Kitchen Remodeling in PA & NJ

A kitchen is the room that gets used every day and the one where mistakes show first: a cabinet run that is not level, a countertop seam in the wrong place, an outlet the inspector flags. Underhill Lions LLC handles kitchen remodeling and full kitchen renovations with our own crew for demolition, framing, drywall, tile, flooring and finish carpentry, and licensed partners for plumbing and electrical. One contractor runs the schedule, so the trades show up in the right order and nobody waits on someone else to finish.

Kitchen layout comes before cabinets

The layout decides what a kitchen costs and how well it works, so we measure and talk through the layout before anything is ordered. Where the sink, range and refrigerator sit, how much counter you get between them, whether a wall comes out: those choices are cheap to change on paper and expensive to change once cabinets arrive. If you bought cabinets yourself, from a big-box store, a showroom or a custom shop, we install them, and we check the order against our measurements before it ships. A missing filler or the wrong cabinet depth is much easier to fix before the truck shows up than after.

What drives kitchen remodel cost

Three things set most of a kitchen budget: whether the layout changes, the cabinet line you choose, and the countertop material.

• Layout. Keeping the sink, range and refrigerator where they are avoids new plumbing, gas and electrical runs. Moving them, or taking out a wall, adds framing, a header, permits and inspections.
• Cabinets. Stock, semi-custom and custom lines differ a lot in price, and so do the extras: drawer bases instead of door bases, tall pantry units, crown and light rail.
• Countertops. Quartz and granite vary by slab, edge profile and the number of seams and cutouts.
• Tile and flooring. The size and pattern of the backsplash tile, and whether the new floor runs into adjoining rooms, change the labor more than the material.
• What is behind the walls. Old wiring, undersized circuits or out-of-level floors are common in older houses and add work once the room is open.

We price the known scope up front in writing and tell you the same day if we find anything else, before we do the extra work.

Kitchens in older rowhomes, twins and postwar houses

Many of the kitchens we remodel are in Philadelphia rowhomes and twins, and in postwar houses in the suburbs, where walls are not square and floors are not level. That is why we shim the base run, set the cabinets level and scribe them to the wall before the counters are templated, so the countertop sits flat and the filler strips close tight against plaster that wanders. Opening a galley kitchen to the dining room is one of the most common requests in these houses. We check whether the wall is load-bearing before you plan around it, frame the header where it is, and handle the permit and inspection. Our notes on remodeling a rowhome kitchen walk through what that looks like on a real job.

How long a kitchen remodel takes, and living with it

We do not start demolition until the cabinet delivery date is confirmed, so you are not without a kitchen while you wait on a truck. Once work starts, we keep the sink and refrigerator usable for as long as the layout allows, usually until the old counters come out, and we set up a temporary spot for a microwave and coffee maker. Most kitchens take three to five weeks from demolition to walk-through once materials are on site.

Permits, licensing and inspections

Underhill Lions LLC is a licensed and insured contractor, PA HIC #PA203239. We pull the permits the work needs under our license, with the City of Philadelphia or the township in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, and we schedule the inspections. Plumbing and electrical go in with the walls open, through our licensed partners, so the rough work is inspected before drywall closes it up.

Kitchen cabinets, counters and materials we work with

Stock and semi-custom cabinets, quartz and granite counters, ceramic and porcelain tile, luxury vinyl plank and hardwood floors. If the kitchen is part of a larger change, such as new floors through the first level, we can carry it into flooring installation on the same schedule. To see finished kitchens and other jobs, look through our recent projects.

We remodel kitchens across Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery Counties and South Jersey. Request a free estimate and send a photo of your kitchen to get started.