This is my short guide to cabinets post flood. Hopefully this can answer some questions you guys have.
On average 3/4 of the cost of cabinets are in your base cabinets.
Saving your upper cabinets can save you money but that's mostly if you know who manufactured/supplied your cabinets and if those cabinets are still made and available for purchase. Even then if your cabinets are 5, 10, 15+ years old they have faded with time and the manufacturer has bought thousands of new batches of paint/stain so it's probably not going to match perfectly.
You could go full custom to match the uppers but good full custom cabinets are going to cost more than just replacing the uppers.
You could also get a similar style cabinet for the bases then repaint/stain all of them. Repainting/staining done right generally costs a lot. This is a "you pay for what you get" solution.
You can also just get new bases and uppers. This is the cheapest way with the least headache.
Want to save your countertop? You can try but be aware that for most material like granite are very likely to break during removal. This is especially true around areas like the sink or cooktop and corners. Lots of companies will not even offer this service because it begets bad blood. If I charged you to remove your countertop and it breaks then your pissed and I'm still out time and labor. If you do manage to get the top off the cabinetry below has to have sinks/cooktops in the same plays and keep the same footprint.
Your countertop has to come up and off to put new base cabinets in. Anyone telling you differently think they're MacGuyver.
If you don't have a way to find the person you're paying should they just not show up one day you're taking a big risk.
If you're going Cabinet shopping bring pictures of your kitchen/bathroom and you need to have measurements of each wall that has cabinets. You need to know exactly where on that wall windows are and how wide they are with trim. A cabinet should not go on top of trim or require cutting out trim. You need to know where your plumbing and/or gas outlets are. You need to know where your exhaust is above the stove. You should know the width of your appliances, particularly double ovens, wine coolers and cooktops. You need to know the width of your sink. You need the width/depth of your island.
If that's overwhelming you can request a site measurement from the company but no real design or quote can be done without this info. Schedule the measurement before you go in so you can save yourself an extra trip.
If you bring in measurements and the company trusts you and is willing to take your money and order cabinets without verifying them run! They clearly don't care if your kitchen works out. Small mistakes cost hundreds of dollars and often hours of extra work and weeks waiting for a new cabinet.
I hope that helped a little. If any of you have questions please let me know and I'll respond ASAP.
On average 3/4 of the cost of cabinets are in your base cabinets.
Saving your upper cabinets can save you money but that's mostly if you know who manufactured/supplied your cabinets and if those cabinets are still made and available for purchase. Even then if your cabinets are 5, 10, 15+ years old they have faded with time and the manufacturer has bought thousands of new batches of paint/stain so it's probably not going to match perfectly.
You could go full custom to match the uppers but good full custom cabinets are going to cost more than just replacing the uppers.
You could also get a similar style cabinet for the bases then repaint/stain all of them. Repainting/staining done right generally costs a lot. This is a "you pay for what you get" solution.
You can also just get new bases and uppers. This is the cheapest way with the least headache.
Want to save your countertop? You can try but be aware that for most material like granite are very likely to break during removal. This is especially true around areas like the sink or cooktop and corners. Lots of companies will not even offer this service because it begets bad blood. If I charged you to remove your countertop and it breaks then your pissed and I'm still out time and labor. If you do manage to get the top off the cabinetry below has to have sinks/cooktops in the same plays and keep the same footprint.
Your countertop has to come up and off to put new base cabinets in. Anyone telling you differently think they're MacGuyver.
If you don't have a way to find the person you're paying should they just not show up one day you're taking a big risk.
If you're going Cabinet shopping bring pictures of your kitchen/bathroom and you need to have measurements of each wall that has cabinets. You need to know exactly where on that wall windows are and how wide they are with trim. A cabinet should not go on top of trim or require cutting out trim. You need to know where your plumbing and/or gas outlets are. You need to know where your exhaust is above the stove. You should know the width of your appliances, particularly double ovens, wine coolers and cooktops. You need to know the width of your sink. You need the width/depth of your island.
If that's overwhelming you can request a site measurement from the company but no real design or quote can be done without this info. Schedule the measurement before you go in so you can save yourself an extra trip.
If you bring in measurements and the company trusts you and is willing to take your money and order cabinets without verifying them run! They clearly don't care if your kitchen works out. Small mistakes cost hundreds of dollars and often hours of extra work and weeks waiting for a new cabinet.
I hope that helped a little. If any of you have questions please let me know and I'll respond ASAP.