Kitchen Remodeling in Houston, TX

A kitchen is the most expensive room per square foot in most Houston houses, and the one where a bad plan costs the most to unwind. H&H Construction LLC remodels kitchens across Houston, from cabinet-and-counter refreshes to gut jobs that move walls and relocate gas and plumbing. Below: what the work costs, what the city makes you permit, and the order things must happen in so your tile is not cracking in eighteen months.

We are a general contractor, not a cabinet showroom: one contract, one schedule, one company answering for the framing, the licensed trades, the finishes and the inspections. Call (346) 568-7771 or use our contact page.

What a Kitchen Remodel Costs in Houston

Sweeten’s Houston kitchen cost guide sorts full remodels into three tiers, and those reference points match what we see bidding work here:

• Budget — from about $30,000. Existing layout and plumbing locations, stock cabinets, entry-level counters.
• Mid-grade — from about $50,000. Custom or semi-custom cabinets, quartz or granite, new lighting on dedicated circuits, modest layout changes.
• High-end — from about $100,000. Full custom cabinetry, stone slabs, relocated plumbing and gas, structural work.

Line items: Houston kitchen remodel cost guide.

Labor and contingency

Labor runs roughly 25 to 35 percent of project cost, skewing high with budget-grade materials — the hours to demo, frame, wire, plumb and set cabinets do not drop because the cabinets got cheaper. On a $60,000 remodel that is about $15,000 to $21,000.

Hold a contingency on top of the contract: 10 to 15 percent if you keep the existing layout, 15 to 20 percent for a gut. Houston housing stock supplies the reasons: failed cast iron drains, no dedicated circuits for a modern appliance load, subfloor rot under an old dishwasher, slab movement you only see once the cabinets come off.

Permits: When a Houston Kitchen Remodel Needs One

Houston’s rule is broad: any alteration, repair, remodel, renovation or new construction requires a permit unless the code specifically exempts it, and the exemptions are cosmetic — painting, carpet, tile and wood flooring. Triggers:

• Adding or moving circuits, outlets or can lights
• Moving sink, dishwasher or ice maker supply and drain lines
• Adding or moving a gas line for a range or cooktop
• Removing or adding a wall; changing a window or door opening
• Relocating ductwork or adding make-up air for a large hood

The structural permit is bought first, then trade permits follow, pulled and inspected through licensed contractors: a Master Electrician licensed by TDLR, a Master Plumber licensed by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, and a licensed air conditioning contractor.

Three permitting worlds in Greater Houston

• City of Houston. On the 2021 International Codes, effective January 2, 2024. Permits run through the Houston Permitting Center, and scope determines which review groups see your plans — structural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing.
• Independent municipalities. Bellaire, West University Place, Katy and others are separate cities with their own building departments, code editions and review timelines. Katy enforces the 2021 International Building Codes with the 2023 National Electrical Code.
• Unincorporated Harris County. County residential standards come from state law reaching only new single-family and duplex construction on a vacant lot, plus additions increasing square footage or value by more than 50 percent. The statute does not require county approval before construction starts, private inspectors the builder hires do the inspections rather than county staff, and the county cannot charge an enforcement fee. So on a kitchen remodel out there, nobody is checking but us.

Open Concept: Taking Out a Load-Bearing Wall

Most requests to open up a kitchen involve a wall carrying load from above, and you cannot tell from the kitchen side. What matters is what bears on the top plate — ceiling joists, rafters, a second-floor system — and where that load goes once the wall is gone. Removing it means building a replacement load path:

• The beam. An engineered header — LVL, steel or built-up lumber — sized for the tributary load and clear span. A wider opening is not a preference; it is a bigger, costlier beam.
• Posts and bearing. The beam lands on posts needing continuous bearing to something that can carry a point load.
• Foundation under the posts. On a slab, a point load where a distributed wall load used to sit may need a thickened section or poured pad.

Wiring, plumbing, duct and gas inside that wall also get rerouted, all permitted trade items. We have a Texas-licensed professional engineer specify the beam, posts and bearing, and submit those sealed drawings with the permit. Structural scope routes to Houston’s structural plan review, so the work lands in the permit record either way, and a sealed design is what makes it approvable and insurable.

Foundation First: Houston Clay and Order of Operations

Greater Houston sits on expansive clay. Texas building guidance states the mechanism plainly: shrink-swell soils at high moisture heave and lift a building, while low moisture causes soils to collapse and the building to settle. Our wet-dry cycles drive that every season.

That dictates sequence. Cabinets, stone counters and tile are rigid, brittle and installed dead level, so if the slab is moving, the finishes fail first: grout cracks, a slab seam opens, cabinet doors go out of reach. Correcting the foundation afterward means demolishing work you just paid for. We take slab elevations and check door operation, crack patterns and drainage before pricing finishes; real movement gets addressed and allowed to stabilize first — see structural repair and house leveling. An under-slab plumbing leak can be the cause, worth ruling out before anyone installs piers.

A Realistic Timeline

Phases overlap, so the total is not the sum of the rows.

Realistically: 8 to 12 weeks on site for a layout-preserving remodel, 12 to 20 weeks with structural or foundation work.

How to Vet Us

Texas does not license general contractors. There is no state GC license, no registry, no number to cite: the Texas Residential Construction Commission’s act expired on September 1, 2009 and the agency closed on September 1, 2010, with no successor registry. Any contractor calling itself “state licensed” as a general contractor is describing something that does not exist. More at is a general contractor licensed in Texas?

Verify instead: a certificate of insurance sent directly from our agent, naming you; the electrician’s TDLR license and the plumber’s TSBPE license; permits pulled at your address; a written warranty with a stated term in the contract, alongside the manufacturer warranties we register at closeout; and finished work in our project gallery. Background: our about page.

We also handle bathroom remodeling, whole-home remodeling, additions, custom homes, office build-outs, structural improvements, land clearing and site prep, and investor flip work. Full list: services.

We will walk your kitchen, take slab elevations, check the panel and the existing plumbing and gas, and put a written scope and price in front of you. If your budget and your wish list are not in the same range, you hear it at the walkthrough, not after demolition.