Cost to Replace Kitchen Cabinets: The Whole Project, Line by Line

The cost to replace kitchen cabinets, counted as the whole job rather than the boxes alone, runs about $7,500 to $14,300 for a 10x10 kitchen built with value cabinets and a laminate top, and roughly $13,700 to $30,500 with mid-range cabinets and quartz. The cabinets themselves are only a third to a half of that bill. The rest is tear-out, installation, countertops, backsplash, reconnecting the plumbing and wiring, patching what the old cabinets were hiding, permits and a contingency for the surprises.

Most pages that answer this question price the cabinets and stop. We sell cabinets for a living, and the calls we dread are from people who budgeted for the boxes and then found out the granite would not survive the move, the floor stopped two feet short of the new island, and the plumber wanted a separate visit. This guide is built the other way round: every line of a replacement project, what it costs according to published national cost guides, and two budgets worked through to a total. For the cabinet price tiers themselves, our guide to how much kitchen cabinets cost already covers them, so we only summarize them here.

Key Takeaways

• Budget the project, not the cabinets. In our worked 10x10 and 12x12 budgets, cabinets are 28–55% of the total. Countertops and installation labor are the next two biggest lines.
• Your stone countertop probably will not survive. Granite and quartz can be lifted and reset only when the new cabinets keep the exact same footprint, and even then the slab can crack at the sink cutout. Laminate almost never comes off in one piece.
• The backsplash usually goes with the countertop. Pulling the top tears the bottom row of tile or the drywall behind it.
• Keeping the layout is the biggest saving you control. Moving the sink, range or dishwasher turns a reconnection into new plumbing and wiring, and often into a permit.
• Carry a 10–20% contingency. Rot under the sink, an out-of-level floor and old wiring are found after demolition, not before.
• Replacing beats refacing when the countertop is going anyway, when the boxes are water-damaged, or when the layout does not work. Refacing only saves real money when the counters, plumbing and layout stay put.

Table of Contents

• Every Line on a Replacement Bill
• Tear-Out and Disposal
• The New Cabinets
• Installation Labor
• Countertops: Can You Keep Yours?
• Why the Backsplash Usually Goes Too
• Plumbing and Electrical Reconnection
• Drywall, Paint and the Floor Under the Old Boxes
• Permits, Contingency and Unquoted Costs
• Worked Budget: A 10x10 Kitchen
• Worked Budget: A 12x12 Kitchen
• How Long the Kitchen Is Out of Service
• When Replacing Beats Refacing or Painting
• Where to Save Without Regretting It
• Frequently Asked Questions

Every Line on a Replacement Bill

A cabinet replacement is a small remodel, even when nobody calls it that. Here is every line that shows up, with the national ranges we used to build the budgets later in this guide. Third-party figures come from published cost guides dated 2025–2026; the cabinet ranges come from the per-linear-foot pricing we quote. Your region can sit well above or below any of them, so treat these as a checklist with rough numbers attached, not as a quote.

Two things are deliberately missing from that table. Appliances are their own decision and can double a budget on their own, so we leave them out. And if a general contractor runs the job, Homewyse's cost model tells you to add 13–22% for their overhead and supervision on top of the trade costs. That markup buys you one phone number and someone who owns the schedule, which is worth real money in an occupied house.

Tear-Out and Disposal

Removing old cabinets is the cheapest line on the bill and the one people most often do themselves. Fixr's cabinet installation guide puts removal and haul-away at $350 to $1,000 for an average kitchen. Homewyse's September 2026 figures come in at $29.30 to $60.53 per linear foot, which is $590 to $1,210 for a 20-foot kitchen. The spread depends on whether the price includes disposal, whether the countertop comes off in the same visit, and how the old cabinets were fastened.

