Custom Kitchens

The first decision on any Houston kitchen is whether the sink, range, and refrigerator stay where they are. A refresh keeps the existing footprint and replaces cabinets, counters, backsplash, lighting, and appliances in place. It is faster, it disturbs less of the house, and the plumbing and gas stay put. A layout change moves at least one of those three stations, which usually means new drain lines under the slab, a relocated gas line, and new circuits, and it often means opening a wall to the dining or living room. Both are legitimate projects. The point is to decide on purpose, because a refresh that grows into a layout change halfway through demolition costs more than a layout change that was planned from the start.

We help you make that call at the site visit by looking at what the current layout does badly. If the problem is worn finishes and poor storage, a refresh solves it. If the problem is that two people cannot cook at once, the island is a walkway, or the kitchen is closed off from where the family actually sits, the footprint is the problem and finishes will not fix it. Many Houston homes from the 1960s through the 1990s have a galley or U-shaped kitchen walled off from the den, and opening that wall is the single change owners ask for most. The free itemized quote prices the two paths separately so you can see what the layout change actually adds.

Nearly every wall between a kitchen and a family room in a Houston house is doing some work, and some are carrying the roof or the second floor. Before anyone swings a hammer we trace the load path: what the ceiling joists rest on, whether the trusses span the wall, and where the load lands on the slab below. On a one-story house with trusses the wall may be a simple partition. On a two-story house or an older stick-framed roof it is often bearing, and the fix is a beam sized by an engineer, carried on posts down to the foundation. We do not guess. A wrong guess shows up as a sagging ceiling and cracked drywall a year later.

When the wall is bearing, the beam can be dropped below the ceiling or set flush with it. A flush beam gives the clean, uninterrupted ceiling most owners picture, but it takes more framing work and temporary shoring while the joists are re-hung. Walls also hide things: plumbing vents, the return-air duct, the electrical home runs to the panel. Each of those has to be rerouted before the wall comes down, and each one is a line on the quote rather than a surprise. Where the removal affects the structure, Houston-area jurisdictions want engineered drawings with the permit application, and we produce them as part of the job.

Inside Houston city limits, a kitchen remodel that touches plumbing, gas, electrical, or structure goes through the City of Houston permit process with trade inspections along the way. In the unincorporated parts of Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery Counties, permitting runs through the county, and many subdivisions add MUD or HOA review on top of it. Suburbs like Pearland, Sugar Land, and League City run their own permit offices with their own forms and inspection schedules. A cosmetic refresh with no trade work may not need a permit at all. We confirm which applies to your address before the quote is final so the paperwork is priced and scheduled rather than discovered halfway through the job.

The reason to care is inspection sequencing. Rough plumbing, gas, and electrical are inspected in the open wall before insulation and drywall close them up, and if the inspector cannot get there on the day the drywall crew is booked, the schedule slips. As a licensed general contractor we pull the permit under our name, book the inspections, and keep the trades sequenced so the walls close on time. HOA review is a separate track in many Houston-area neighborhoods, and while most interior kitchen work does not need it, anything that changes an exterior window or adds a vent through the wall might. We ask early so it does not stall the job later.

Houston kitchens live in humid air most of the year, and the air conditioner is running against it. That shapes material choices more than most people expect. Solid wood cabinet doors move with moisture unless the finish seals them well, so we spec finishes and door construction with that in mind. Plywood cabinet boxes are more stable than particleboard when a dishwasher leaks or the ice maker line drips, which is the failure that ruins a base cabinet run. Under-sink cabinets get waterproof liners. For counters, dense stone and quartz surfaces are the workhorses, and the seam and edge details matter more than the slab name on the invoice.

Backsplash and floor tile need proper substrate and grout choices, since kitchens see steam, splatter, and mopping. Large-format porcelain floors are popular in Houston because they stay cool and clean easily, but they need a flat slab, and older slabs that have moved on the clay soil often need leveling first. We check flatness before tile is ordered. Paint is the other humidity item: a scrubbable finish on walls and a hard enamel on trim last longer next to a range. None of this is exotic. It is a set of small decisions that decide whether the kitchen still looks right after five Gulf Coast summers of daily cooking.

A remodeled kitchen almost always needs more electrical than the old one had. Modern ranges, ovens, and induction cooktops draw dedicated circuits, and the counters need protected receptacles spaced along the run. Older Houston homes frequently have a panel that is already full, and adding a subpanel or upgrading service becomes part of the scope. We look at the panel on the first visit for exactly that reason. Lighting is planned in layers: general ceiling light, task light under the upper cabinets over the counters, and something warmer over the island or table. Every fixture location is marked on the plan before rough-in so the electrician is not guessing from a sketch.

Ventilation is the item most often skimped on. A recirculating hood filters grease but sends heat and moisture back into an already humid house. A ducted hood pushes it outside, which in a slab-on-grade Houston home means routing a duct through the upper cabinets and out a wall or up through the attic and roof. High-output ranges want a hood sized for them and, in tight new construction, a make-up air provision so the house does not go negative and pull air back down the water heater flue. Bath and laundry fans get the same treatment when they share the remodel. Ducting is planned with the cabinet layout, not after it.

The order of work is fixed by what has to dry, cure, or be inspected. Demolition comes first, then any structural work, then plumbing, gas, and electrical rough-in with their inspections. Drywall and paint follow, then cabinets are set and leveled. Counters are templated only after the cabinets are in, because the fabricator measures the real boxes, and there is a wait between template and install. Backsplash, plumbing fixtures, appliances, and hardware come last. Custom cabinets and appliances have lead times, so we order them before demolition begins and do not open the kitchen until the long items have confirmed delivery dates.

You can usually stay in the house. We set up a temporary kitchen with the old refrigerator, a microwave, and a sink if one is available, and we wall off the work zone with dust barriers. The hardest stretch is the gap between demolition and counter install, when there is no sink in the kitchen. A dedicated superintendent keeps you posted on what happens each week and when the inspections fall. The whole run is usually a couple of months for a full remodel, and the free itemized quote lists every phase so you know what is being paid for and when it happens.