Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
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Before
AfterCabinet Installation & Refacing in San Jose, CA
Cabinet installation and refacing in San Jose typically costs between $3,200 and $18,500 depending on kitchen size, cabinet line, and whether you’re replacing boxes entirely or keeping the existing frames and updating doors, drawer fronts, and hardware. Most projects we complete in three to six business days, with a written flat price and signed scope before any material is ordered. If your kitchen layout works but the cabinets don’t, refacing is often the faster path. If the boxes are warped, water-damaged, or undersized for the way you actually use the kitchen, full installation is usually the honest answer.
Rowan Construction Group has handled cabinet work across San Jose since 2007 – from full-gut installs in Willow Glen bungalows to door-and-drawer refacing in Almaden Valley homes where the layout was solid but the finish was twenty years past its prime. Every project starts with a written price. That’s not a policy we added later; it’s Clause 1 of the Haven Standard that has governed every one of our 4,000-plus projects. If you’re ready to talk specifics, call us at (669) 271-8644 or read more about the full scope of our Kitchen Remodeling in San Jose work.
When You Need Cabinet Installation & Refacing
- Doors that won’t close flush or drawers that stick in humidity. San Jose’s dry summers and wetter winters put real stress on wood cabinetry. Repeated swelling and contraction causes hinges to pull, boxes to rack, and faces to gap – signs the substrate, not just the finish, may be compromised.
- Visible delamination or peeling on thermofoil or laminate doors. Thermofoil cabinets – common in San Jose kitchens built between 1988 and 2004 – delaminate at the edges first, usually near the dishwasher or range where heat and moisture concentrate. Once the bond fails, painting over it doesn’t hold.
- A dated finish that depresses the feel of an otherwise functional kitchen. If the layout, the plumbing rough-in, and the appliance positions all work, refacing replaces every surface the eye touches – doors, drawer fronts, veneer on face frames, and hardware – at roughly 40 to 60 percent of a full replacement cost.
- A remodel that added square footage but left the cabinetry mismatched. Home additions and ADU conversions in neighborhoods like Berryessa and Cambrian Park often leave a kitchen with new square footage but original 1970s cabinet runs that don’t connect cleanly. New installation integrates the added space.
- Storage that simply doesn’t work for the household. Upper cabinets at the wrong height, no pull-out shelving, a pantry that’s a dead corner – these are layout problems that refacing can’t fix. A full installation lets us design the interior configuration from scratch, including soft-close hardware and drawer inserts that fit your actual storage habits.
- Water damage at the base cabinet toe-kick or around the sink cabinet. Leaks from aging supply lines or dishwasher connections – something we see regularly under older countertops in Rose Garden and Naglee Park homes – often destroy the particleboard base of stock and semi-custom cabinets. Damaged boxes need to be replaced, not refinished.
Our Cabinet Installation & Refacing Process
- On-site measurement and written scope. A Rowan project coordinator comes to your San Jose home to measure every run, document existing conditions with photographs, and identify any substrate or framing issues before the quote is written. You receive the documented photo record from that visit – condition of the existing boxes, wall backing, and floor level are all noted in writing. The quote we hand you after this visit is a flat number with a written scope attached; it is not a range or an estimate to be revised later.
- Material selection and order confirmation. We work with cabinet lines including KraftMaid and Wellborn, both of which offer semi-custom sizing in the door profiles and finish colors most requested by San Jose homeowners – shaker in painted white or greige, and full-overlay in natural hardwood. You select the line, door style, and hardware before anything is ordered, and that selection is documented in the signed change-order file. No substitutions happen without your signature.
- Site prep and protection. Before any cabinet is removed, we cover floors and adjacent surfaces, shut off the supply valves under the sink, and photograph the as-found condition of the plumbing connections and electrical outlets inside or near the cabinet runs. If we find anything unexpected – a live outlet where the drawings show none, or a drain that’s shifted from the original plan – we stop, document it, and present a signed change order before continuing. No work proceeds on a change until you’ve approved it in writing.
- Removal or substrate prep. For full installation, we remove existing cabinets carefully, salvaging hardware where the customer requests it, then check the wall for level and plumb. San Jose’s older housing stock – particularly in districts built before 1965 – often has walls that are out of level by a quarter inch or more, which matters when you’re hanging a twelve-foot run of uppers. We scribe or shim to get every cabinet plumb, level, and fastened into the wall studs, not just the drywall. For refacing, we clean and lightly sand the face frames, repair any surface irregularities, and apply veneer before the new doors are hung.
- Installation and alignment. Uppers go in first. Each box is secured to the wall and to adjacent boxes with the fastener pattern specified by the cabinet manufacturer. Doors are hung, adjusted for consistent reveal (the small gap between doors and around drawers), and checked with a straightedge across the full run. Drawer slides are set for smooth operation with soft-close engagement. We don’t consider a cabinet run done until the gaps are consistent and every door closes without a rattle.
- Final walkthrough and documentation. When the installation is complete, the project coordinator walks through every cabinet with you, opens and closes every door and drawer, and confirms the documented photo record of the finished work. You leave with photographs of the completed installation and the written warranty on file. The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers workmanship for a full year – if something isn’t right, we make it right, and that’s printed in the warranty, not a verbal assurance.
