Kitchen remodelingin Central Indiana
Two ways to a kitchen you want to stand in. Keep the layout and change every surface, or change the plan itself. We will tell you which one your kitchen actually needs, and what each costs, before you commit to either.
Every project is planned and executed for long-term performance
Keep the layout
- Professional cabinet repainting with a factory-finish appearance
- Backsplash installation
- Countertop replacement — granite, quartz and other materials
Change the layout
- Custom cabinet manufacturing
- Electrical and plumbing adjustments for a new layout
- Flooring, tile and trim carried through to the next room
Either way
- Appliance fitting, including panel-ready and built-in units
- Trim, lighting and the joins to every adjoining room
Cabinet boxes and countertop slabs
Two decisions carry most of a kitchen: what the cabinet boxes are made of, and what goes on top of them. The first decides whether you are keeping cabinetry or buying it. The second decides how the counter behaves around seams, sink cutouts and heat for the next fifteen years.
Plywood boxes
Half- to three-quarter-inch plywood sides hold a screw at the hinge plate and at the wall cleat, and survive a leak under the sink. Layered veneer on the raw edge is what marks them, not thickness. Square boxes are worth keeping whatever the doors look like.
Particleboard boxes
Pull a drawer out and look at the raw edge. Coarse chip under a printed foil skin means the box swells once water reaches it, and a sink base with a soft, blown-out bottom will not hold paint or hardware.
Quartz
Engineered stone, non-porous, never sealed. It will not take a hot pan — the resin binder scorches and the mark does not come out — so a trivet is not optional. Seams are glued but visible, so we plan them beside a cutout, not across an island.
Granite
Natural slab, so the pattern moves and a seam is visible somewhere. It takes a hot pan without flinching and wants an impregnating sealer periodically — a drop of water that darkens the stone means it is due.
Butcher block
Wood moves with humidity, so it is fastened with slotted holes that let it. Sink cutouts have to be sealed on every cut edge including the underside, and the top wants oil a few times a year. Scorches, and sands back.
Laminate
Post-formed tops arrive with the backsplash and front edge already rolled, so there is no seam at the wall and no exposed substrate. It cannot take an undermount sink, and a swollen seam beside the dishwasher is not repairable.
Everything kitchen remodeling covers
- Cabinet refinishing
- Doors and drawer fronts come off and are sprayed off site. Everything is degreased first — cooking grease left in the old finish is what a new coat fails to stick to — then deglossed, sealed and sprayed in a catalyzed finish. Boxes are sprayed in place with the room masked off.
- Cabinet refacing
- The boxes stay. Face frames get a veneer or laminate skin, and doors, drawer fronts, hinges and hardware are all new. It makes sense where the carcasses are sound and the layout already works, because neither of those changes.
- Custom cabinets
- Built to the room rather than to a catalogue increment, which matters in older houses where nothing is square and stock runs leave filler strips everywhere. It is also how you get a 34-inch cabinet, a panel-ready dishwasher and a specific drawer stack in the same run.
- Countertop replacement
- Templated on the set cabinets, so the counter follows the wall rather than the drawing. We handle sink and cooktop cutouts, the edge profile, where the seams land, and reconnecting the plumbing and disposal once the slab is in.
- Backsplash installation
- The wall gets flattened first — tile follows the plane it is set on, and a bowed drywall joint shows in every grout line. Outlets are extended forward, cuts land under the cabinet line where possible, and the top edge dies into cabinet or casing.
- Kitchen island
- Aisle clearance, seating overhang, and what it carries. Any island worth building needs a receptacle, so a circuit gets routed under the floor even for a plain work surface — a different job on a slab than over a crawl space. A sink or cooktop adds drain, vent and the gas or 240-volt run.
- Opening a wall
- Taking out the wall between kitchen and living room, to a beam either flush with the ceiling or dropped below it. We size it, carry the load down to bearing, handle the permit and inspection, and patch ceiling and floor across the old line.
The five things that turn a kitchen remodel into a repair
Brushing latex onto cabinet doors
Factory finishes are cured and slick. Paint over one and it stays soft, prints from a fingernail later, and peels at the door knuckle. The finish gets degreased, deglossed, then sealed and sprayed in one compatible catalyzed system — conversion varnish or pre-catalyzed lacquer over its own sealer — not wall paint over a hardware-store primer.
Sizing the island off a drawing
A drawing shows the island. It does not show the dishwasher door open across the aisle. NKBA guidance is 42 inches of clear aisle for one cook and 48 where two people pass; we measure the swing of every door and drawer into that aisle before the island gets its final width.
