Why so many households here want two
A large share of St George families cook in a way that is genuinely hard on a single open-plan kitchen: high heat, oil, garlic, chilli, steaming and deep-frying, several times a week. Put that behind an island in the middle of the living room and within a year the cornices are yellow and the lounge smells of last Tuesday.
The practical answer is not a bigger rangehood in the wrong place. It is two kitchens with two jobs.
The front kitchen. Coffee, breakfast, preparation, plating, the kettle and the dishwasher. It stays clean, it stays presentable, and it is where guests stand.
The back kitchen. The burner, the oil, the fish, the steamer, the second sink and a bench you can be rough with.
Where a back kitchen fits
Off the laundry. The most common conversion. Water, waste and an external wall are already there, which keeps the cost down.
An enclosed side or rear verandah. Good natural ventilation, straightforward duct run, and often out of the way of the main living space.
Under the house on a sloping block. Common toward Oatley and Lugarno, where the fall of the land gives you a lower level with its own access.
A covered outdoor area. Simplest for extraction, hardest in winter, and it needs weatherproof cabinetry rather than standard kitchen carcasses.
What it actually needs
- Extraction with real capacity, ducted outside on the shortest sensible run, with a grease filter you can remove and wash.
- A dedicated cooking surface — a high-output gas wok burner on a sized gas line, or an induction wok zone on its own circuit.
- Hard, heat-tolerant surfaces. Stainless steel bench and splashback is the honest choice here. Porcelain works. Laminate near a wok burner does not.
- A second sink, ideally deep enough to fill a stockpot, with a mixer you can operate with a wrist.
- Floor that takes oil. Slip-resistant tile with a decent fall to a floor waste if one is available.
- Storage for the heavy kit — stockpots, steamers, the rice sack, the oil tin.
- Light directly over the burner, sealed and wipeable rather than a fabric shade.
The compliance side, plainly
New plumbing and gas work is done by licensed trades and certified. Electrical work is done by a licensed electrician, and a wok burner or an induction hob usually means a new circuit. Mechanical ventilation must discharge outside, not into a roof space. In a unit, any new penetration through an external wall or slab needs owners corporation approval before it is cut — see apartment and strata kitchens. In a pre-1990 house, sheeting in a laundry or garage conversion is tested before it is disturbed.
Designing the pair together
The two kitchens share a doorway, a dishwasher and a walking route, and they work best when they are drawn at the same time rather than added later. See layout and design and custom cabinetry, and the 2026 cost guide for how a second kitchen sits in the overall budget.
Call 02 4404 0245 or send your kitchen details through.
More kitchen work
Questions people ask before they commit
What makes a wok kitchen different from a normal kitchen?
Extraction and surfaces. High-heat wok cooking throws far more oil and steam into the air than a domestic rangehood is designed to clear, so the hood needs more capacity and a short duct run outside. Surfaces need to be wipeable and heat-tolerant rather than decorative, and the floor needs to cope with oil.
Can a second kitchen go in the garage or under the house?
Often yes, but it depends on the structure and the use. A habitable-room conversion, a new wet area or anything that changes the building's classification may need approval, and any new plumbing and electrical work must be done by licensed trades. Ventilation to outside is not optional.
Gas or induction for wok cooking?
A dedicated high-output gas wok burner still gives the fastest, most controllable heat and suits a round-bottomed wok. Induction wok hobs with a dished zone have improved a lot and avoid a gas run and a flame indoors. Either way the circuit or the gas line needs to be sized for the appliance from the start.
Does a second kitchen count as a granny flat?
Not by itself. A secondary kitchen inside your own house is just a kitchen. It becomes a secondary dwelling — with its own planning pathway, requirements and limits — when it is part of a self-contained residence with its own access, bathroom and living space. That is worth clarifying with council before you plan it as one.