Luxury Kitchen Remodeling

The equipment decides the kitchen

Most owners who come to us for this kind of kitchen have already chosen what they want to cook on. A forty-eight inch dual-fuel range, a column refrigerator and freezer, a steam oven, a hood with a serious blower, slabs of quartzite or marble on the island. That list is where we begin, because each item carries requirements the room has to meet. Layout and cabinet planning follow from it, and the layout-first questions are covered on our Kitchens pages.

We ask for the specification sheet for every appliance before planning goes far. Those sheets give the cutout dimensions, clearances, electrical and gas requirements, duct size and weight. A panel-ready refrigerator, for example, needs its cabinet built to the manufacturer's dimensions within a fraction of an inch, with the panel ordered to match the rest of the run. Getting that wrong leaves a gap you look at every day.

Steve walks the kitchen, the basement under it and the attic or floor above it, because in a high-spec kitchen the room itself is only part of the job.

What heavy stone and a pro range ask of the floor

Natural stone is heavy, and a large island with a full-height waterfall end puts a lot of it on a small patch of floor. Add a range that weighs several hundred pounds and a loaded column refrigerator, and you have concentrated loads that a kitchen floor in an older Massachusetts house was never asked to carry. Joists in older houses are often undersized by current standards, and many have been notched or drilled by plumbers and electricians over the decades.

Before stone is ordered we look at the framing from below. Where it needs help, we sister joists, add blocking or set a beam and posts in the basement, and that work is permitted and inspected through your building department. It is far easier to do while the kitchen is open than after cabinets and stone are set, and it is the difference between a floor that stays flat and tile grout that starts cracking a year in.

Stone also has to get into the house. We measure doorways, turns and stairs early so the fabricator can plan seams if a slab will not make the trip in one piece.

Either way you know before the work begins, and the kitchen does not have to be redesigned later to fit the power available.

Electrical service for a high-spec kitchen

A professional kitchen draws real power. Induction cooking, double wall ovens, warming drawers and a steam oven each want their own circuit, and many older houses have an electrical service that is already close to full before any of it arrives.

A licensed electrician looks at the panel and the service during planning, not after the cabinets are ordered. Sometimes the answer is a new panel. Sometimes it is a service upgrade that involves the utility, which keeps its own schedule. Either way you know before the work begins, and the kitchen does not have to be redesigned later to fit the power available.

Gas ranges need a properly sized gas line and shutoff, run by a licensed gas fitter, and the range manufacturer's requirements for pressure and connection location are checked against the house before the range is delivered.

Lighting at this level needs early planning too: under-cabinet lighting on its own controls, task lighting over the range and island, and outlets placed so they do not break up a slab backsplash. Stone backsplashes often push outlets into the underside of the upper cabinets or into pop-up units in the island, and those decisions change how the cabinets are built.

Venting a big hood in a tight New England house

A large hood only works if the air it pulls out has somewhere to go and somewhere to come back from. The duct has to take the shortest practical path outside at the diameter the manufacturer calls for. In an older house that can mean working through joists, around a chimney or out a sidewall, where the clapboard and trim have to be repaired cleanly around the cap.

Newer and renovated Massachusetts houses are built tight, especially in towns that have adopted the stretch energy code. A strong hood in a tight house can pull air down a chimney or starve a gas appliance of combustion air, so larger hoods often need makeup air: a dampered intake that brings outside air in when the hood runs. Your building department confirms what applies to the specific hood, and we plan the intake and its controls into the job from the beginning.

We also talk about noise. Many owners choose a remote or inline blower so the motor sits in the attic or on an exterior wall rather than over the range, and that choice changes where the framing, wiring and access panel go.

Where the duct exits, the penetration and the wall around it are flashed carefully, because a sidewall cap on a New England house sees wind-driven rain and ice. A poorly sealed hood duct is a common source of hidden water damage inside kitchen walls.

Ordering, deliveries and the install sequence

High-end appliances and stone often have long lead times, and cabinets cannot be finalized until appliance specifications are confirmed. We set the order so nothing waits on something else: specification sheets first, then cabinet drawings, then templating the stone off the installed cabinets, then setting stone, then the appliances themselves. Deliveries are booked for when the house is ready to receive them, and appliances are protected once they are in.

Through all of it you hear from us directly. When a delivery slips or a unit arrives that does not match its spec sheet, we tell you that day and explain what it changes. Steve built the company on better communication and making sure the job is done right, and a kitchen with this much equipment is where both get tested.

Protection matters more with this much finished material in one room. Once stone is set it is covered, appliance fronts stay wrapped until the end, and finished floors are protected for the whole job. Before the final inspection we walk the kitchen with you, run every appliance and the hood with you present, and list anything that needs adjusting.

See the rest of our luxury work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.