Ending the backsplash mid-wall
Tile should die into something — an outside corner, the last cabinet in the run, the edge of a window casing. Stopping it in open wall leaves a caulk line that reads as unfinished forever. Behind a range it goes full height to the hood, not to the cabinet line.
Opening a wall without the load path
A beam is the easy half. The load has to keep going: posts at both ends, blocking down through the floor system, and something under it in the basement that reaches a footing. We work that out — with an engineer where the span calls for one — before quoting the opening.
Assuming the panel can take it
An induction range, a double oven and a microwave drawer all want dedicated circuits, on top of the two 20-amp small-appliance circuits the countertop receptacles need. In a house with a full 100-amp panel that is a service question, and it belongs on the estimate, not halfway through the job.
What a kitchen remodel actually looks like on site
Ordering and lead times
Cabinets are measured and ordered first — they set everything after them, and lead times run in weeks. Countertops cannot be templated until the boxes stand, so the slab is chosen now and cut later. Every kitchen runs to its own length; the estimate carries your schedule alongside the price.
What the walls show
Cabinets, counters and flooring out, appliances disconnected and stored. This is when we see the actual wall, the actual subfloor and whatever the last remodel left behind, and tell you if anything on the estimate has to change.
Electrical, plumbing, beam
Services moved to the new plan, any bearing wall taken out and the beam set, walls patched and floated flat. Where a permit applies, this is the stage that gets inspected before anything closes up.
Leveled to a laser line
Boxes are shimmed to a laser line and screwed into studs, then joined to each other. Floors in these houses are rarely flat, and a long run of uppers shows every bit of an error that started at the first box.
Counters templated and cut
The fabricator templates the counters on the set cabinets, then cuts them. That takes its own stretch of days, and it is the part with no sink and a plywood work surface. We tell you the length of it up front.
Finish and walkthrough
Counters set, sink and appliances connected, then backsplash, trim, hardware and paint. We walk the room with you, write down what is not right, and clear the list before the invoice.
Repaint, reface or replace
Three ways to change how the cabinets look, and they are not a good-better-best ladder. Which one applies is decided by the boxes and the layout, not by budget — we tell you which case yours is at the walkthrough.
| Approach | What we actually do | What it will not fix |
|---|---|---|
| Repaint | Doors off, everything degreased and deglossed, sprayed in a catalyzed finish. Existing doors, boxes and layout all stay. | Dated door profiles, a swollen sink base, doors that no longer sit square, or a layout that does not work. |
| Reface | Boxes stay and get new veneer on the face frames; doors, fronts, hinges and hardware are all new. | The layout, the cabinet sizes, or boxes whose sides will not hold a hinge screw any more. |
| Replace, stock or semi-custom | Stock arrives in fixed 3-inch increments; semi-custom is the same catalogue with width, depth and height modifications, usually in 1-inch steps. | Stock leaves odd wall lengths to filler strips and makes panel-ready appliances awkward; neither version moves a window or a plumbing wall. |
| Replace, custom built | Cabinets built to the measured room, including panel-ready appliance fronts and drawer stacks sized to what you own. | The room itself — windows, plumbing walls and ceiling height stay where they are. It does not shorten the schedule; build time is the long lead. |
Four things move a kitchen quote
Cabinets
Repaint, reface or build new — three very different numbers for the same room.
Countertop
Slab choice, edge profile and the number of seams and cutouts.
Moving services
Relocating the sink, range or a wall brings plumbing, electrical and permits with it.
Appliances
Panel-ready and built-in units change the cabinetry around them, not just the budget.
We walk the room, measure, and send a written estimate with materials and labor itemized — so you can see exactly which of these four is costing you money.
What other people spend, so you have somewhere to start
The typical range
Independent cost research puts a typical Indianapolis kitchen remodel in the region of $18,000 to $24,000, across a full spread of roughly $8,000 to $40,000 depending on how much of the room changes.
Another way to read it
One national renovation dataset puts the average Indianapolis kitchen project at about $25,000 — roughly 46% below the national average — while Angi's national range runs from about $14,600 to $41,500.
These are not our prices. They are published Indianapolis kitchen cost research from Angi, Homeyou and Block Renovation, published in 2026, and they are here because it is a fair question and you deserve a starting point. We do not publish our own ranges, because a number written before anyone has seen your house is a guess. What you get from us is a free walkthrough and a written estimate with materials and labor itemized.
What homeowners ask about kitchen remodeling
Do I need new cabinets, or can mine be repainted?
