What a Cabinet & Countertop Job in Plantation Really Looks Like
Most Plantation homeowners aren’t shopping for a full-gut Kitchen Remodeling in Plantation when they search this phrase. They want the existing footprint refreshed: old cabinet boxes and doors ripped out, new ones set, and fresh countertops templated and installed, often on the same sink base. In our market, a straightforward cabinet replacement plus stone countertop install in a 10×12-foot Plantation kitchen runs $14,000 to $30,000 with mid-grade materials, takes about two to three weeks from demo to final walk-through, and almost never requires a wall to come down. Call (844) 638-7249 for a free estimate with firm numbers, not a guess.
How We Take a Plantation Kitchen From Demo to Done
Most of our Plantation jobs move through five defined stages. Knowing the sequence helps you plan around the mess, because there will be some.
Stage 1: Tear-out and rough prep (Days 1-2)
We pull existing cabinets, countertops, and backsplash down to the studs and slab. In Plantation’s late-60s to early-80s subdivisions like Plantation Acres and Jacaranda Lakes, we often find cast-iron sink plumbing and original shut-off valves that have seized up over 50-plus years. We budget a day for the demo crew to cap supply lines, protect the floor, and haul debris. You make zero product decisions here - just make sure the coffee maker is relocated somewhere accessible.
Stage 2: Template and measure (Days 3-4)
Once the walls are bare, our countertop fabricator lasers the exact footprint. This is the single most important measurement in the whole job. Cabinets get ordered off the builder’s plan, but stone slabs are cut to the millimeter of what your walls actually are, and in Plantation’s CBS-block homes, we almost never find a perfectly square room. The templating visit normally takes an hour. You choose edge profile, sink mount style, and backsplash height at this stage - decisions we walk you through before the laser comes out.
Stage 3: Cabinet install (Days 5-8)
Base and wall cabinets go in first, anchored to the concrete block with Tapcons. We shim and level every box against the known floor slope. If you chose soft-close drawers, pull-out waste bins, or a pantry pull-out unit, this is the stage where those get mounted and adjusted. Electrical rough-in for under-cabinet lighting happens now too. By day 8, you can walk through and open every drawer, but there’s no countertop so don’t set anything down.
Stage 4: Countertop fabricate and install (Days 9-16)
After the cabinets are locked in place, fabrication takes roughly a week depending on stone availability. Cambria quartz, which we use on many Plantation projects, ships with a standard lead time. Natural stone like granite or quartzite takes a little longer because slab selection comes from a specific bundle. The install crew brings the finished tops in two or three pieces with a near-invisible seam, drills the faucet holes, and sets undermount sinks in epoxy. The seam gets color-matched on site. You get a working sink back the same day the tops go down.
Stage 5: Final trim, plumbing hookup, and walk-through (Days 17-21)
We reconnect the faucet and drain, install the backsplash if it was part of the scope, mount cabinet hardware, and adjust every door and drawer face. The last hour is a detailed walk-through where you point out anything that isn’t right. Derek Hollenbeck personally reviews the punch list on every Plantation cabinet job. We don’t consider the job closed until you sign off, and the 730-Day Done Right Promise means any cabinet or countertop defect that surfaces two years later gets fixed at our cost.
The Options You’ll Choose Between
You are picking two big-ticket items: cabinet construction and countertop material. Here is the real-world trade-off on each, based on what we install in Plantation kitchens every month.
- Stock cabinets (all-plywood box, painted MDF door): The workhorse option. Dovetail drawers, soft-close hinges, full-overlay doors. Finishes in white, gray, navy, or natural wood. Lower cost, faster lead time, and holds up well in South Florida humidity because the plywood box resists swelling better than particleboard. This is the right call for a rental refresh or a home you plan to sell within five years.
- Semi-custom cabinets (plywood box, solid wood door): More door style and finish choices, extended upper cabinets that go to the ceiling, and specialty pull-outs. Lead time jumps about two weeks. Cost is typically 40 to 60 percent above stock. Worth it if you are in a Plantation Golf Estates home with high ceilings and want the uppers stacked to match the room volume.