What the removal crew actually does: shut off water and power to the kitchen, disconnect the sink, disposal and dishwasher, pull the appliances out of the way, take off the countertop and backsplash, then unscrew the wall cabinets from the studs and the bases from each other and the wall. Old site-built cabinets in houses from the 1950s to the 1970s are often nailed and sometimes glued in place, and they come out in pieces. Factory cabinets held with screws come out almost whole.

A few disposal details that change the number:

• Dumpster or haul-away. If you demolish yourself, Fixr's dumpster guide puts a 10-yard residential dumpster at $250 to $400 a week. A 10x10 kitchen's cabinets and countertop fit in that with room to spare. Stone countertops are heavy, so check the weight allowance before you load a slab.
• Donation. Sound cabinets in a standard layout have a second life in a garage, a basement or a laundry room. Some reuse centers, including many Habitat for Humanity ReStores, accept whole cabinet sets. Call first, because each store sets its own rules about what it takes and whether it picks up.
• Homes built before 1978. Painted walls, trim and soffits in older houses may contain lead paint. The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires anyone paid to disturb paint in a pre-1978 home to be lead-safe certified. The rule generally does not apply to homeowners working on their own house, but the dust is the same dust, so follow lead-safe practices if you do the demolition yourself.

The New Cabinets

This is the one line we can price from our own numbers. The pricing behind our kitchen cabinet cost estimator runs about $150 to $250 per linear foot for value lines such as KCD, US Cabinet Depot and Tribeca, $250 to $400 for our most-requested lines such as Fabuwood, J&K, Modernform and Mantra, and $400 to $650 for semi-custom lines such as Diamond and Decorá. St. Martin and NOMA are built to order and quoted per project. Those figures are cabinets only, before installation, countertops or appliances. The estimator adds about 20% for an island, 10% for tall pantry or oven cabinets and 5% for crown molding and trim.

A real price is a useful anchor. Our Fabuwood Galaxy Frost 10x10 kitchen is a fixed set of eleven pre-assembled cabinets plus a dishwasher end panel, toe kicks and finished ends, listed at $3,500. It does not include fillers, crown, pulls, the countertop, delivery or installation, and our breakdown of what a 10x10 kitchen package includes lists each piece. Freight is quoted from the size, weight and destination of your order and itemized before you pay.

Two cabinet decisions move the rest of the project budget, not just the cabinet line. The first is RTA versus pre-assembled: flat-pack is cheaper per foot, but someone has to turn the cartons into square boxes, and our full-kitchen RTA budget counts those hours honestly. The second is box material. A sink base sits over a water supply for twenty years, and our comparison of furniture board and plywood cabinets explains why that single cabinet is where plywood earns its price.

Installation Labor

Installers price by the linear foot, by the cabinet, by the hour or by the job. Fixr's 2026 figures put flat rates at roughly $50 to $200 per linear foot and hourly rates at $40 to $100, with labor typically 30–50% of a cabinet installation bill. For a 20-foot kitchen that is $1,000 to $4,000. Our separate guide to kitchen cabinet installation cost and labor breaks those rates down by job type and region, so here we only flag what pushes a replacement job toward the top of the range:

• Old walls and floors. A kitchen that has been out of level for forty years was hidden by the old cabinets and a thick bead of caulk. New boxes have to be shimmed level, and a floor that drops an inch across a run adds hours.
• Scribing to crooked walls. Fillers and end panels get cut to the wall line where the new cabinets meet plaster that is not straight.
• Trim. Crown molding, light rail and panelled ends are finish carpentry and are usually priced on top of setting the boxes.
• Assembly. Flat-pack cabinets need assembling before anyone can hang them. Get it quoted separately so you can compare installers on the same work.

To be clear about our part: we are builders who sell cabinets, but we ship nationwide and do not install the cabinets you buy from us. If you are doing it yourself, our guides to installing kitchen cabinets yourself, hanging upper cabinets and leveling and shimming base cabinets walk through the sequence, and assembling RTA cabinets covers the flat-pack step before it.