It depends on the boxes, not the doors. If the carcasses are solid and square — which they often are in houses from the eighties and nineties — repainting to a factory-grade finish and changing doors, counter and hardware gets most of the result for a fraction of the price. We tell you which case yours is at the walkthrough.
Can I use the kitchen during the remodel?
Partly, and not for the whole run. There is a stretch with no sink and no counter, and we will tell you at the outset roughly how long it is so you can plan around it rather than discover it.
Is it worth moving the sink or the range?
Only if the layout is genuinely the problem. Moving services brings plumbing, electrical and often a permit with it, and it is the single biggest jump in a kitchen number. If the plan works and only the surfaces are tired, we will say so.
Can my kitchen cabinets be painted, or do they need replacing?
It depends on the boxes, not the doors. If the carcasses are plywood, square, and the sink base is dry, repainting to a sprayed finish with new doors, counter and hardware gets most of the result. If the boxes are swollen particleboard, or the layout is the actual problem, paint is money spent twice.
How do I know if my cabinet boxes are plywood or particleboard?
Take a drawer out and look at the raw edge of the box side. Layered veneer is plywood, at any thickness. Coarse chips pressed together under a printed skin is particleboard. Then press the bottom of the sink base with your hand — if it gives, water has already been through it.
What is the difference between cabinet refacing and refinishing?
Refinishing keeps your doors and changes their color: degrease, degloss, seal, spray. Refacing throws the doors away and hangs new ones on the old boxes, with a matching veneer over the face frames. Refacing changes the door style; refinishing cannot. Both leave the layout exactly where it is.
Is quartz or granite better for kitchen countertops?
Quartz is non-porous and never needs sealing, and its color is consistent enough that a seam blends better. Granite is a natural slab, takes a hot pan directly, and wants an impregnating sealer now and then. Neither is more durable across the board: quartz wins on stains and sealing, granite wins on heat. The rest is maintenance and how the seams read.
How much space do you need around a kitchen island?
NKBA guidance is 42 inches of clear aisle for a one-cook kitchen and 48 inches where two people work or pass. Measure it against open doors, not closed ones. A dishwasher door, an oven door and a trash pull-out all take a bite out of that aisle.
Can you remove the wall between my kitchen and living room?
Usually, but the question is what the wall carries. If it is bearing, it needs a sized beam, posts at each end, and a continuous load path down to bearing — sometimes a new footing pad in the basement. We confirm that before quoting the opening, not after demolition.
How long will I be without a kitchen?
The hard stretch is between the cabinets going in and the countertop coming back from the fabricator: no sink, no counter. Templating only happens on set cabinets, and fabrication takes its own days. We give you the length of that gap at the estimate so you can set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere.
Do I need a permit for a kitchen remodel in Indiana?
It depends on the work, not the room, and your city's building department decides. Cabinets, countertops, a backsplash and flooring in the same footprint usually do not trigger one. New circuits, moved plumbing and removing a bearing wall do, and inspections come with it. Structural work follows the Indiana Residential Code, the electrical is done to the Indiana Electrical Code and the plumbing to the Indiana Plumbing Code, which are the separate state codes Indiana enforces on houses. We confirm it with your jurisdiction, pull the permit, and it shows as a line on the estimate.
Will my electrical panel handle a new kitchen?
Sometimes not. Countertop receptacles need at least two 20-amp small-appliance circuits with GFCI protection, and an induction range, double oven, microwave drawer or dishwasher each want their own. In a house with a full 100-amp panel that becomes a service conversation, and we raise it at the walkthrough.
Where should a kitchen backsplash stop?
It should end on something — an outside corner, the last cabinet in the run, or the casing of a window — rather than in the middle of open wall. Behind the range we carry it full height to the hood or the ceiling. Under wall cabinets it stops at the cabinet bottom.
Four steps, from the first call to the last walkthrough
Call or send the form
Tell us the room and roughly what you want done. We answer our own phone.
Walkthrough & estimate
We measure on site and send a detailed, transparent estimate — materials and labor itemized.
Build
Our own crew, code-compliant work, the site swept at the end of every day.
Final walkthrough
We go through the finished room with you and clear the punch list before we invoice.
What you are actually choosing between
The person who quotes it runs it
The same crew that walked your house builds the job. You are not handed to a project manager who was not there.
Seven trades in-house
Tile, carpentry, flooring, trim, fireplaces, decks and finish work. One point of contact instead of a general contractor and five subs.
An itemized written estimate
Materials and labor, line by line, before anyone picks up a tool. You know the price at step two of four.
We answer our own phone
Call 317-427-8162 and you get the company, not a call centre. Working across Central Indiana since 2012.