What a Cabinets & Countertops Project Actually Costs and Takes in Fort Myers Shores
A full cabinets and countertops replacement in Fort Myers Shores typically runs $14,000 to $45,000, with most jobs finishing in two to three weeks from tear-out to final walkthrough. That range covers everything: removing the old boxes and tops, prepping the walls, installing new cabinetry and countertops, hooking up the sink and appliances. It’s a focused job - we’re swapping what’s there, not moving plumbing through four walls. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate with a real person, any time of day.
How We Take a Cabinets and Countertops Job From Start to Finish
We don’t show up with a truckload of boxes and hope. There’s a five-stage sequence we’ve refined over years of working inside Fort Myers Shores homes, where 60-year-old block walls aren’t always square and the original framing rarely cooperates. Here’s what to expect.
Stage 1: Measure and Select (Days 1-3, mostly off-site planning)
We come to the house, pull exact field measurements down to the eighth of an inch, check for level and plumb across every wall that’ll hold a cabinet run. This is also when you’ll make the big material decisions: cabinet door style, wood species or thermofoil finish, countertop material and edge profile, hardware finish. We bring samples, not just brochure pages. Once selections are locked, we order. Lead times vary by manufacturer but plan on two to four weeks for semi-custom cabinet lines from brands like KraftMaid, and about ten days for stone slabs once the template is cut.
Stage 2: Demo and Drywall Prep (Day 1 of construction)
Old cabinets and countertops come out. We cut the caulk lines carefully to avoid tearing the drywall paper, but on homes built in the 1960s and 70s around the Orange River corridor, the original gypsum is often brittle from decades of humidity cycling. If there’s subsurface damage, we repair it before new boxes go in - we don’t bury rot behind a new cabinet back. Demolition is usually done by noon. Afternoons are for patching, sanding, and priming the exposed walls so the new footprint is clean and square.
Stage 3: Cabinet Installation (Days 2-3)
Uppers go in first, then base cabinets. We shim every box to dead level before fastening through the studs - Fort Myers Shores concrete block walls get tapcons; wood-framed interior walls get structural screws. Crown molding and light rail are cut and installed at this stage if your design calls for them. Doors and drawer fronts stay wrapped until the countertop work is done to prevent dust and stone-grit scratches. By end of day three, the kitchen should look like a kitchen again, minus the working surfaces.
Stage 4: Countertop Template and Fabrication (2-10 days, gap in construction)
After cabinets are set permanently, a countertop fabricator arrives to laser-template the exact layout - sink cutout, cooktop cutout, overhang dimensions, seam placement if slab joints are needed. The template goes to the shop for cutting and edge-polishing. Natural stone like granite and quartzite takes longer than engineered quartz. During this gap, which usually runs three to ten working days, the kitchen is functional enough for light use but not for heavy cooking. We’ll set a temporary plywood top if needed.
Stage 5: Countertop Install, Sink Hookup, and Hardware (1 day)
Slabs are set, seams are epoxied and color-matched, sink and faucet are mounted and connected, dishwasher and disposal air-gap are reconnected. We install all cabinet hardware - pulls, knobs, soft-close dampers. We run every drawer through its full travel twenty times, adjust door reveals to a consistent eighth-inch gap, and make sure no drawer face drags. After cleanup, we do a joint walkthrough with the homeowner against the original spec sheet. If something isn’t right - a misaligned door, a scratch on the quartz, a faucet with low pressure - we fix it before we leave. That’s what the 730-Day Done Right Promise is for.
The Options You’ll Choose Between
Every cabinets and countertops job sits on four core decisions. These determine the look, the longevity, and the price more than anything else. We don’t push one over the other, but we do explain the trade-offs so you’re not guessing.
- Cabinet construction: Stock cabinets (standard sizes, limited door styles, fastest lead times) versus semi-custom (made to your kitchen’s inch, more wood species and finish options, about 30% more cost). For Fort Myers Shores homes with non-standard ceiling heights or odd corner dimensions common in 1970s builds, semi-custom almost always fits better without filler strips.
- Cabinet material: All-plywood boxes with solid wood face frames and doors hold up best in Florida’s humidity. Thermofoil and MDF doors cost less but can delaminate if steam from a dishwasher vent hits them daily. We spec plywood construction as the default for any kitchen within a mile of the Orange River, where ambient moisture is a constant.