Before
AfterCabinet Installation & Refacing Pricing in San Jose
Cabinet pricing in San Jose runs across a real range, and the spread is wide enough that a single number misleads more than it helps. Below are the ranges we actually see in the San Jose market, broken out by project type. These are not national averages adjusted for a California index – they reflect what we quote and deliver in this city.
| Project Type | Typical San Jose Range | What Drives the Number |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet Refacing (kitchen up to 20 linear feet) | $3,200 – $6,800 | Door profile, veneer material, hardware grade |
| Cabinet Refacing (kitchen 20-35 linear feet) | $6,500 – $11,500 | Linear footage, number of doors and drawers, finish |
| Full Cabinet Installation, Stock Line | $5,800 – $10,500 | Box count, linear footage, wall condition |
| Full Cabinet Installation, Semi-Custom (KraftMaid, Wellborn) | $9,500 – $18,500 | Door style, interior fittings, soft-close hardware, island |
| Single Cabinet Replacement (damage or mismatch) | $480 – $1,400 per unit | Box size, whether custom sizing is needed |
A few costs that affect the San Jose number specifically: labor rates in Santa Clara County run higher than national benchmarks, and permit requirements can apply when a kitchen remodeling project involves structural wall changes or electrical work adjacent to the cabinet installation. If you’re removing a soffit – the dropped ceiling section above upper cabinets that was standard in San Jose tract homes built through the 1980s – that’s additional framing and drywall work that adds to the scope. We note all of this in the written price before any work starts, so the number you agree to is the number the project finishes at, within a few percent.
Under Clause 1 of the Haven Standard, the written price is delivered before anyone picks up a tool. If you have a competing written estimate, bring it – our Free Second Opinion means Grant Rowan will review it line by line at no charge, so you understand what you’re actually comparing.
Call (669) 271-8644 to schedule a free on-site measurement. The visit produces a written price, not a ballpark.
FAQs – Cabinet Installation & Refacing
Is it cheaper to reface or replace cabinets in San Jose?
Refacing is almost always less expensive than full replacement – typically 40 to 60 percent of the cost – when the existing cabinet boxes are structurally sound and the kitchen layout works for the household. In San Jose, refacing a mid-size kitchen runs $4,000 to $8,000 where full installation of the same footprint in a semi-custom line runs $10,000 to $16,000. The decision turns on the condition of the boxes: particleboard that has absorbed water, frames that are racked out of square, or boxes that are the wrong size for the space can’t be fixed by new doors and veneer. We photograph the existing condition during the free measurement visit and tell you directly which path makes sense. Call (669) 271-8644 and we’ll schedule that visit.
How long does cabinet refacing take in San Jose?
Refacing a typical San Jose kitchen – twenty to thirty linear feet of upper and lower cabinets – takes three to five business days once materials arrive. Full installation of new cabinets in the same footprint generally runs four to seven business days, depending on wall prep and whether any soffits or framing adjustments are needed. Material lead times vary by cabinet line: stock-size KraftMaid doors are typically available in two to three weeks; fully custom sizing can run four to six weeks. We build the material timeline into the written schedule before work starts, so you know the production date and the install window in advance, not the week before we arrive.
Do I need a permit for cabinet installation in San Jose?
In most cases, a straightforward cabinet replacement or refacing – same footprint, no electrical or plumbing changes – does not require a permit from the City of San Jose. Permits are required when the work involves moving or adding circuits, relocating plumbing supply or drain lines, or making changes to load-bearing walls as part of a larger kitchen remodel. If your project sits at that boundary, we identify the permit requirement during the initial site visit and include the permit cost in the written price. We pull the permits; you don’t manage that process. For questions specific to your address, call (669) 271-8644.
What cabinet brands does Rowan Construction Group use in San Jose?
We work primarily with KraftMaid and Wellborn for cabinets and countertops in semi-custom installation – both are available in the door profiles and finish colors that San Jose homeowners request most often, and both offer documented warranty coverage that we include in the project file. For stock-line installs where budget is the first constraint, we source from several vetted lines and present the options with specifications in writing before you choose. We don’t push a single brand because the brand should fit the project, not the other way around. The cabinet specification is written into the signed scope, so what you select is what gets ordered and installed.
Why San Jose Homeowners Work With Rowan Construction Group
Grant Rowan started this company in 2007 with one operating principle: the price is written before anyone starts work, and a change doesn’t proceed without a signed change order. That discipline is now formalized as the Haven Standard, and it’s the reason our projects finish within a few percent of the number the customer agreed to across more than 4,000 completed jobs.
In San Jose specifically, we’ve worked in neighborhoods from Alum Rock to Blossom Hill, and we know the construction details that trip up contractors who don’t: the slab-on-grade foundations that mean no basement access for drain lines, the T-111 exterior sheathing on 1960s ranches that affects how interior walls are backed, and the soil movement in parts of South San Jose that can rack a cabinet run if it’s not shimmed and fastened correctly rather than just tacked to the drywall.
Every crew member is background-checked and arrives in uniform. A live person answers the phone 24/7 – not a voicemail, not a call-back queue. Every visit produces a documented photo record that is yours to keep. The 365-Day Done Right Promise means that if the workmanship isn’t right within the first year, we come back and make it right – and that promise is written in the warranty, not stated verbally at the end of a sales visit.
If you have a written estimate from another contractor, bring it. The Free Second Opinion is a standing offer: Grant Rowan will review it line by line at no charge and explain what you’re actually comparing. There’s no obligation attached to that conversation.
To schedule a free on-site measurement for your San Jose cabinet project, call (669) 271-8644. The visit produces a written flat price with a written scope – not a range, not a “starting at” number, and not a callback asking for a decision before you’ve seen the paperwork. That’s how it works here, and it has been since 2007.
For context on the broader kitchen project this cabinet work fits into, visit our home page or read the full overview of Kitchen Remodeling in San Jose.
Written by Grant Rowan, Owner at Rowan Construction Group San Jose, serving San Jose.