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Kitchen Design & Build
Custom cabinetry, quartz and natural stone, islands that actually work, and layout changes handled properly — including the slab question most Tucson kitchen quotes quietly skip.
Almost every kitchen conversation starts with door styles, countertop slabs and whether the range hood should be plaster or metal. Those decisions matter and we enjoy them. But in Tucson they are not what separates a $55,000 kitchen from a $110,000 one.
What separates them is whether the sink, dishwasher and gas line stay where they are.
Nearly every Tucson home is built slab-on-grade — the concrete floor is the foundation, and the drain lines run underneath it. Moving a sink four feet to the other side of an island is not a plumbing task, it is a concrete task: saw-cut the slab, excavate, re-route drain and supply, inspect, backfill, re-pour, then re-level the floor so your tile doesn't telegraph the patch. That single decision can add $4,000 to $12,000 to a kitchen before a cabinet is hung.
And on homes built from roughly the mid-1990s onward, it can be worse — because a lot of them sit on post-tension slabs, threaded with steel cables under tension. You cannot cut one on a hunch. It requires scanning, an engineer's sign-off, and sometimes the honest answer that the plumbing is staying where it is. A contractor who quotes a full layout change on a post-tension slab without mentioning any of this either doesn't know, or is planning to find out at your expense with a change order.
We would rather have that conversation on day one, with a scan, than on day thirty with an invoice.
What we tell every client
There is a version of your kitchen that keeps the plumbing wall where it is, spends the money you saved on better cabinetry and a stone you actually love, and looks like a far more expensive kitchen than it was.
There is also a version where the layout is genuinely wrong — the fridge blocks the walkway, the sink faces a wall, the island is a peninsula pretending — and moving it is the entire point of the project. That version is worth the slab work.
Our job at the design stage is to tell you honestly which one you have. Most Tucson kitchens are the first. Some are emphatically the second.
Scope
We start with how you actually cook and who else is in the room while you do it. Work triangle, landing space beside the range, whether the island seats people or stages food. Drawings and elevations before demolition, not sketches on site.
Stock, semi-custom and full custom, specified to your walls rather than to a catalogue. In Tucson's dry interior air we pay particular attention to door construction and finish — cheap panels check and split here faster than they do in humid climates.
Quartz, granite, quartzite, porcelain slab and marble. We template after cabinets are set, never before, and we walk the slab yard with you when the material has movement worth choosing.
Fixture replacement, re-routes, gas line extension for a range, pot filler rough-in, filtered water. Slab work scanned and engineered where required.
Dedicated circuits to code, under-cabinet lighting, recessed layout designed to the cabinet plan, switching that makes sense at 6am. Older Tucson homes frequently need panel work — we find that at survey, not at inspection.
Tile, backsplash, flooring transitions, paint, hardware. Where the kitchen opens to a great room we detail the junction so the two rooms read as one decision.
Local Knowledge
Four things about the local housing stock that change a kitchen design more than any trend does.
Midtown, Sam Hughes, Blenman-Elm and much of central Tucson is burnt adobe or masonry block. Those walls are frequently structural and always solid — you cannot simply open one up for a pass-through, and you cannot chase a new electrical run through it the way you would through studs. Removing one means a header, a beam, and an engineer. It is very often worth doing. It is never free.
The 1960s–80s ranch homes across the east side and Flowing Wells often have vaulted or beamed ceilings with no attic above the kitchen. That kills the easy path for range hood ducting and recessed can housings. The fix is a soffit, a different hood, or a route through the wall — decided at design, because discovering it mid-build costs a week.
A large share of older Tucson homes still run evaporative cooling, and the unit or its ductwork sits directly over the kitchen more often than you would expect. Kitchen remodels are the natural moment to convert to refrigerated air — the ceiling is already open and the electrical is already being touched. Doing it later means opening the same ceiling twice.
If you are in Sam Hughes, El Presidio, Armory Park, Barrio Viejo or another Historic Preservation Zone, exterior-visible changes — a new kitchen window, a relocated door, a skylight — go through additional review before permitting. Interior work generally does not. Knowing which side of that line your plan falls on is a design decision, not a paperwork problem.
How It Runs
We walk the space, talk through how you use it, and measure properly. Free, and with no obligation to proceed.
Layouts, elevations and a realistic budget band. Cabinetry, stone and fixture selections happen here — before pricing is fixed, so the number you get is the number that holds.
Where the plan touches the slab or a structural wall, we scan and engineer first. We pull the permit with the correct jurisdiction — City of Tucson PDSD, Pima County, or your town.
Protection goes down, demo comes out, and plumbing, electrical and any framing is roughed in. Rough inspections happen at this stage.
Cabinets set and scribed, then the template is taken from the installed cabinets. Stone fabrication typically runs one to two weeks from template.
Backsplash, fixtures, hardware, paint, final electrical trim. Then a walkthrough where you write the punch list and we complete it before the final invoice — not after.
