Kitchen Remodeling Services in Portland and Vancouver

Which kitchen job fits your kitchen

Start with what is wrong with the kitchen you have. If the layout works and the cabinet boxes are solid, the job can be small. If the room does not work, or the boxes have failed, it cannot. The full remodel is covered on our page about kitchen remodeling in Portland; the three smaller jobs each have their own page.

• Full remodel. Changes the layout, the cabinets and counters, and often the plumbing, wiring, range hood and floor; only the room itself stays. Moving a wall needs a building permit, and plumbing, wiring, gas and range exhausts need trade permits.
• Cabinet refacing. Changes the doors, drawer fronts and hardware, and covers the face frames and sides with a veneer or laminate. The boxes, the layout and the counters stay. No building permit for cabinets.
• New kitchen cabinets. Changes the boxes and fronts, and usually the counters; the layout stays unless you change it. No building permit for the cabinets, but permits once walls, plumbing or wiring move.
• Cabinet painting. Changes only the finish of the doors, drawer fronts and frames; the boxes, the doors and the layout stay. No building permit for painting, and lead-safe rules apply to work that disturbs paint in a house built before 1978.

The permit notes follow Oregon’s state list, which exempts cabinets, countertops and similar finish work from a building permit, and Portland’s list, which needs no permit to install cabinets and shelving. A building-permit exemption is not a trade-permit exemption: the state says plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits may still apply.

Choosing between them

• Doors look worn but the boxes are solid and the layout works: cabinet refacing replaces the fronts and leaves the boxes where they are.
• Water damage under the sink, failing boxes, or not enough storage: new kitchen cabinets. New fronts do not repair a box, and refacing cannot add a cabinet.
• The cabinets are sound and you like the doors, but the finish is chipped or dated: cabinet painting changes the finish and nothing else.
• The room does not work: a full remodel, where the layout changes and the other three jobs happen as part of it.

Whichever job it is, the independent remodeler we pass your request to sets the price after the free consultation. For what dated, published figures say about whole-kitchen projects, see kitchen remodel costs in Portland.