Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Glencoe and the surrounding area
A full kitchen remodel in Glencoe typically runs $42,000 to $70,000 keeping the layout and $82,000 to $135,000 for a gut that removes a wall, and takes eight to twelve weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Village of Glencoe at 675 Village Court. Glencoe sits at the top of the North Shore range for a structural reason rather than a decorative one: the houses are big, the original kitchens are divided into three or four service compartments, and combining them almost always involves a bearing wall and a service upgrade.
Glencoe was built out largely between 1915 and 1940 in Tudor and Colonial Revival, on large wooded lots, many on or near a ravine. The houses are substantial and were planned with a clear separation between the rooms the family used and the rooms the household ran on.
That separation is still there. A typical original plan puts the kitchen at the rear behind a butler’s pantry, with a service stair, a rear hall, sometimes a maid’s room and a back porch all stacked around it. Individually each space is too small to be useful now. Together they are frequently larger than a modern kitchen and family room combined.
The work is a combining exercise, and it is structural. Walls between the service rooms are often non-structural and come out easily. The wall separating that whole zone from the dining room usually carries the floor above and needs a sized beam and an engineer’s letter. Which walls do what is established with a ceiling open, and it is the difference between the two bands above.
Glencoe is consistent, which makes the ranges tighter than its neighbours — and the structural question more predictable.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1915–1940 — Tudor and Colonial Revival | Kitchen behind a butler’s pantry with a service stair and rear hall, cast-iron waste, plaster on lath, and a 1930s electrical service. | The service zone combined into one room, a sized beam to the dining room, a service upgrade and fitted cabinetry. | $88k – $135k |
| 1940s–1950s — smaller Colonials and Cape Cods | A compact rear kitchen, a small pantry, a back door taking the best run of wall. | Gut with the pantry absorbed and the back door reworked to win a full wall of cabinetry. | $52k – $80k |
| 1950s–1975 — ranches and mid-century houses | A kitchen closed off from the living space by a wall that usually carries nothing, low ceilings, wide glazing and copper supply already in. | Open to the living space without spoiling the ceiling line, lose the soffits, replan around an island. | $44k – $72k |
| 2000s–present — teardown rebuilds | Open plan already there, adequate service, engineered joists with room for services, finishes that have dated. | Finish upgrade, with the island, the stone and the appliances driving the number. | $46k – $85k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Glencoe. We price around them rather than discovering them.
Pantry, rear hall, service stair and back porch are separate small rooms in most Glencoe houses. Which of the dividing walls are structural decides both the design and the price, and it is the first thing we open a ceiling to find out.
These kitchens were wired for one light and an icebox. An induction hob, a double oven, a dishwasher, a wine cabinet and a microwave need dedicated circuits and panel headroom, and in a house never upgraded the service is the real constraint.
The sink is where the original waste reaches. In a house this size, moving it to an island means a longer run with proper fall inside the floor, and a longer route back to the stack than in a smaller house. We confirm it from below before it is drawn.
Walls are plaster on lath and the joinery around the service rooms is often worth keeping. Cabinetry is scribed to walls that are not square, off a floor that is levelled first, which is slower than it looks and is where a fitted kitchen earns its money.
A proper hood over an island or a range needs a duct to outside air. In a brick or stone house with a finished ceiling above, that route has to be designed in, not found later when the cabinets are on site.
Interior work inside the footprint is a straightforward permit. A new window, a rear door or an exterior vent goes through village zoning review, and on the wooded ravine lots the tree ordinance has to be considered before access or scaffold is planned.
Ranges, not a single number. Where a project lands depends on the scope, and we say which band we think you are in before you commit to anything.
New cabinetry, stone, backsplash, appliances, lighting and flooring with the services staying where they are. Right when the room has already been combined once.
A structural opening with a sized beam, the pantry and rear hall taken in, services rerun, a service upgrade, and a full-height fitted cabinetry package.
Kitchen, pantry, service stair, rear hall and mudroom taken as one project, with plumbing and electrical rerun for the whole floor. Priced after an engineer has been.
Cabinetry is the largest single line in almost every kitchen we build. This is how a full project divides up.
Based on an $104,000 project, the midpoint of what we actually build here. Cabinetry and structure are both higher here than the North Shore average, for the same reason: the room being built is the size of three original ones and the wall between them was carrying the floor.
We look at the wall, at the ceiling below it where we can, and at the electrical panel. You get an honest read on what can move and what cannot.
Including a structural engineer where a wall is coming out, so the beam is sized before the price is set rather than after.
Submitted to the Village of Glencoe at 675 Village Court. We prepare and lodge it, and we tell you which route your project is on before you commit.
Any beam goes in, services are rerun, and everything is inspected before it is closed. A change to the price happens here, with the wall open, not at the end.
Cabinets set and scribed to walls that are rarely square, stone templated on site after the boxes are in, then appliances, backsplash and lighting.
We walk the room with you, write the list, and close it out before the final invoice.
Tell us about the property and what you want to change. We will walk the space, look at what is behind the walls, and come back with a written scope, a schedule and a price.
Keeping the layout and replacing cabinetry, stone, appliances and finishes generally runs $42,000 to $70,000. A gut that absorbs the pantry and opens the room to the dining room is usually $82,000 to $135,000. Taking the whole rear of the house together starts above that. Glencoe sits at the top of the North Shore range because the rooms being combined are larger.
If it is genuinely working as a bar or a second prep area, keep it. If it is storing things nobody reaches, absorbing it is the single change that transforms a Glencoe kitchen. It usually gains more usable room than an extension would, at a fraction of the cost and without touching the outside of the house.
Usually, with proper engineering. In a Glencoe house the walls between the service rooms are often non-structural while the one separating that zone from the dining room carries the floor above. Removing it needs a sized beam, posts to a bearing point and an engineer’s letter with the permit. We arrange it inside the scope so the cost is known before you sign.
Yes. The Village of Glencoe requires a building permit for kitchen work altering plumbing, electrical or structure. Applications go to the village offices at 675 Village Court and the work is inspected at rough-in and at completion. We prepare and lodge it.
In a house that has never been upgraded, no. A 1930s service was sized for a light and an icebox. Modern appliances need dedicated circuits and panel headroom, so we check the service on the first visit — a service upgrade is a cost you should know about before choosing appliances.
Eight to twelve weeks for a full remodel, longer than the North Shore average because there is more room to build and more structure involved. A structural opening adds about a week for the beam and its inspection, and cabinetry is ordered before demolition.
Where it is worth keeping, yes. We remove and label it rather than cutting through it, and refit it at the end. In a house of this quality it is usually the difference between a kitchen that belongs and one that was simply installed.
Glencoe is in the middle of our densest area. Winnetka, Highland Park, Wilmette, Lake Forest and Northbrook are all regular ground for the same crews.
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Office: (773) 345-6358