Kitchen demo and rebuild for homes in Katy, TX 77493 — about 13 miles from our shop at 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77043.
A kitchen demo and rebuild is not one job. It is roughly a dozen trades arriving in a specific order, where getting the order wrong costs more than any single line item. Countertops cannot be templated before cabinets are set. Backsplash cannot go on before countertops are in. Electrical rough has to happen while walls are open, and once drywall closes, adding a circuit means opening it again. Homeowners are usually surprised less by the work than by the waiting — for inspections, for fabrication, for appliances. Here is the actual sequence, and where the pauses are.
Why this is different on the Gulf Coast
Demolition in Houston reveals the age of the housing stock quickly. In 1960s through early 80s homes inside the Loop, in Spring Branch, Oak Forest, and Meyerland, the kitchen drain is often cast iron, and after fifty years it can be scaled, bellied, or both. The supply may be galvanized with the pinhole leaks that come with it. Because these houses are slab-on-grade, replacing a drain under the kitchen means either tunneling beneath the slab or rerouting overhead — a real cost decision that only surfaces once the floor is open, which is why we look before promising.
Popcorn ceilings and some floor mastics from before the early 80s can contain asbestos. The correct response is testing and, if positive, licensed abatement, not a scraper and a shop vac.
Homes wired in the mid-60s to early 70s sometimes have aluminum branch circuits, which need approved connectors at every device rather than being ignored.
Slab movement shows up as a kitchen floor that is meaningfully out of level, which matters when a run of cabinets has to sit flat under a stone countertop. Newer Katy, Cypress, and Fulshear homes skip most of this and bring different issues — post-tension slabs, where any cutting or anchoring has to respect the cable layout.
What we actually do
Protection comes first: floors covered, HVAC returns sealed so demolition dust does not go through the whole house, and a dust barrier at the openings. This step gets skipped by people in a hurry and it is what determines whether you are cleaning drywall dust out of your bedroom in October.
Utilities get isolated, appliances disconnected and removed, then cabinets, countertops, backsplash, and flooring come out. Demolition is where a kitchen tells you what it actually is — what is behind the walls, whether that wall is bearing, what the drain lines are made of, how level the slab is.
Then the open-wall work, and it all happens now or not at all: any structural change with its beam and engineering, plumbing rough for a relocated sink or added pot filler, gas line work, electrical rough for circuits, outlets, under-cabinet lighting, and the appliance loads a modern kitchen needs. Inspections happen at this stage where the work is permitted.
Insulation where applicable, drywall, tape, texture, prime. Flooring if it runs under cabinets. Then cabinets get set — layout lines from the high point of the floor, shimmed level, ganged together, scribed to the walls.
Countertops are templated only after cabinets are set and secured, then fabricated and installed. Sink and plumbing trim, backsplash, appliance install, electrical trim, paint touch-up, punch list.
Choosing materials
Repipe decisions get made during demo, not after. Galvanised branches that show restriction are replaced in PEX or copper rather than reconnected, and old cast iron gets a proper shielded transition coupling to the new material, not a rubber sleeve buried in the floor. Aluminium branch circuits get addressed with listed connectors or replaced back to the panel by the electrician; nothing about a new kitchen makes old aluminium terminations safe. Cabinet boxes in this climate should be plywood, not particleboard, and the sink base especially, because a slow supply leak turns a particleboard deck into oatmeal that never dries out. Backing for tile goes on cement board or a decoupling membrane rather than straight over old subfloor patches, and tile over slab gets a movement joint at the perimeter and at any existing control joint. Countertop choice is mostly aesthetic, but quartz stays put better than a natural stone with open veining under hard-water spotting, and any stone gets sealed on schedule. Insulation on exterior walls in flood-exposed areas is worth specifying as closed-cell.
What moves the price
The largest swing is whether the layout moves. Keeping sink, range, and refrigerator in place keeps plumbing, gas, and venting cheap. Moving the sink in a slab-on-grade house means a drain reroute, and that is a genuine cost, not a small adjustment.
Second is what demolition finds. Cast iron drains, galvanized supply, aluminum branch wiring, an undersized panel that cannot carry a modern kitchen’s loads, or a wall that turns out to be bearing. None of these are optional once discovered.
Third is cabinetry — stock, semi-custom, or custom, plywood versus particleboard boxes, painted versus stained, and how many specialty inserts. This is usually the single largest line item.