Countertops: Can You Keep Yours When You Replace the Cabinets?

This is the question that decides whether a replacement is a $9,000 job or a $14,000 one, so here is the honest answer. Sometimes, with stone, if nothing about the footprint changes. Almost never with laminate. And in most of the replacements we quote, the old top is not worth the risk.

Laminate. Post-formed laminate tops are particleboard with plastic laminate bonded over it, screwed up through the cabinet corners from below and often glued at the mitered corner. They rarely come off without the substrate cracking at the miter or the backsplash lip pulling loose. Given that a new laminate top runs $15 to $60 per square foot, reusing one is seldom worth the labor even when it survives.

Granite and quartz. A stone top rests on the cabinets on dabs of silicone, with the seams filled with color-matched epoxy. It can be cut loose and lifted, but a 3 cm slab weighs somewhere around 18 to 20 pounds per square foot, and the weak points are exactly where you would expect: the narrow strips in front of and behind the sink cutout, and the edges of a cooktop cutout. Many fabricators will lift and reset a top only if you sign away responsibility for breakage. Before you plan around keeping it, every one of these has to be true:

• The new base cabinets go in exactly the same positions, at the same 24-inch depth and the same finished height.
• The sink base is the same width, so the undermount sink still sits centered in its cutout. Changing from a 36-inch to a 33-inch sink base breaks this rule.
• No appliance changes width. A 30-inch range swapped for a 36-inch one, or a dishwasher moved, means the top no longer fits.
• A fabricator is willing to do the lift and reset, and you have their price in writing to compare against a new top.
• You still like it. Putting a 2008 speckled granite on brand-new cabinets is a choice some people regret the day the cabinets arrive.

If the answer to any of those is no, the countertop is a line item. Fixr's 2026 countertop guide puts the average replacement at about $3,000, with most kitchens between $1,400 and $5,250. Removing the old top adds $50 to $300, and each extra cutout for a sink or cooktop adds $100 to $200.

Where do 30 and 35 square feet come from? A standard countertop is 25½ inches deep, a little over two square feet per running foot. Take the cabinet run, subtract the openings for the range and refrigerator and any tall pantry, and multiply what is left by about 2.1. A 10x10 L with a 30-inch range and a 36-inch fridge space ends up with roughly 14½ feet of counter, or about 30 square feet. If you are weighing materials, our guides to countertop types, heights and depths and to solid surface countertops go further than we can here.

One sequencing point that saves money: stone fabricators template on the installed cabinets, not on your drawings, so the countertop cannot be ordered until the new bases are set and level. Budget for the kitchen being without a counter for that gap.

Replacing base cabinets without removing the countertop

It can be done for a single cabinet, and installers do it for a rotted sink base under a stone top they want to save. The old box is cut out in pieces from underneath, after the plumbing is disconnected and the doors and drawers are off. The new cabinet is then worked into the opening, sometimes by removing its top rails or trimming the base and shimming it back up tight to the stone. It only works when the replacement is the same width, depth and height, and it is slow, careful labor. For a full run of base cabinets it makes no sense. Lifting the top is simpler and safer for everything involved.

Why the Backsplash Usually Goes Too

People are surprised by this one, but a tiled backsplash rarely survives a countertop removal. The bottom course of tile sits on the countertop, grouted or caulked to it, and the whole field is bonded to the drywall. Pry the countertop out and the bottom row cracks or the drywall paper tears behind it. Even when it survives, a new countertop is often a different thickness. A post-formed laminate top is about 1½ inches thick and a 3 cm stone top about 1¼, so the tile line ends up floating above the new surface or sitting on it with a gap to fill.

Fixr's backsplash guide puts installation at $500 to $1,500 for a kitchen, averaging about $1,000, or roughly $25 per square foot across materials. Ceramic tile runs about $12 to $30 per square foot installed and porcelain $13 to $35. Measure yours the same way as the counter: the running length of countertop times the 18 inches between the counter and the wall cabinets. A 10x10 with 14½ feet of counter has about 22 square feet of backsplash, so a plain ceramic tile job can come in under Fixr's typical range.

