Vancouver Kitchen Remodeling

Planning a kitchen that earns its keep in Vancouver

A kitchen remodel is really a sequence of decisions, and the order you make them in is what keeps the budget and the timeline on track. JDI Construction is a family-owned, Vancouver-based design-build remodeler, and a kitchen is the most complex room we build — cabinets, counters, appliances, plumbing, electrical, and often a wall or two, all landing on one schedule. This is home turf for us: we're headquartered right here in Clark County, and we've remodeled kitchens in neighborhoods from the older streets near Hough and Shumway to the newer subdivisions out past Cascade Park.

Because our designers and installers work as one team, the kitchen you approve is the kitchen that gets built. We don't draw a plan and then hand it off to a separate contractor and hope everything translates on site — the people designing your layout are the people accountable for making it real.

The parts that matter most

A kitchen has to look right, but it has to work first. These are the details that decide whether it does, and where experience shows:

1. 1
   

   LayoutThe work triangle — sink, range, refrigerator — decides whether cooking feels natural or cramped.
2. 2
   

   Cabinets & storageThe longest lead item and the biggest line; drawers and a pantry planned around how you actually cook.
3. 3
   

   CountersDurable work surfaces with enough uninterrupted run to prep, plus the template-to-install gap worth planning for.
4. 4
   

   LightingTask light over the counters and island, not a single fixture in the middle of the ceiling.

A few decisions worth making early

The choices that swing a kitchen's budget and schedule are the ones best settled before anyone swings a hammer. Chief among them is whether to open a wall to the dining or living room — a frequent request in Vancouver's older Hough and Shumway-era homes, where the kitchen was built as a closed box — and that hinges entirely on whether the wall carries load. Then there's the island: it only earns its place if you have the room for 36 to 42 inches of clear walkway on every side you'll actually use. We also decide early whether to keep the current layout or move the sink, range, or refrigerator, because relocating plumbing, gas lines, or the vent run is where cost quietly accumulates. Finally, we lock the cabinet style up front — cabinets are the longest lead item, and their delivery date sets the entire schedule, so a late decision there pushes everything behind it.

What Vancouver kitchens tend to need

Vancouver has an unusually wide range of housing, and the kitchens split along it. In the established neighborhoods closer to the river and downtown, homes tend to have compact, closed-off kitchens — a galley or a single walled run built for a different era of cooking. Opening those up almost always turns up dated wiring and undersized plumbing that has to be brought current before the new kitchen goes in, so we plan for it rather than discover it mid-project.

Out in the newer parts of east Vancouver and around Cascade Park, the footprint is usually there but the kitchen is builder-grade — stock cabinets, a token island, and never enough storage for the size of the room. There the work is upgrading finishes, rethinking the island and the flow, and adding the deep-drawer and pantry storage that make a big kitchen function. Either way, we settle the electrical and venting before cabinets arrive, since those are the expensive things to fix afterward.

Kitchens we've remodeled around Vancouver

A few recent kitchen projects near Vancouver — click through for the full before-and-after:

Vancouver, WA

Mid-Century Modern Kitchen Remodel

See the project

Vancouver, WA

Modern Kitchen Remodel

See the project

Vancouver, WA

Two-Tone Cherry and Sage Kitchen Remodel

See the project

Vancouver, WA

Greige Kitchen Remodel

See the project

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What does a kitchen remodel cost in Vancouver?

Short answer: JDI's published planning ranges are $28,000-$45,000 to $85,000-$130,000 for a small kitchen (under 120 sq ft), $42,000-$65,000 to $130,000-$210,000 for a medium kitchen (120 to 200 sq ft) and $62,000-$95,000 to $210,000-$360,000 for a large kitchen (over 200 sq ft), from our Essential to our Luxury tier, before any sales tax. They are planning ranges, not quotes; the kitchen cost calculator narrows yours by size and finish level.

What a Vancouver kitchen costs comes down to a handful of big levers rather than the address on the door. Cabinets are usually the largest single line, and the jump from stock to semi-custom to fully custom moves the number more than any other choice you'll make. After that it's the countertop material, whether you're relocating plumbing, gas, or walls, the level of appliances you choose, and simply the size of the room. Keeping the existing layout and replacing cabinets and counters sits at one end of the range; a full gut with a new island, moved plumbing, and an opened-up wall sits at the other. Because our design and our trades are both in-house, we can steer the plan toward what matters to you and pull back where it doesn't — and you get an itemized estimate once the kitchen is drawn, so every choice shows what it adds.

How long does a kitchen remodel take?

Short answer: at JDI, the construction phase typically takes about 3 weeks for a cosmetic refresh, about 5 weeks for a pull-and-replace in the same layout and 5 to 8 weeks for a full gut. Design, ordering and permits come first. See each step and who you meet.

Plan on several weeks of on-site work for most kitchens, but the clock really starts before demolition: cabinets are the longest lead item, and their delivery date drives everything, so we order them the moment the design is locked. Opening a wall, moving plumbing, or upgrading an older electrical panel adds time, and the century-old homes near the river occasionally hand us a surprise behind the plaster. We give you a realistic schedule up front, pull the permits the work requires, and sequence the trades so you keep a working kitchen for as much of the project as we can manage.

Why homeowners in Vancouver choose JDI

Design-build means one team owns the whole kitchen — the layout, the cabinets, the counters, the plumbing, and the electrical — so your plan is never drawn by one company and handed to trades who never saw it drawn. We pull the permits, coordinate every trade so the tile setter isn't idle waiting on the electrician, keep you current through our client portal, and stand behind the finished work with a five-year workmanship warranty. Being based right here in Vancouver, we're a short drive from your door, which makes us easy to reach both during the project and years after it wraps.

JDI Construction — "Built by family. Trusted by neighbors." Design-build remodeling based in Vancouver, WA, serving Vancouver, Camas, and the greater Portland–Vancouver metro since 2007.