Kitchen Remodeling in Chevy Chase, MD

What a kitchen remodel in Chevy Chase actually involves

Houses of this age in Chevy Chase carry plaster over lath, knob-and-tube remnants in some attics, and original single-glazed windows. Any interior project has to plan for what opening those walls exposes.

• Structural changes and openings. Removing or shortening a wall between the kitchen and an adjacent room means a properly sized header or beam, a load path carried down to the foundation, and in most jurisdictions a structural detail submitted with the permit.
• Electrical to current code. Modern kitchen code requires dedicated small-appliance circuits, GFCI protection at counter receptacles, arc-fault protection, and receptacle spacing along the counter run. In older houses this frequently means new home runs and sometimes a panel with capacity to accept them.
• Plumbing and gas. Relocating a sink or adding a pot filler or island sink means new supply and drain runs with correct venting. Moving a gas range is a licensed gas alteration with its own inspection.
• Ventilation done properly. A range hood that vents to the outside through insulated duct with a correct termination, not a recirculating filter and not a duct dumped into the attic. This is one of the most commonly cut corners in the trade.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to most of Chevy Chase

One regulation shapes almost every project on older housing here, and it is the one homeowners hear about least. Under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule, disturbing painted surfaces in a pre-1978 home requires a certified firm, a contained work area and a defined cleanup process. Most of Chevy Chase's housing stock predates 1978, so assume this applies to your house unless someone has established otherwise. We hold the certification and we price the containment into the job rather than discovering it later. A bid that never mentions lead on a house of this age is a bid that has not been thought through.

What drives the cost on a Chevy Chase kitchen remodel

Anyone can publish a range. Almost nobody can publish one that survives contact with an actual house, which is why we do not. The list below is the honest version: the specific things that decide whether your project lands at the bottom or the top of whatever range you have in your head.

• Whether the layout stays put. Keeping the sink, range and refrigerator roughly where they are is dramatically cheaper than relocating them, because the plumbing, gas and venting stay put with them.
• Cabinet tier. Stock, semi-custom and full-custom cabinetry span an enormous range, and cabinetry is usually the single largest line on a kitchen budget.
• Counter material and how many seams and cutouts it needs.
• Generous but shallow lots with deep front setbacks, mature canopy and detached garages set well back. That is a Chevy Chase-specific factor and it belongs in the conversation early.

The mistakes we get called in to fix

• A recirculating range hood in a house with a gas range. It moves smell around. It does not move moisture, grease or combustion byproducts out of the house.
• Buying the appliances last. Cabinet openings are built to specific appliance dimensions, and a counter-depth refrigerator that is two inches deeper than planned means a rebuilt cabinet run.
• Hiring the trades separately and assuming they will coordinate. They will not, because none of them is being paid to.

One licensed team, one contract, one point of contact

This is the clearest case in residential construction for a single contract. When a homeowner hires a cabinet company, an electrician, a plumber and a tile setter separately, nobody owns the sequence — and the sequence is the entire job. The cabinet installer shows up before the electrician has passed rough-in, the counters get templated off cabinets that have to move, and every delay becomes an argument about whose fault it was.

Our position is simple and it is checkable. We hold MHIC #111971 in Maryland. We carry general liability and workers' compensation coverage, and we will send you the certificates before you sign rather than after you ask twice. Our subcontracted trades carry their own coverage and their own trade licenses, and the trade permits are pulled under those licenses, as they are required to be. You sign one contract with one company, and that company is the one answering the phone when something needs answering.

Where we work in Chevy Chase

• 20815
• Chevy Chase Village
• Town of Chevy Chase
• Somerset
• Martin's Additions
• Section Five
• Rollingwood

How a Chevy Chase project runs

1. Free on-site consultation and a written scope. We walk the space with you, measure, look at what is behind the finishes where we can, and write down what you actually want out of the project rather than what is easiest to sell.
2. Feasibility against Chevy Chase rules, before design. We establish what the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services, plus your municipality will require for kitchen remodel at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow.
3. Fixed written scope, then permits. A line-item scope with allowances stated plainly and a change-order process agreed in advance. We prepare and submit the permit package and handle review comments ourselves.
4. Supervised production and a clean finish. MHIC #111971, one point of contact for the whole job, trades sequenced against the inspection calendar, and a closeout that includes the punch walk, the closed permits and the product documentation in one package.

Kitchen Remodeling across Chevy Chase and Montgomery County

Our crews cover Chevy Chase Village, Town of Chevy Chase, Somerset, Martin's Additions, Section Five and Rollingwood, across 20815. What buyers and appraisers in this market respond to is period-correct exteriors with fully modern interiors, and kitchens that work without gutting the character out of the house — worth knowing whether you are renovating to stay or renovating to sell.

Homeowners here usually reach us for more than one thing at a time. Related work in Chevy Chase: bathroom remodeling in Chevy Chase, basement finishing in Chevy Chase, home additions in Chevy Chase, interior painting in Chevy Chase.

There is a specific failure mode we exist to prevent: the interior contractor who opens a wall, finds water damage, and hands you a roofer's phone number. Because roofing, siding, aluminum siding, windows and gutters, soffit and fascia are trades we perform ourselves, the envelope is inside your contract rather than outside it, and there is no second company to schedule, vet and argue with.

Chevy Chase kitchen remodeling questions