Straight Answers
These are Tucson market ranges as of 2026 for a professionally built, permitted kitchen — not a quote. Your number comes from your kitchen after we've measured it.
| Scope | Typical Tucson Range | What Drives It |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh — cabinets stay, everything else changes | $28,000 – $55,000 | Refacing or repainting existing boxes, new counters, backsplash, sink, faucet, lighting and appliances. Plumbing and layout untouched. The best value in Tucson remodeling when the existing layout works. |
| Mid-range — new cabinetry, same footprint | $55,000 – $95,000 | Semi-custom cabinetry, quartz or granite, new flooring, full electrical and lighting redesign. Plumbing stays in place, which is what keeps it in this band. |
| Full remodel — layout changes | $95,000 – $175,000+ | Custom cabinetry, wall removal, relocated plumbing, new island with sink or gas, premium stone and appliances. Includes the slab and structural work that a layout change actually requires. |
| Per square foot (as a sanity check) | $100 – $250 / sq ft | Useful for a first gut-check, misleading beyond that — a small kitchen with a relocated sink can exceed a large kitchen that keeps its plumbing. |
| Slab plumbing re-route (add-on) | $4,000 – $12,000 | Saw-cut, excavate, re-route, inspect, re-pour and re-level. Higher on post-tension slabs, which need scanning and an engineer's sign-off before anything is cut. |
| Load-bearing wall removal (add-on) | $6,000 – $20,000 | Beam, posts, footings and engineering. Block and burnt adobe walls sit at the upper end. Often the single highest-value change you can make to a 1970s Tucson floor plan. |
Cabinetry is typically 30–40% of a kitchen budget and countertops another 10–15%, which is why cabinet decisions move the total more than anything else you choose. For a full breakdown across every service we offer, see the Tucson remodeling cost guide.
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Straight Answers
A cosmetic refresh that keeps the existing cabinets typically runs $28,000–$55,000. A mid-range remodel with new semi-custom cabinetry in the same footprint runs roughly $55,000–$95,000. A full remodel with layout changes, custom cabinetry and relocated plumbing generally starts around $95,000.
The single biggest swing factor in Tucson is whether the plumbing moves, because our slab-on-grade construction means a relocated sink is concrete work, not plumbing work.
Six to twelve weeks on site for most Tucson kitchens, plus four to eight weeks of design and selections beforehand and permit review where the scope requires it.
The two things that most often extend a timeline are stone fabrication — one to two weeks after template, which cannot start until cabinets are installed — and custom cabinetry lead times, which can run eight to sixteen weeks. Both are scheduled up front so they overlap with construction rather than following it.
It depends entirely on what you touch. The City of Tucson does not require a permit for purely cosmetic work — replacing cabinets, countertops, tile or paint — as long as plumbing and electrical systems are not affected.
As soon as you add or move a plumbing fixture, run new electrical, add hardwired lighting, or modify a wall, a permit is required. Realistically, most full kitchen remodels are permitted. We pull it, and we pull it with the right authority — City of Tucson PDSD, Pima County Development Services, or your town's office, which are not the same thing and do not have the same requirements.
Usually, yes — but it is the most expensive sentence in a Tucson kitchen consultation, so it deserves a real answer rather than a cheerful one.
Drain lines run below a slab-on-grade floor. Moving the sink means saw-cutting the concrete, excavating, re-routing, inspecting, re-pouring and re-levelling. Budget $4,000–$12,000 for that work alone.
If your home was built from the mid-1990s onward it may sit on a post-tension slab, which contains tensioned steel cables. Those must be located by scan and the cut engineered before anyone starts a saw. Sometimes the honest recommendation is a prep sink on the island and the main sink staying put.
Refacing typically costs 30–50% less than full replacement, and on solid, well-built boxes with a layout you like it is genuinely good value.
It is the wrong choice when the boxes are particleboard and sagging, when the layout is the actual problem, or when you want deeper drawers and interior storage that the existing carcasses cannot provide. Refacing a kitchen whose layout you dislike buys you a nicer-looking version of the thing that was annoying you.
Quartz is the default for good reason — non-porous, no sealing, and colour-stable. The one caveat that matters locally is that quartz can discolour under sustained direct UV, so it is a poor choice for an outdoor kitchen or a counter in a wall of unshaded south-facing glass. Granite, porcelain slab or concrete handle that better.
Tucson's water is hard, which is a fixture and finish issue rather than a stone one: polished chrome and clear glass show mineral spotting quickly, while brushed nickel, matte black and satin brass hide it. It is a small consideration that people notice every single day.
Either way works. Many clients buy their own appliances, which is fine — we simply need the exact model numbers early, because cabinetry is built to appliance specifications and a late change to a 36-inch range means new cabinets, not an adjustment.
We can also specify and supply. What we ask in every case is that appliances are on site before cabinet installation begins.
Most clients do. We build a temporary kitchen setup — fridge, microwave and a sink where practical — and we dust-wall the work zone with negative air where the scope warrants it.
Expect to be without a functioning kitchen for the majority of the project. Households with young children or anyone working from home directly beside the work sometimes decide two or three weeks elsewhere during demolition and rough-in is worth it. We will tell you honestly which weeks are the loud ones.
Ends September 30 · left
Sign a full bathroom remodel by September 30 and pick one premium upgrade, included at no cost. Not a discount — an actual upgrade to the finished room, specified and installed as part of the build.
Custom-templated to your finished walls after tile. The single upgrade that most changes how a bathroom reads.
Electric in-floor heat under the tile, on its own thermostat. Impossible to retrofit later without pulling the floor up again.
A step up in cabinetry and countertop material — the two things you touch every morning for the next fifteen years.
One upgrade per household, on full bathroom remodels signed by September 30, 2026. Upgrade is specified during design and installed with the project; it cannot be exchanged for a credit or discount. Consultations and written estimates are always free and carry no obligation.
Free in-home consultation and a realistic budget band before you commit to anything. Serving Tucson, Oro Valley, Marana, Catalina Foothills and all of Southern Arizona.