Eleven-year-old kitchen: new cabinets, plumbing untouched
Swollen doors, a cracked countertop, grease in the tile grout. The owners asked for no demolition, no plumbing work and a finish inside a week.
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Before
The house was eleven years old and the cabinets were the developer’s original chipboard units. The bottom edge of the doors had swelled and lifted, the countertop joint had opened and was letting water through, and the tile grout carried a layer of grease that no amount of scrubbing removed. Three hinges had worked loose, so the doors no longer closed properly.
The owners’ concern was practical: the kitchen is used every day, and knocking out walls and moving plumbing would mean at least ten days without it. Not realistic with an elderly parent and a young child in the apartment.
What we proposed
After the site visit we recommended the Full Cabinet Replacement tier — new carcasses, doors and countertop, with every existing plumbing and electrical point kept exactly where it was and nothing demolished.
- Carcasses in multi-layer plywood, far more moisture-resistant than the original chipboard
- Quartz countertop, joint finished seamless
- Light wood-grain door fronts, so the small kitchen reads as wider
- Full hardware upgrade to soft-close hinges, so the doors shut quietly
How it ran
Day 1: old cabinets and countertop out, debris taken away. Days 2 and 3: wall substrate and tiles cleaned. Day 4: carcasses fitted. Day 5: countertop and hardware. Day 6: full clean and sign-off. The family lost exactly one day of normal cooking.
Result
The final cost was $9,400, below the $13,000 the owners had expected to spend — not moving the plumbing was most of the saving. They recommended us twice in their building group afterwards, and the second job was another apartment in the same block.
