Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Roscoe Village and the surrounding area
A full kitchen remodel in Roscoe Village typically runs $35,000 to $58,000 keeping the layout and $68,000 to $110,000 for a gut that removes a wall, and takes six to ten weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Chicago Department of Buildings. On a twenty-five-foot lot the kitchen is long and narrow with the stack in the rear wall, so the two questions that set the design are whether the wall to the dining room is carrying, and how far the sink can travel from that stack.
Roscoe Village is twenty-five-foot lots and workers’ cottages, built from the 1890s through the 1920s and upgraded steadily ever since rather than rebuilt all at once. A great many of the houses were jacked up over a new basement at some point, and a great many have a rear addition added later.
The kitchen sits at the back, long and narrow, with the stack in the rear wall and the back door and basement stair taking up the wall that should hold cabinetry. If a previous owner added on behind it, the kitchen may now be further from that stack than it was designed to be.
That distance is the thing to establish first. A sink on an island in a long narrow plan can need a horizontal run that is already at minimum fall by the time it reaches the stack. We check it from the basement before it goes in a drawing, because it is the one constraint that can change a layout after the cabinets are ordered.
Roscoe Village repeats one building type with one history, and the kitchen problem repeats with it.
| Era and building type | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890–1915 — frame cottages raised over a basement | A long narrow kitchen at the rear, the stack in the back wall, services spliced across eras, and floor levels that step. | Gut with the services traced and replaced, the floor levelled, and the drain route settled before the layout. | $72k – $110k |
| 1900–1925 — brick workers’ cottages | A back door and a basement stair taking the best wall, a small window, and a dining room doorway that may or may not be carrying. | Doors rationalised into a continuous run and a wide cased opening where the wall allows. | $66k – $98k |
| 1900–1925 — two-flats | A kitchen at the rear off a back porch, a stack shared with the unit above, shallow joists, and a board where it has been converted. | Gut in place, sink kept near the existing run, storage-led rather than layout-led. | $38k – $62k |
| 1995–present — rear additions | A kitchen moved into an addition and now a long way from the original stack, with a drain run close to minimum fall. | Replan around what the fall actually allows, and correct the run where a previous build cut it fine. | $40k – $68k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Roscoe Village. We price around them rather than discovering them.
On a 25-foot lot the kitchen runs front to back with the stack at one end. Moving the sink towards the middle of the room means a longer horizontal run, and the fall available inside the floor is what decides whether it is possible.
In a cottage it is not obvious from either side whether that wall carries the floor above. If it does, the opening needs a sized beam, posts to a bearing point and an engineer’s letter with the permit.
Where the cottage was lifted over a new basement, the services were joined up afterwards and often across several eras. We trace what actually feeds the kitchen before quoting rather than finding three materials in one wall.
These kitchens were wired for a light and an icebox. An induction hob, a double oven and a dishwasher need dedicated circuits and panel headroom, and in a house never upgraded the panel is the constraint. We check it on the first visit.
With a neighbouring building a few feet away, the route for a proper extract is limited and the termination position matters. It is planned at design stage; where it is not, a recirculating hood gets fitted and the problem stays.
Some blocks here have no rear access at all. Cabinetry comes through the house or up the back stairs, and the delivery has to be planned around the building rather than the other way round.
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.
A structural opening to the dining room with a sized beam, services traced and rerun, a service upgrade where needed, and full-height cabinetry.
Kitchen, rear addition and often a mudroom or powder room as one project, with plumbing and electrical rerun for the whole rear. 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 $80,000 project, the midpoint of what we actually build here. The plumbing share runs above the figure shown wherever the house was raised, because the first job is replacing whatever was spliced together when it went up in the air.
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 Chicago Department of Buildings. 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 $35,000 to $58,000. A gut that opens the room to the dining room is usually $68,000 to $110,000. What moves the number most is whether the wall is carrying and what the services turn out to be.
It depends on the fall. On a narrow lot the stack is in the rear wall, so a sink towards the middle of the room needs a long horizontal run inside a shallow floor. Sometimes there is room and sometimes there is not, and it is checked from the basement before the cabinets are ordered rather than after.
Often, but in a cottage it is not obvious from either side whether it carries the floor above. If it does, the opening needs a sized beam, posts down to a bearing point and an engineer’s letter with the permit. We arrange the engineering inside the scope.
Yes, mostly for the services. Lifting the house meant joining everything up afterwards, often across several eras and materials, so what feeds the kitchen can be three different things in three places. We trace it before quoting.
Yes. The Chicago Department of Buildings issues it. Like-for-like cabinetry and finishes can often go through the Easy Permit Process; anything structural, or anything moving services, needs a full permit with drawings. We identify the route at the consultation.
In a house that has never been upgraded, usually not. Modern appliances need dedicated circuits and spare capacity in the panel, and we check the service on the first visit so an upgrade is priced rather than discovered.
Through the house or up the back stairs, planned in advance. Some blocks here have no rear access at all, so the delivery route and the window for it are part of the schedule we give you rather than something worked out on the morning.
Roscoe Village sits between Lakeview and Lincoln Square. Those two, along with Lincoln Park, are regular ground for the same crews.
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