- Countertop surface: Granite (heat-resistant, porous, needs yearly sealing), quartz (engineered, non-porous, no sealing, roughly the same price tier as mid-grade granite), quartzite (natural stone, harder than granite, more expensive and harder to fabricate), solid surface (seamless integrated sink option but scratches more easily). We install all four and price each honestly before you choose.
- Edge profile and finish details: Eased, beveled, bullnose, ogee - edge profiles affect the slab price by $5 to $20 per linear foot depending on complexity. Crown molding, under-cabinet lighting, glass-front inserts, and soft-close hardware are all line items you decide on during the measure-and-select phase, not after the contract is signed.
We bring the samples to your Fort Myers Shores kitchen and talk through each option under your actual lighting - not a showroom’s fluorescent glow. That changes how a slab reads, and it prevents surprises later.
What Cabinets and Countertops Costs in Fort Myers Shores, FL
A straight replacement - old boxes out, new boxes in same footprint, no drywall surprises - lands in the $14,000 to $22,000 range for a typical 10-by-12-foot kitchen with mid-grade cabinets and quartz countertops. The number climbs when the job gets bigger, the materials step up to custom, or the existing conditions throw curveballs. Here’s what actually moves the figure.
Kitchen size and linear footage: Countertop square footage and the number of cabinet boxes drive cost directly. A galley kitchen with 16 linear feet of base cabinets costs less than an L-shaped open-plan kitchen with an island and 28 linear feet. Island fabrication alone - slab cost, support framing, electrical if a cooktop is involved - can add $3,000 to $10,000 depending on size and material.
Existing conditions behind the walls: If we open a wall and find the original 1968 Romex isn’t grounded or the shutoff valves are frozen, those get fixed. Older Fort Myers Shores homes often have cast-iron drain pipes that have corroded at the kitchen sink stub-out, and replacing the trap arm and stub-out before the new cabinet goes in is a small but necessary add. We take photos of everything we find.
Countertop material grade: Entry-level granite ($45-$65 per square foot installed) versus exotic quartzite ($90-$140 per square foot installed) can swing the countertop portion of the bid by $3,000 or more on a typical kitchen. Quartz is the middle ground most homeowners land on - zero maintenance, consistent color, mid-$60s to mid-$80s per square foot installed.
Relocating plumbing or electrical: This is the one that surprises people. If your new layout moves the sink or dishwasher, expect $800 to $2,500 in plumbing rough-in work and wall patching. Adding dedicated circuits for an induction cooktop or under-cabinet LED runs usually adds $400 to $900. When a project becomes part of a Kitchen Remodeling in Fort Myers Shores that relocates major fixtures, the price shifts into full-gut territory.
What’s always in our written estimate: Material costs broken out by line item, labor, demolition and debris hauling, wall prep and patching, sink and appliance reconnection, hardware install, job-site protection, and a final cleanup. What’s typically not in the base number: structural repairs found during demo, plumbing or electrical code corrections, and permit fees. Every one of those gets flagged in writing with its own number before we touch it. No-hassle upfront pricing means you see the whole picture, not a low teaser number that balloons later.
What Fort Myers Shores Homes Specifically Do to This Job
Fort Myers Shores sits on a floodplain fed by the Orange River, not the Gulf, and that geography directly shapes how we approach cabinets and countertops here. Homes built in the 1960s through the 1980s along streets like Floral Drive and River Road were originally set at grade or just barely above it. When a kitchen gut hits the 50% substantial-improvement threshold under Lee County’s current code enforcement - and post-Ian, inspectors are checking - a simple cabinet swap can legally trigger a whole-structure elevation requirement that adds a foundation lift to the scope. We know where that line sits because we’ve been through it on multiple Shores projects, and we flag it early so a homeowner doesn’t sign a cabinet contract and then get a county stop-work order.