- Quartz countertop (Cambria, Silestone, Caesarstone): Non-porous, no sealing ever, resists staining from Plantation’s hard municipal water. The top choice for families who cook daily. Runs $65 to $95 per square foot installed. The lower end of that range is a standard white or gray with subtle veining; the upper end is a marble-look slab with dramatic movement.
- Granite countertop: Every slab is unique. Needs sealing once a year. Holds up to hot pans without a trivet, which quartz does not. Typically $45 to $75 per square foot installed. We still install plenty of granite in Plantation, particularly in older Jacaranda-area homes where the owners want a natural-stone look that doesn’t mirror the quartz-everywhere trend.
- Quartzite countertop: The premium natural stone that looks like marble but performs like granite. Prices start around $90 per square foot installed and climb quickly depending on the slab. Requires annual sealing. We recommend this for homeowners who want a statement island that photographs beautifully and holds up to daily abuse.
What Cabinets & Countertops Cost in Plantation, FL
A complete cabinet replacement with new countertops in Plantation typically lands between $14,000 and $45,000. That range covers everything from a modest galley kitchen with stock cabinets and granite to a large open-plan kitchen with semi-custom cabinets, a waterfall quartz island, and quartzite perimeter tops. Your actual number depends on four variables.
First, linear footage of cabinetry. A compact 8×10-foot kitchen might have 15 linear feet of base and wall cabinets. A sprawling 14×18-foot Plantation open-concept kitchen can push 35 linear feet. More boxes, more doors, more hardware: the materials cost scales almost linearly.
Second, countertop square footage and edge profile. A standard eased edge is included in the base per-square-foot price. A mitered waterfall edge on an island doubles the material and labor on that section. If the island slab is oversized - common in Plantation where the island doubles as a breakfast bar - you may need a jumbo slab with a higher material charge.
Third, what we find when we open the walls. In CBS homes built between 1960 and 1980, old galvanized supply lines and cast-iron drain arms often need replacement before a new sink base goes in. We do not bury old plumbing behind new cabinets. If we find it, we flag it with a change-order price on the spot, and you approve it before we proceed. This is not a surprise we spring on you at the end, but it is a real variable that can add $800 to $2,000 depending on what needs cutting out.
Fourth, backsplash scope. If you are replacing countertops only and keeping the existing backsplash, the job is simpler. If the old backsplash came down with the old counters - common when tile was set directly on drywall - we include basic 4-inch quartz backsplash in the countertop price, but a full-height tile backsplash is a separate line item. Our written estimates break all of this out so you see exactly what you are paying for. No “countertop package” lump sum that hides the individual costs. Upfront pricing with no surprises is how we have operated for over 42 years across our Florida markets, and Plantation jobs get the same treatment.
Call (844) 638-7249 for an exact quote. Estimates are free, take about ninety minutes on site, and you leave the conversation with a printed line-item number.
What Plantation Homes Specifically Do to This Job
Plantation was built out as a master-planned community almost entirely between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s, which means roughly three-quarters of the kitchens we walk into sit on a concrete slab with CBS walls and original framing that predates Hurricane Andrew’s building-code overhaul. This creates two practical realities for a cabinet and countertop job that you won’t see in most other Broward cities.
The first is square footage. Plantation’s planned-suburb lots, particularly in neighborhoods like Lauderdale West and Plantation Park, produced kitchens that were sized for one cook and a breakfast nook. We regularly install cabinets in 100-to-140-square-foot footprints where an island would choke the work triangle. When a homeowner wants more counter space, we often suggest removing a peninsula wall and running a single galley line with deep lower drawers instead of forcing an island into a room that cannot support it. That layout decision happens in the first fifteen minutes of the estimate visit.