The exception is a stone backsplash cut from the same slab as a 4-inch splash. If you are keeping a stone top, that splash usually comes off and goes back with it. If the top is new, pick the backsplash after you have the countertop sample in your hand. Our guide to matching cabinets, countertops, backsplash and flooring walks through that order.

Plumbing and Electrical Reconnection

If the sink, dishwasher and range stay where they are, this line is small: disconnecting and reconnecting what is already there. If anything moves, it becomes new work, and the price changes category.

Plumbing. The sink, faucet, drain, disposal and dishwasher all come off before tear-out and go back on after the countertop is installed, because an undermount sink hangs from the stone. Fixr lists plumber rates at $75 to $150 an hour, averaging about $90 for a journeyman. Its kitchen plumbing guide puts a sink hookup at $100 to $500 for piping only and a dishwasher at $70 to $500. A straight reconnection is a few hours. Moving the sink even a few feet means new supply and drain lines, which is a different price category: Fixr's kitchen plumbing guide puts a partial job with a new sink, faucet and dishwasher at around $1,600 and the plumbing for a full kitchen remodel at $4,000 to $7,000. This is also the moment to replace a 20-year-old faucet or the braided supply lines, since the plumber is already there.

Electrical. A like-for-like replacement often needs no electrician at all. It needs one when outlets move or the backsplash tile is being replaced anyway, because that is when receptacles that should be GFCI-protected, and often are not in older kitchens, get brought up to date. The National Electrical Code requires GFCI protection for receptacles serving kitchen countertops, and an inspector on a permitted job can ask for it. Fixr puts electricians at $70 to $131 an hour and a new GFCI outlet at roughly $200 to $300. Under-cabinet lighting is optional and comes up during the design; if you want it, the wiring has to go in before the wall cabinets are hung.

Gas lines and new circuits for a larger range or a microwave drawer are work for a licensed tradesperson under a permit. Never let a general handyman move a gas connection.

Drywall, Paint and the Floor Under the Old Boxes

Take the old cabinets down and the walls tell you exactly where they were: a clean, unpainted rectangle behind every wall cabinet, screw holes, torn drywall paper where the old backsplash was glued, and sometimes a hole the old installer cut for pipes that is twice as big as it needed to be. None of it shows once the new cabinets are up, but the parts that stay exposed, such as the wall between the counter and the uppers and any gap where a cabinet got narrower, need patching and paint. Fixr puts drywall repair at $200 to $550 for a room and painting a kitchen at $400 to $1,200. That is also the easiest money on this list to save by doing it yourself.

Three things cost more than patch and paint:

• The floor. In many kitchens the flooring stops at the cabinets. Floating floors such as laminate and luxury vinyl plank are meant to be installed around cabinets, not under them, because cabinet weight pins the floor and stops it from moving. If the new layout adds a cabinet, deepens a pantry, or turns a peninsula into an island, bare subfloor appears where the old boxes stood. Matching a discontinued floor is rarely possible, so the choice is a transition strip you can live with or new flooring. Fixr's kitchen remodel guide puts vinyl and laminate at $3 to $13 per square foot installed and a full kitchen floor at just under $5,000 on average.
• Soffits. Many kitchens from the 1970s to the 1990s have a boxed soffit above the wall cabinets. Taking new cabinets to the ceiling means removing it, and soffits sometimes hide ductwork, a vent pipe or wiring that then has to be rerouted.
• Water damage. The floor and back wall under an old sink base are where slow leaks live. Soft subfloor under the sink is repaired before new cabinets go in, never covered over.

If the floor is being replaced anyway, the order matters. Solid hardwood and tile can go down first with the cabinets on top; floating floors go in after the cabinets. Either way, the cabinet installer needs to know the finished floor height so the dishwasher and range still fit under the counter.