Then countertops by material and slab count, appliances, flooring, and lighting scope.
Structural work, if you are removing a wall, brings engineering and permitting. Kitchen rebuild costs typically fall in a very wide range depending on which of these apply, and any number given before seeing the house and the layout is a guess dressed as a quote.
What we see in Katy
Katy covers a lot of ground. Parts sit in Harris County, parts in Fort Bend, parts in Waller, and only some addresses are actually inside the City of Katy — which affects who permits and inspects the work. The housing runs from late-1970s and 1980s neighborhoods through the master-planned build-out of the 1990s and 2000s and on into current construction. In the 80s and 90s homes we see oak cabinets, laminate counters, a garden tub with a narrow shower beside it, formal rooms nobody uses, and enough polybutylene supply piping that it is worth confirming before you commit to a bathroom. Homes that have taken water at some point come with different priorities: tile or a quality LVP instead of wood, outlets set higher than standard, closed-cell foam in place of batt. The clay moves here, so substrate flatness and movement joints get the same attention as the tile selection. Most neighborhoods have HOA architectural review.
Where these jobs fail
The common failures are logistical, not structural. Ordering cabinets and countertop after demo starts, which turns a sequencing problem into weeks of an empty room. Choosing the sink and faucet late, so the fabricator cannot cut. Not sealing HVAC returns during demo, which puts fine gypsum dust into the coil and the ductwork and shows up as grit on furniture in rooms nobody worked in. Leaving the old shutoff valves in service and discovering mid-job that they will not close, which means an unplanned shutdown at the main. Running the temporary refrigerator on an extension cord under a rug. Removing the only functioning sink before a laundry or utility sink is available. Also, scheduling the job around an immovable date, since delivery damage on a cabinet run, a slab discovery, or a stone slab that cracks at fabrication all push the end. Nobody can honestly promise a date when the wall has not been opened yet.
What to expect
We walk the kitchen, ask the age of the house, look at the panel, and look at what is under the sink — those three things predict most of the surprises. Selections get made before demolition starts, particularly cabinets and appliances, because both drive dimensions and lead times.
Then: protection, demolition, an honest walk-through with you at open walls where anything discovered gets discussed with options and costs, rough trades, inspections where required, drywall, cabinets, countertop template and install, backsplash, trim-out, punch.
The two pauses that surprise people are the inspection wait between rough and drywall and the fabrication window between countertop template and install. Both are real and neither is negotiable. We build them into the schedule instead of pretending they do not exist.
Permitting in the City of Houston covers plumbing, electrical, and structural work even though the city has no zoning, and unincorporated Harris County and Fort Bend County have their own requirements. We handle what applies to your address.
Common questions
Why can't countertops be measured before the cabinets go in?
Because stone is templated to the actual installed cabinets, which are shimmed level to the floor's high point and scribed to walls that are never perfectly straight. A template taken from a drawing or from old cabinets produces a top that does not fit, and fabricated stone cannot be meaningfully adjusted on site. The template-to-install window is a fixed part of every kitchen schedule.
Do we need a permit for a kitchen remodel in Houston?
It depends on the work rather than the room. Houston has no zoning but does permit plumbing, electrical, and structural work, and unincorporated Harris County and Fort Bend County have their own processes. Swapping cabinets and countertops with no plumbing, electrical, or structural change is different from relocating a sink or removing a wall. We identify what applies to your address before starting.
What usually turns up during demolition that we should be prepared for?
In older Houston homes: cast iron or galvanized piping in poor condition, an electrical panel too small for modern kitchen loads, aluminum branch wiring, a floor noticeably out of level from slab movement, and pre-1980s materials that need testing before removal. In newer homes: post-tension slab cables that constrain anchoring and cutting. We budget a contingency conversation into every older-home job rather than acting surprised.
How long will we be without a kitchen?
Long enough that it is worth setting up a temporary one — a microwave, a coffee maker, and the refrigerator relocated to the garage or dining room. Actual duration depends on scope, what demolition finds, permit and inspection timing, and cabinet and countertop lead times. We give you a schedule based on your specific job rather than a generic figure, and we tell you when something moves it.
Do you cover Katy 77493?
Yes. Katy 77493 is about 13 miles from our shop at 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77043, inside the area we work in daily. Call (281) 235-6971 to arrange a site visit.
MS Home Remodeling — kitchen demo and rebuild in Katy, TX 77493. Call (281) 235-6971 for a site visit.