.
- Rentals are treated differently by the tax system. For an investment property a new splashback is generally a capital improvement rather than a repair, which changes how it is claimed. That is a question for your accountant, not for a glazier, but it is worth asking before you choose a tier.
What Hobart kitchens specifically do to this job.
Two local conditions move the price and the timeline here more than anything on a national price guide.
Old wall linings. A great many kitchens in Moonah, Glenorchy, New Town and West Hobart still have tiles bedded onto masonite, fibrous plaster or original lath. When those tiles come off, the lining often comes with them. It is not a disaster, it is a sheet of plasterboard and a set, but it is $200 to $450 and two extra days of drying, and it must happen before we template. If your kitchen is in that age bracket, plan for it rather than being surprised by it.
Cold rooms and cure times. Silicone and construction adhesive have a minimum application temperature, commonly around 5 degrees, and a cure that slows dramatically as the room gets colder. In an unheated Hobart kitchen in July we will heat the room or reschedule rather than bond a panel to a cold wall and hope. That is also why we quote a 24 hour wait before you clean the new panel or run the cooktop hard.
Behind a cooktop, the clearances that matter come from two places: the appliance install manual and, for gas, the gas installation standard. Both deal with how close a burner may sit to an adjacent surface. We work to whichever is stricter, and if your cooktop sits hard against the wall with no clearance at all, we will tell you the honest answer, which is sometimes that the cooktop needs to move first.
When the cheap option is the right answer, and when to spend nothing.
- Tiles in good condition, just dated. Regrouting a tiled splashback is a $150 to $300 job for a handyman and it buys years. If you are selling in the next twelve months, that is the better spend.
- Kitchen coming out within two years. Fit the budget panel behind the cooktop only, or do nothing. Do not colour match a full run into cabinetry you are about to skip bin.
- One cracked tile. Replace the tile. A whole splashback because of one cracked tile is not a decision you would make twice.
- What we do not do. We do not remove or refit cooktops, we do not move power points, and we do not tile or plaster. We measure, supply and fit the glass, and we will tell you which other trade has to come first so the order runs in the right sequence. If you want a sense of how a glass job runs start to finish, our installation day guide is the same rhythm on a larger scale.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest glass splashback that is still worth doing in Hobart?
Does a glass splashback behind a cooktop have to be toughened?
Is a printed image splashback worth the extra money?
Are there any Tasmanian rebates for a kitchen splashback?
Can I save money by removing the old tiles myself?
How long does a glass splashback take from order to fitted?
Get budget, mid and premium priced on your kitchen
Send your bench length and a photo of the wall and we send all three tiers back, itemised, usually the same business day.
Keep reading before you set the budget
- Glass splashbacks, colours, cutouts and how we template.
- Full 2026 price list for every glass job we do in Hobart.
- How much glass do you need, a working sizing calculator.
- AS 1288 safety glass compliance, where toughened glass is compulsory.
- How to choose a glazier in Hobart and what to ask before you pay a deposit.
- Glenorchy and Moonah service pages if that is where the kitchen is.