Permits, Contingency and the Costs Nobody Quotes

Whether a cabinet replacement needs a permit depends on where you live and what else is happening. Swapping cabinets in the same positions often needs none. Moving plumbing, adding circuits, relocating a gas line or opening a wall usually does, and some jurisdictions permit any kitchen remodel above a dollar threshold. Fixr's building permit guide puts a kitchen remodel permit at $150 to $900, depending on project value, and its backsplash guide lists a separate electrical permit for new outlets or under-cabinet lighting at $50 to $150. Call your local building department before you order. A permit is cheap next to redoing work an inspector fails.

Then the contingency. We tell customers to carry 10% on a like-for-like swap in a newer house and 15–20% when the house is older, the layout changes or the sink base has been leaking. The money usually goes to the same short list:

• Rotted subfloor or wall framing under the sink.
• A floor so far out of level that the installer needs extra time or a self-leveling pour.
• Old wiring or an ungrounded outlet the electrician will not reconnect.
• A dishwasher or range that no longer fits the opening, or an over-the-range microwave that does not match the new wall cabinet above the range.
• A second delivery for the filler, panel or end skin that nobody ordered.

That last item is ours to prevent. Freight is quoted per shipment, and a forgotten 3-inch filler can cost as much to ship as it does to buy. A complete order, with fillers, panels, crown and toe kick counted from a real layout, avoids it. Our explainer on end panels, scribe molding and fillers lists the pieces people forget.

Worked Budget: A 10x10 Kitchen

The 10x10 is the industry's standard sample: an L-shaped kitchen with two 10-foot walls and about 20 linear feet of cabinets. We have priced it two ways, both with professional installation and every line from the table above. The value build keeps the footprint, so the flooring stays and nothing moves. The mid-range build uses cabinets from our most-requested tier, quartz, and a few small upgrades while the walls are open.

Look at where the value build's money goes. The cabinets are $3,700 of a $7,500 to $14,300 total, so between a quarter and a half of the bill. That is why a cheaper cabinet line saves less than people expect: dropping the cabinet price by $1,000 moves the total by 7 to 13 percent. The low end of the value column assumes an installer at the bottom of the national range and a homeowner who paints, and the high end assumes neither.

The mid-range column is wide because two lines are wide. Quartz alone spans more than $3,000 between an entry-level slab and a premium one. Labor doubles between a plain box-setting job and one with crown, panelled ends and scribing. If you want the total to shrink, those are the two conversations to have first.

Worked Budget: A 12x12 Kitchen

Our 12x12 example has cabinets along two 12-foot walls, about 24 linear feet, with one tall pantry cabinet at the end of a run and crown molding. We left the island out on purpose; our cabinet price guide already works a 12x12 with an island for the cabinets alone. After subtracting the range, refrigerator and pantry, about 16½ feet of counter remains, roughly 35 square feet of countertop and 25 square feet of backsplash.

Four extra feet of cabinet and one pantry add surprisingly little to the value build's floor, about $800, because most of the fixed costs, such as the plumber's visit, the permit and the paint, do not scale with length. They add more at the top of each range, where per-foot labor and stone do the scaling. For a quick check on your own room, the cost estimator gives the cabinet line in under a minute, and the rest of this table fills in around it.

How do these compare with the big-picture numbers? Fixr's 2026 kitchen remodel guide puts a full remodel, with cabinets, appliances, flooring and countertops all replaced, at about $40,000 on average, and a small or cosmetic remodel at $10,000 to $25,000. A cabinet replacement without new appliances sits between those two, which is where our budgets land.

How Long the Kitchen Is Out of Service

Time costs money too: takeout, a hot plate in the dining room, and a contractor's schedule that slips when one trade waits on another. The single rule that saves the most grief is this. Do not tear out the old kitchen until the new cabinets are in the house and inspected. The order below is how a replacement runs when it goes well.

