Kitchen Remodeling in Gaithersburg, MD

What a kitchen remodel in Gaithersburg actually involves

The 1990s builder floor plan gives you a two-story family room, an isolated kitchen and an unfinished basement with the mechanicals dead center. Finishing that basement well is largely a question of how intelligently you plan around the equipment.

Builder colonials and townhomes from the 1980s and 1990s, plus the neo-traditional Kentlands and Lakelands houses built to a codified pattern book with alleys and rear-loaded garages.

• Demolition and what is behind the walls. Cabinets out, old flooring up, and the wall cavities opened. This is the point where undersized wiring, galvanized supply lines, a vent stack in the wrong place or a bearing wall where you wanted an opening stops being a theory.
• 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.
• Finishes and the punch list. Flooring, paint, trim, lighting, hardware and the appliance set installed and tested, plus the punch walk where the small things get written down and then actually fixed.

What we typically find on a Gaithersburg house of this era (1975 to 2008). Gaithersburg's builder stock is consistent, which means the finds are consistent: builder-grade plumbing fittings at end of life, undersized returns in the HVAC, and basement mechanical layouts that were located for the builder's convenience rather than for anyone who would later finish the space.

Lead paint: the rule that applies to older Gaithersburg homes

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. A meaningful share of Gaithersburg homes predate 1978, and the older neighborhoods here almost certainly do. 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 Gaithersburg 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 a wall comes out, and whether it is bearing. A non-bearing wall is a day. A bearing wall is engineering, a beam, temporary shoring and a load path to the foundation.
• The condition of the existing electrical service. If the panel is full or the service is undersized for what current kitchen code requires, the upgrade is part of the kitchen whether you wanted it to be or not.
• What the demolition exposes. Rot under a long-leaking sink, failed subfloor, or plumbing that has to be replaced to be legally connected to.

A kitchen that keeps its layout and does not need structural work is a matter of weeks. Move the plumbing, take out a wall, or upgrade the electrical service and it grows, largely because inspections have to happen at rough-in before anything gets closed up. Custom cabinetry lead time is frequently the longest single item and it should be ordered before demolition starts, not after.

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

We would rather over-disclose than be asked. Maryland: MHIC #111971, issued by the Home Improvement Commission and searchable in the state licensing database. General liability and workers' compensation in force, with certificates sent by our carrier on request and before signing, not after. The licensed trades on your project hold their own licenses and their own policies and pull their own trade permits, which is the legal requirement rather than a preference. Your contract is with us, and so is the responsibility.

Where we work in Gaithersburg

• 20877
• 20878
• 20879
• 20882
• Kentlands
• Olde Towne
• Washingtonian
• Quince Orchard
• Montgomery Village
• Lakelands

How a Gaithersburg project runs

1. We walk the property and put the scope in writing. An unhurried visit, real measurements, and a look behind finishes wherever we responsibly can. You end up with a document describing the project rather than a number scribbled on a business card.
2. Feasibility against Gaithersburg rules, before design. We establish what the City of Gaithersburg will require for kitchen remodel at your address, and what your lot, your zoning and your existing house will allow.
3. Scope agreed first, permits second. Nothing gets submitted until you have approved a line-item scope with the allowances written out in plain terms and a change-order process both sides have signed off on. Then we assemble and file the permit package and answer the reviewer's comments ourselves.
4. One team on site, one closeout file. MHIC #111971, We supervise our own trades, we schedule against the inspection calendar so nobody sits idle, and we hand you a closeout file at the end that you can give to a buyer years from now.

Kitchen Remodeling across Gaithersburg and Montgomery County

We work throughout Kentlands, Olde Towne, Washingtonian, Quince Orchard, Montgomery Village and Lakelands, covering 20877, 20878, 20879, 20882.

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

Our original trade is the building envelope, not cabinetry, and that changes what we notice. Water in a basement is usually a gutter and grading problem. A stained ceiling is usually flashing. A bouncy deck is a ledger problem. Because roofing, siding, aluminum siding, gutters and fascia and windows are work we self-perform, finding one of those mid-project is a line on a change order rather than a phone number for somebody else.

Gaithersburg kitchen remodeling questions