Even on jobs that stay under the threshold, the moisture reality here is aggressive. Base cabinets in Fort Myers Shores homes take on humidity from slab-on-grade floors that wick groundwater seasonally, especially during summer when the Orange River rises into yards south of Pine Road. We specify pressure-treated sole plates on all base cabinet runs that sit on concrete, and we run a moisture meter across the slab before anything gets anchored. That’s not standard practice on higher-ground jobs in Fort Myers proper, but it’s non-negotiable here if the cabinets are going to last. Our kitchen remodeling crew also checks for wind-mitigation clip paths in the attic before cutting into any soffit - many Shores homes were re-trussed or strapped after Hurricane Charley in 2004, and a cabinet run that encroaches on a hurricane-clip path can compromise the roof-to-wall connection the county just signed off on.
Homeowners doing a kitchen refresh here often pair the work with a bathroom update, and many start with a call about Walk-In Showers & Shower Remodeling in Fort Myers Shores or a Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Fort Myers Shores once they see how straightforward the construction process can be with a single contractor running both trades. We serve the whole Fort Myers Shores community, from the riverfront lots to the inland streets behind Hart Road, and every estimate starts with the same question: what does the county already have on file for this house?
Serving Fort Myers Shores, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Fort Myers Shores area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
Frequently Asked - Cabinets and Countertops in Fort Myers Shores
Construction itself is typically four to six working days on site, spread over two to three weeks because of the countertop fabrication gap. Demo and cabinet install take two to three days. A laser template follow-up happens right after cabinets are set. Fabrication runs three to ten days depending on the stone yard’s queue. Final countertop install and hookups take one day. The biggest variable is lead time on custom or semi-custom cabinets, which can push the start date out three to five weeks from order. Call (844) 638-7249 and we’ll give you a schedule based on current manufacturer lead times - not an estimate from six months ago.
If the job is a direct replacement - same footprint, no plumbing or electrical moved - Lee County generally classifies it as a finish upgrade and does not require a building permit. The moment you relocate a sink, add a new electrical circuit for an island, or alter any wall, it crosses into permitted territory. We pull permits through Lee County Building & Permitting when required and we don’t skip them. The 50% substantial-improvement rule is a separate trigger we check on every Fort Myers Shores property before scoping the work, because it can reclassify a cosmetic job into a code-compliance project overnight.
Every cabinets and countertops project we install is covered by our 730-Day Done Right Promise: if something isn’t done right, we make it right, full stop. Cabinet manufacturers carry their own warranty on materials - usually a limited lifetime on the box construction, one to five years on the finish depending on the brand. Countertop fabricators warrant the stone against manufacturing defects. What we add on top of all that is the labor: if a drawer face warps or a seam separates inside two years, we’re back out to fix it with no charge and no argument. That’s the promise Derek Hollenbeck built this company on, and it’s in writing.
In theory, yes. In practice, it rarely works. Granite and quartz slabs are heavy and brittle. Removing the base cabinets without cracking the stone requires extreme care, and even then, the old slab may not sit flush on the new cabinet footprint because box dimensions vary between manufacturers by fractions of an inch. We’ve salvaged stone tops when the homeowner is attached to a specific slab, but we’re upfront: the labor to protect and reset old stone often costs close to what a new mid-grade quartz top would. If the countertops are laminate or tile, it’s a non-starter - those get destroyed during cabinet removal and aren’t reusable.
A typical kitchen in this community runs $16,000 to $28,000 for a full replacement with semi-custom all-plywood cabinets and quartz countertops in a 10-by-12-foot layout. Smaller galley kitchens with stock cabinets and granite can come in around $12,000 to $15,000. Large open-concept kitchens with islands and premium quartzite tops push past $35,000. Every figure depends on the four variables above: size, existing conditions, material grade, and whether anything gets moved. We give written line-item pricing after the first site visit so you know exactly where your number falls. Call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free estimate in Fort Myers Shores - a live person answers, and we’ll walk you through real numbers for your actual kitchen, not a ballpark guess.
Get a Free Estimate for Cabinets and Countertops in Fort Myers Shores
We’ll come to your home, measure every wall, show you samples under your own lighting, and hand you a written price with every line item spelled out. No pressure, no vague numbers, and no surprise change orders when the work starts. Derek Hollenbeck and the whole Groundwork Construction Co. team stand behind the work with the 730-Day Done Right Promise, and there’s a real person on the other end of the phone every time you call. Reach us at (844) 638-7249 to set up your free on-site estimate for cabinets and countertops in Fort Myers Shores, FL.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving Fort Myers Shores with honest pricing and written accountability on every job.