1. Design and quote. Measure, lay out, and get an itemized list with every filler and panel on it. Our design service sends photorealistic renderings and an itemized cabinet quote within 24–48 hours of your measurements.
2. Order and wait, with a working kitchen. Our shipping policy lists 1–3 business days of processing for in-stock items and 2–6 weeks for made-to-order cabinets, plus freight transit. Lead times differ a lot by brand, and our comparison of cabinet lead times by brand sorts them out.
3. Delivery and inspection. Freight arrives curbside. Open and check every carton before demolition day. A damaged box found now is a replacement order; found after the old kitchen is gone, it is a week with no sink.
4. Demolition. Usually a day for a 10x10 or a 12x12, including disconnecting the plumbing.
5. Repairs and rough-in. Subfloor, drywall, any outlet or plumbing moves. One to three days, longer if something rotten turns up.
6. Cabinet installation. A few days for a kitchen this size, depending on trim and how far out of level the room is.
7. Countertop template and fabrication. Stone is templated on the installed cabinets and then cut, which commonly takes one to two weeks. Stock laminate can be much quicker.
8. Countertop, sink and hookups. The top goes on, the sink is mounted, and the plumber reconnects the faucet, disposal and dishwasher.
9. Backsplash, paint and punch list. Two or three days, with grout and paint drying in between.

Put together, expect two to four weeks with a limited kitchen or none at all when you are waiting on stone. Most of that is the countertop gap, which is why some people install a temporary plywood top so they can reconnect the sink while the stone is cut. If you are coordinating trades in an occupied house, our guide for remodelers running occupied kitchens covers the scheduling side in more depth.

When Replacing Beats Refacing or Painting

Refacing and painting look cheaper because they are priced against the cabinets. They are really cheaper because of everything they leave alone. A reface keeps the boxes in place, so the countertop, backsplash, plumbing, floor and wall patching all stay off the bill. In our mid-range 10x10 budget, the countertop, backsplash, plumbing, flooring and patching lines add up to between $3,850 and $11,050. That is the real saving refacing offers, and it only exists if you were going to keep those things anyway.

Fixr's 2026 cabinet refacing guide puts the average reface at about $8,250, with most kitchens between $3,000 and $13,500. Compare that with just the cabinet-side lines of our 10x10 budgets, meaning tear-out, new cabinets and installation, because those are the only lines refacing replaces:

The value replacement can come in below an average reface on the cabinet side alone. Refacing wins clearly when the boxes are sound, the layout works, and you love a stone countertop that would not survive a replacement. Replacing wins when:

• The countertop is going anyway. Once a new top, backsplash and plumbing hookup are on the bill, refacing's big advantage is gone and you are paying new-kitchen money for old boxes.
• The sink base or any box is water-damaged. Swollen particleboard cannot be veneered back to strength.
• The layout is the complaint. Drawer bases instead of shelves, a pantry, a wider sink base or taller wall cabinets all need new boxes.
• The drawers are failing. A reface keeps the old drawer boxes and slides unless you pay to replace them too.

For the full refacing comparison, including materials and what to ask a refacing company, read whether refacing kitchen cabinets is worth the money. If you are not sure the boxes have years left in them, our guide to how long kitchen cabinets last lists the signs that they do not.

Where to Save Without Regretting It

We build and remodel kitchens ourselves, and the savings that hold up are almost never in the cabinet line. In rough order of how much they save:

1. Keep the footprint. Same sink location, same appliance openings. That keeps plumbing a reconnection, the floor intact and, occasionally, the stone top usable. It is the biggest saving on this page.
2. Put the money in the boxes you open daily. A plywood sink base and good drawer bases matter more than an upgraded door on a wall cabinet you open twice a week.
3. Buy pre-assembled if you are paying for installation. Paying an installer by the hour to assemble flat-pack cartons can eat much of the RTA discount. If you are doing the work yourself, RTA makes more sense.
4. Do the demolition and paint yourself. Together they are roughly $750 to $2,400 of the budgets above and need patience more than skill. Leave the plumbing, gas and wiring to licensed trades.
5. Order once, complete. Every filler, panel and scribe piece on the first order means one freight charge and no stalled installer.
6. Treat laminate as a placeholder if needed. A laminate top now and stone in three years costs more in total, but it can let you buy the better cabinet line today, which is the part that is hard to change later.