The second is permitting. Plantation falls under Broward County’s building jurisdiction, which sits in a middle ground between Miami-Dade’s High-Velocity Hurricane Zone standards and Palm Beach’s lighter documentation requirements. A cabinet-and-countertop swap with no wall removal and no electrical relocation is typically a minor permit. But if we are moving a sink location, adding a dedicated circuit for under-cabinet lighting, or altering any load-bearing element, the permit package escalates. Derek Hollenbeck knows exactly where Broward’s inspection thresholds sit, which keeps our submittals moving and avoids the re-review cycles that delay out-of-area crews who over-engineer or under-document their plans. For a broader project that does involve moving walls or reconfiguring the footprint, our Kitchen Remodeling crew handles the structural scope so the cabinet team can focus on finish work. And if you are already thinking about other rooms, homeowners often pair a kitchen refresh with a Walk-In Showers & Shower Remodeling in Plantation or a Tub-to-Shower Conversion in Plantation so the whole interior gets done in one coordinated push.
Serving Plantation, FL - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Plantation 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 & Countertops in Plantation
Three weeks from the day we start demo to the day you cook your first meal on the new counters. Week one is tear-out and cabinet install. Week two is countertop fabrication (with a temporary plywood top so the sink is usable). Week three is stone install, plumbing hookup, and final trim. City inspections, when required, typically add one to two business days. Broward County’s inspection backlog during hurricane season can stretch that slightly, but we schedule with that seasonal pattern in mind.
If the scope is limited to swapping cabinets and countertops in the same location, with no plumbing relocation, no electrical changes, and no structural wall modification, the job often qualifies as a minor repair under Broward County’s building code and requires only a straightforward permit filing. If we relocate the sink, move an electrical outlet, or cut into any wall, a full permit is required by law. We pull the permit and handle the inspection. Homeowners should never pull their own permit on a cabinet job where a contractor is performing the work - the permit holder assumes liability for the project.
Yes, but only if the cabinet boxes are structurally sound. We inspect the face frames, drawer glides, and shelf pins before agreeing to a countertop-only job. In older Plantation homes with original 1960s or 1970s site-built cabinets, we often find water damage around the sink base and termite damage along exterior walls. If the cabinets are solid, we template and install new tops directly on the existing boxes. The cost for countertop-only work in Plantation typically runs $2,000 to $6,500 depending on material and square footage. Call (844) 638-7249 for an on-site assessment before you buy stone.
Quartz outperforms every other surface in Plantation’s climate. It is non-porous, so humidity does nothing to it. It never needs sealing. It resists staining from the iron-heavy water that comes through Plantation’s municipal supply. Granite and quartzite both work well but require annual sealing to maintain stain resistance. Marble we generally steer people away from in kitchens - it etches from citrus juice and tomato sauce, and South Florida kitchens run on citrus. For bathrooms or low-use surfaces, marble is beautiful and reasonable; for a daily-cooking Plantation kitchen, quartz is the no-maintenance winner.
Our contract price is the price you pay, unless you ask for a change or we uncover a hidden condition that any reasonable contractor would not have foreseen during the estimate. The most common hidden-condition change order on a Plantation cabinet job is corroded plumbing behind the sink base. We show you the problem, quote the fix, and do nothing until you approve it. No creeping price. No weekend change-order phone call with a vague number. Every change is written, signed, and tracked against the original scope. This is what the 730-Day Done Right Promise stands behind: a number you can budget against, not a moving target.
Get a Free Cabinet & Countertop Estimate in Plantation
If you are ready to replace tired cabinets and countertops in your Plantation home, call (844) 638-7249 to schedule a free on-site estimate. Derek Hollenbeck or one of our senior project leads will walk your kitchen, take measurements, talk through material options, and hand you a printed, line-item price before leaving - no follow-up email, no waiting on a number. We serve the entire Plantation area with background-checked, uniformed crews and a 730-Day Done Right Promise that backs every cabinet box and every square foot of stone we install.
Written by Derek Hollenbeck, Owner at Groundwork Construction Co., serving Plantation homeowners with straight numbers and finished kitchens since 2014.