Kitchen Remodeling in San Antonio and Austin, TX

Sometimes it's new countertops and a backsplash over the cabinets you already have. Sometimes the whole room comes down to the studs and the layout changes. Texas-RRR does kitchen remodeling at both ends in Austin: cabinet replacement, countertops, backsplash tile, sinks and faucets, lighting and outlets, flooring, appliance hookups, range hoods, and the drywall and paint that finish the room. Pick your cabinets, counter material and appliances, or hand us plans you've already got. We build it, line up the licensed trades and tell you straight when a choice costs more to install than it looks like it should. Most calls we get land in one of three sizes. A cosmetic refresh. A cabinet-and-counter replacement on the same layout. Or a full remodel that moves utilities or walls.

So where do you start? Decide whether the sink, range and refrigerator stay put. That one decision sets the budget more than anything else in the room, because moving them means new plumbing, gas or electrical runs, and often new permits. Keep the footprint, put the money into cabinets, counters and lighting, and the kitchen can still look brand new without the cost of relocating utilities. Moving the sink can be worth it. Just make that call on purpose. Once the old cabinets are out, we'll show you the wiring and drain lines behind them so you can decide to keep or replace them before the walls close back up.

1. Consultation and free estimate. We measure the kitchen and look at the electrical panel, the plumbing access, and the attic and roof over the range. Then we ask how you cook and who's in the room.
2. Scope and selections. A written scope listing demo, rough-in, what you're buying, what we're buying and which pieces need permits. Cabinets and counters get locked in first, since their lead times set the schedule.
3. Permits. Where the city requires them, the licensed trades pull plumbing, electrical and mechanical permits.
4. Protection and demo. We seal off the work area and protect the floors on the way out. Then cabinets, counters and fixtures come out.
5. Rough-in and inspection. Licensed plumbers and electricians run the new lines and circuits while our crew ducts the hood. Inspections happen before the walls close.
6. Drywall, cabinets and counters. Walls get patched and finished. Cabinets get set level and secured, and only then does the fabricator template and install the countertops.
7. Backsplash, fixtures and appliances. Tile goes up, the sink and faucet go in, appliances get hooked up.
8. Final walkthrough. You and we test every outlet, drain and appliance connection, then work through the punch list.

See where countertops fall? After cabinets. Stone and quartz fabricators measure from the installed boxes, so if cabinets run late, counters do too. The process page covers how we keep you in the loop at each stage.

Residential permits in Austin come from the City of Austin's Development Services Department, and its rules follow the building code the city has adopted. Painting, cabinets, countertops and flooring count as finish work and are generally exempt from a building permit. Adding or moving plumbing, wiring, gas lines or mechanical ducts is another matter. That generally needs a trade permit, pulled by a licensed plumber, electrician or mechanical contractor. Take out or move a wall and you'll typically need a building permit, and a load-bearing wall may need an engineer's review on top of that. These are rules of thumb from the city's published guidance, not legal advice, so confirm your scope with Development Services.

Two Austin wrinkles catch people. Parts of older neighborhoods like Hyde Park sit in local historic districts, where exterior changes go through historic review. Interior kitchen work generally doesn't, but a new roof vent you can see from the street might. And if you live in Round Rock, Pflugerville or Georgetown, your permits go through that city's office, not Austin's. We check which office covers your address during the estimate. Inspectors need to see open walls at rough-in, too, so drywall gets scheduled around those visits instead of guessed at, and the permit card stays where the inspector can find it.

A ducted range hood actually gets smoke, grease and heat out of the house. A recirculating one can't. On a one-story house the duct runs through the attic and out the roof, so this is the spot where kitchen remodeling and roofing meet. Honestly, it's the seam between trades where plenty of kitchens go wrong. The duct needs a proper roof jack with a damper, flashed into the shingles or metal like any other roof penetration. Botch it and the first spring storm sends water down the duct and into your new cabinets. Our roofers handle that penetration themselves.

Big hoods raise one more question. The model residential code Austin builds on generally requires makeup air when a kitchen exhaust system moves more than 400 cubic feet per minute, so the house isn't starved of air when the hood's on high. Tight, newer Austin homes feel it most. Shopping for a powerful hood to go with a gas range? Bring it up at the estimate, so the licensed mechanical trade can plan for makeup air before anything's ordered. Recirculating hoods skip both the duct and the makeup air issue, and they fit where there's no route for a duct. They filter grease, though. Heat and moisture stay in the room.

You won't find kitchen remodel prices on this site. An honest number takes a measured room and a scope, and kitchens vary too much for a sticker price to mean anything. Naming the cost drivers is easy, though. Moving the sink, range or dishwasher adds plumbing, gas and electrical work. Cabinets swing a lot between stock, semi-custom and custom construction. Counter material matters, and so do the number of cutouts and seams and the size of the backsplash. Appliances often need dedicated circuits, and an older home may need panel work to carry them. Take out a wall and you've added structural work and permits. Flooring under the cabinets, drywall repair and lighting round it out.

Want the broad national picture? Remodeling magazine's Cost vs. Value report splits minor and major kitchen remodels, and Angi publishes national cost guides. Those are national averages from third parties, not Texas-RRR prices and not a quote. Austin labor and material costs differ, and your house differs even more. A free estimate puts a real number on your kitchen.

Kitchens are good at hiding leaks. A failed dishwasher supply line, a cracked ice maker line behind the fridge, a slow drip under the sink: any of them can soak the cabinet bases and subfloor for weeks before somebody notices the swelling or the smell. If the water damage comes from a sudden, accidental leak, most Texas homeowner policies help pay to repair it, and that can include replacing ruined cabinets and flooring. Long-term seepage often isn't covered. Your policy's wording decides, and we're happy to read through it with you. Meanwhile, shut the water off at the valve or the main. If you can, pull the toe kicks so the cabinet bases can start drying.

Then our in-house former insurance adjusters take over. They document the damage before demolition, measure what got wet and meet the carrier's adjuster, so the covered scope matches the real loss. Drying comes first, through our water damage restoration team. If moisture sat long enough to grow mold behind the cabinets, our mold remediation service deals with it before the rebuild. The claim follows our insurance claims process, and anything beyond the covered repair gets priced separately so the claim stays clean. Call (210) 802-6906, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., or use our contact page.