Contractors and remodelers buying for client jobs should ask about our Captivating Pro trade program, where members typically save 20–40% off retail, with pricing that varies by brand and line.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cost to replace kitchen cabinets and countertops together?

For a 10x10 kitchen, the cabinets, installation and countertop lines in our budgets come to about $5,300 to $8,300 with value cabinets and laminate, and $8,900 to $17,400 with mid-range cabinets and quartz. Add tear-out, backsplash, plumbing, patching, permits and a contingency and the full project lands at roughly $7,500 to $14,300 or $13,700 to $30,500.

Can you replace kitchen cabinets without removing the countertop?

Not a whole run. The countertop rests on and is fastened to the base cabinets, so replacing the bases means lifting it. A single base cabinet, usually a damaged sink base, can be cut out in pieces and replaced underneath a stone top by an experienced installer, as long as the new cabinet is the same width, depth and height.

Can I replace just one kitchen cabinet?

Yes, if the line is still in production and the size exists. The catch is color: a new door next to ten-year-old doors will not match exactly, because finishes shift with light and age. For a single hidden box such as a sink base, that rarely matters. For a visible door in the middle of a run, ask for a sample door first and hold it against the old ones.

When should you replace kitchen cabinets instead of repairing them?

When the boxes themselves are failing: swollen or delaminating panels, water damage under the sink, face frames pulling loose, or shelves that sag no matter what you do. Hinges, slides and even doors can be replaced on sound boxes. Layout problems are the other reason, since no repair turns a door cabinet into a drawer base.

Do I need a permit to replace kitchen cabinets?

Often not for a like-for-like swap, but it depends on your jurisdiction and what else changes. Moving plumbing, adding circuits, relocating gas or opening walls usually needs one. Fixr puts a kitchen remodel permit at $150 to $900. Ask your local building department before you order.

Should new flooring go in before or after the cabinets?

Solid hardwood and tile can go in first, with the cabinets set on top. Floating floors such as laminate and luxury vinyl plank go in after, around the cabinets, because cabinet weight stops a floating floor from moving. Either way, tell the installer the finished floor height so the dishwasher still slides under the counter.

How long does it take to replace kitchen cabinets?

The on-site work for a 10x10 or 12x12 usually takes two to four weeks from demolition to backsplash, most of it waiting on a stone countertop to be fabricated. The order lead time comes before that, and the old kitchen should stay in use until the new cabinets have arrived and been checked.

Will my existing appliances fit new cabinets?

Usually, if you keep the same openings. Standard 24-inch dishwashers, 30-inch ranges and 36-inch refrigerator spaces are the defaults, and a designer plans around your appliance model numbers. The ones to check are an over-the-range microwave, which needs a wall cabinet of the right height above it, and a refrigerator taller than the opening the new wall cabinet leaves.

Price the Cabinet Line Properly First

The cabinet line is the one part of this budget you can pin down this week, and everything else is priced around it. Send us your measurements, or a rough sketch with the window, door and appliance locations, and our design service returns a 3D layout and an itemized cabinet quote within 24–48 hours, with every filler and panel on it so the installer is not waiting on a second shipment. If you want to see finishes before you commit, you can order Fabuwood door samples or browse the other lines we carry on our cabinet brands page.

Questions about a specific line, lead time or a replacement you are planning? Reach us through our contact page or call 609-900-3358.