Kitchen Remodeling in Kensington - Written Fixed Price, Finish Date in the Contract

Fast, Reliable Kitchen Remodeling Across Kensington

If your Kensington kitchen still has the original 1940s cabinetry and a floor that slopes toward the hillside, you’re not alone. Most kitchens in this community were built for a different era of cooking, and the wear shows. A full kitchen remodel in Kensington typically runs $14,000-$45,000, and getting it done right in this unincorporated part of Contra Costa County means working with someone who understands hillside foundations, county permits, and the moisture that fog brings into old redwood framing. We’re Barrett & Sons Construction, owned by Tom Barrett since 1998, and we’ve rebuilt kitchens all over Kensington’s steep streets. Call (877) 610-1318 and we’ll come look at yours.

Call (877) 610-1318

Why Kensington Homeowners Call Barrett & Sons Construction for Kitchen Remodeling

Most of the people we meet in Kensington have already been burned once. They hired a company out of the flatlands, got a phone quote, and then watched the price climb after the crew opened the wall and found knob-and-tube wiring. That doesn’t happen with us. Every scope, every allowance, every price change comes to you as a written change order before a single nail moves. Tom Barrett publishes his name, address, and license number, and his sons run the crews. Ask anyone on your street, or look up the license number yourself.

We know Kensington because we work here regularly. The bulk of the housing stock went up between the 1920s and 1950s, much of it craftsman bungalows and Mediterranean revival homes perched on hillside lots with post-and-pier foundations. Remodeling those kitchens isn’t a flat-floor job. We account for the slope, the settling, and the county permitting process that trips up contractors who think they’re pulling permits in Berkeley or El Cerrito. That local knowledge is the reason Kensington homeowners keep our number.

Our Kitchen Remodeling team treats your home like the one we’d want our own parents in. A live person answers the phone 24/7, not a voicemail box, and the crew members who show up are background-checked and carry the Barrett & Sons name. That means something on Ardmore Road when the project hits week three and you want a straight answer about the countertop schedule.

Our Kitchen Remodeling Services in Kensington

Full Kitchen Remodeling

A full gut renovation in Kensington means more than new cabinets. The hillside lots and 1920s-1950s framing usually demand structural attention before the first cabinet box arrives. We pull permits through Contra Costa County’s Department of Conservation and Development in Martinez, handle the seismic retrofit questions that come up when walls open, and rebuild the room so it sits square on your foundation. You’ll see the permit inspector’s signature at the end, because he works for you, not for me.

Cabinets & Countertops

Kensington kitchens lean traditional, but the newer remodels we’re doing on Colusa Avenue and along the Arlington ridgeline mix KraftMaid cabinets with Cambria quartz for a look that fits the neighborhood’s character without feeling like a museum. Cabinet installation in Kensington runs $4,000-$13,000; countertop installation runs $2,000-$6,500, with quartz and granite both solid choices for the humidity our fog line brings. We write every cabinet allowance on paper, because an allowance that isn’t on paper is a surprise waiting for a date.

Backsplash, Tile & Flooring

Those original steel-sash windows and redwood-trimmed kitchens often had no backsplash at all, just painted plaster taking decades of water splatter. Backsplash installation in Kensington runs $800-$2,500. For flooring, we account for the slope many older homes have developed over the years. You don’t want a large-format tile that cracks when the house settles another half inch. We’ll check the subfloor and recommend what the structure will actually tolerate.

Kitchen Design & Layout

Many Kensington kitchens are galley-style or oddly shaped, tucked into the corner of a 1940s-built home where the original layout expected a stove, a sink, and not much else. We spend real time on layout before demo starts. The goal is a kitchen that works for how you cook now, not how someone in 1952 cooked. We’ll talk through island placement, venting to the outside, and cabinet runs that make sense on a sloped, narrow lot.

Trusted Brands We Service in Kensington

We don’t install mystery products off a van. In Kensington kitchens you’ll see KraftMaid and Cambria because those are brands you can look up, with warranties you can actually call. For outdoor work that often pairs with kitchen remodels, like paver patios that extend the kitchen out the back door, we carry Belgard and Techo-Bloc. We order local and schedule delivery around your timeline so materials aren’t sitting in your driveway on a foggy morning for a week.

Common Kitchen Remodeling Problems We See in Kensington Homes

• Knob-and-tube wiring behind the walls. The 1920s-1950s homes in Kensington frequently still have original electrical. Once we open a wall and find it, the kitchen remodel has to include rewiring to meet County code, and we’ll hand you the written change order before that work begins.
• Sloped floors and settled foundations. Post-and-pier foundations on steep lots move over time. We routinely see half-inch to inch-plus differential settlement in Kensington kitchens. The fix might be as simple as a few new piers, or it might require a structural engineer’s input, but it gets addressed before tile goes down.
• Moisture and rot in the redwood framing. The hills trap fog and hold more moisture than the flatlands below. Old framing around sink walls and window openings is often soft. We pull the rot, replace with code-approved lumber, and make sure the new kitchen isn’t hiding a water problem behind cabinets.
• County permit confusion from previous contractors. Kensington is unincorporated Contra Costa County. A contractor who normally works in Berkeley or El Cerrito might tell you permits aren’t needed. If the previous kitchen work wasn’t permitted, we get it right with the County before we add to the problem.

Pricing for Kitchen Remodeling in Kensington, CA

We Also Serve Cities Near Kensington

Most of our Kensington work comes from the neighborhoods between Arlington Avenue and the hills, but if you’re in El Cerrito, Albany, Richmond, or Berkeley, we’re still close. While we’re in your kitchen, we can also handle Bathroom Remodeling in Kensington or Roofing in Kensington if the fog has been hard on your roofline too.

FAQs - Kitchen Remodeling in Kensington