Licensed & InsuredMassachusetts, full rebuild scope
Direct Insurance BillingAll carriers, no upfront cost
Owner-Led JobsThe owner meets your adjuster on site
Free InspectionScope documented before the adjuster visit
A Kitchen Rebuild After Water Damage Is the Highest-Stakes Room in the Claim
A kitchen rebuild after water damage means removing what the loss ruined, cabinets, countertops, flooring, and wallboard, then rebuilding the room to a documented insurance scope, with plumbing and electrical brought back correctly behind the finishes. No other room concentrates this much claim value in this little floor area. Cabinetry, stone counters, tile, and appliances can put a kitchen’s replacement cost above every other room in the house combined, which is why a thin estimate here costs a homeowner more than a thin estimate anywhere else.
Kitchens also sit at the center of the water map. The dishwasher supply, the refrigerator ice line, the sink trap, and the disposal all live within a few feet of cabinet bases that stand directly on the floor, so even a slow leak wicks into toe kicks and cabinet boxes before anyone sees it. In Boston’s triple-deckers the exposure multiplies, because kitchens and bathrooms stack unit over unit on shared plumbing chases, and a failed supply line on the third floor becomes a two-kitchen loss by morning. We rebuild those rooms as part of our reconstruction services, on the same claim file the mitigation crew opened, so nothing discovered during demolition gets lost between contractors.
Documentation is the first trade on site. Before demolition, we record the room as it stood: cabinet manufacturer and door style, box construction, countertop material and edge profile, appliance models and serial numbers, tile, fixtures, and finishes. The carrier owes for what was actually there, and the only way to prove what was there is to capture it before it goes in the dumpster.
What we photograph before demo: cabinet boxes and door style, hinge and drawer hardware, countertop material, edge, and seams, appliance model and serial plates, backsplash tile and layout, sink and faucet models, and the moisture readings that justify every removal. That file is what your claim gets paid from.
Cabinets out, walls opened, and the real scope finally visible.
Cabinet Boxes, Faces, and Countertops: What Can Be Saved Before Demolition?
The most expensive mistake in kitchen and bathroom restoration is replacing things that could be saved, and the second most expensive is saving things that will fail. The triage runs component by component, and it starts with what cabinets are made of. Most cabinet boxes are particleboard or MDF, materials that swell on contact with water and never return to dimension, while plywood boxes tolerate brief clean-water exposure far better. Here is how the calls actually get made.
| Component | Can usually stay when | Comes out when |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet boxes | Plywood construction, brief Category 1 exposure, no swelling at joints, toe kicks dry and sound | Particleboard or MDF wicked water, joints or shelf pins have swollen, or Category 2 or 3 water touched them |
| Doors and face frames | Boxes are sound and only finishes need touch-up, and the door style is still in production for any one-for-one swaps | Boxes are being replaced, or the door line is discontinued so partial replacement cannot match across the run |
| Stone countertops | Uninstalled cleanly in one piece, seams and sink cutouts survive removal, and the new layout matches the old | The slab cracks at a seam or cutout during removal, which is a real risk we state before demo, not after |
| Laminate and butcher block tops | Water never reached the substrate or end grain | The substrate swelled or delaminated, which for laminate over particleboard is nearly always |
| Appliances | Water never reached electronics, insulation, or gas components, confirmed rather than assumed | Flood water reached the machine’s base, insulation is wet inside the shell, or a fire’s heat and smoke got into the electronics |
Countertops deserve the plainest talk. Granite and quartz can often be reused, but removal stresses a slab at its weakest points, the seams and the sink cutout, and a countertop that cracks during a careful removal was still a countertop the carrier expected us to reuse. So we put the reuse odds in writing before demolition, scope the detach-and-reset as its own line item, and flag the crack risk to the adjuster in advance. When the same water ran under the cabinets and across the room, the floor decision travels with the cabinet decision, and our flood damaged floor replacement crew scopes both on one schedule so the new floor runs under the new boxes, not up to them.
Boxes shimmed, clamped, and read level before a single door goes on.
#1Cooking: the leading cause of U.S. home fires, per NFPA
4-8Weeks, a realistic full kitchen rebuild timeline
$0Upfront on covered rebuild work
1Team and claim, demolition to punch list
Fire Damaged Kitchen Restoration: What Does the Claim Owe You?
Fire finds kitchens more than any other room. Cooking is the leading cause of home fires in the United States, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and a fire damaged kitchen restoration carries problems a water loss does not. Grease fires leave protein residues that bond to cabinet finishes and absorb into open-grain wood, so cabinets that look merely dingy often fail the smell test permanently and belong in the scope as replacements. Appliances are their own claim category: built-in units like the range, dishwasher, and wall oven are typically part of the dwelling claim, while freestanding units may fall under contents coverage, and whether you are owed replacement cost or depreciated value depends on your policy language. We document models and serials either way, because an appliance schedule with evidence behind it gets paid and a verbal list gets negotiated.
Rebuilding also means the room goes back together legally, not just prettily. Once walls are open, plumbing and electrical rough-ins are corrected to current Massachusetts code under 780 CMR and the state plumbing and electrical codes: GFCI protection at the counters, dedicated small-appliance circuits, proper venting on relocated drains. In the pre-war housing stock around Dorchester and across the older South Shore capes, that regularly means retiring a knob-and-tube circuit that was hiding behind the cabinets all along. Where your policy includes ordinance or law coverage, the cost gap between what existed and what code now requires can be claimed, and we scope that difference explicitly through our insurance claims team rather than letting it surface as a surprise invoice mid-rebuild.
Ansy Chevalier, our owner and an IICRC certified restorer, cert #70268689, scopes these rooms personally, and his standard is simple: “Kitchens are where claims get real. Document every box, every hinge, and every serial number before demo, and the carrier pays for the kitchen that was actually there.”
Bathroom Rebuild Services in Boston: The Tile Assembly Is the Whole Job
Bathrooms fail from the inside of the wall out. Most of the bathroom losses we rebuild trace to a tile assembly that was built wrong the first time: tile set over ordinary drywall in a shower, no waterproofing membrane behind it, and years of slow saturation into the framing. So our bathroom rebuild services treat the assembly as a system. Wet areas get cement board or foam board substrates, a bonded waterproofing membrane such as Schluter Kerdi or a liquid-applied equivalent like RedGard, sloped and tested pans, and sealed corners and niches, before a single tile is set. Tile is the finish. The membrane is the bathroom.
Timeline honesty matters as much in these rooms as build quality, because families live around this work. A gutted kitchen realistically runs four to eight weeks: demolition and rough-in the first week, inspections, board and plaster, then the long pole, cabinetry, since semi-custom cabinet orders commonly take three to six weeks to arrive and countertop fabrication adds one to two more after templating. A full bathroom typically runs three to five weeks on the same logic. A kitchen and bathroom restoration company that quotes two weeks for either room is not faster, it is planning to leave things out. We sequence the wall close-up with our drywall and plaster repair crew, order long-lead items the day the scope is approved, and give you a calendar built on real lead times.
Free inspection, direct billing to every carrier, and no upfront cost on covered work, in Boston and across the South Shore from Quincy to Marshfield. Last updated August 2026.
Living without your kitchen? Many homeowner policies include additional living expense coverage that can apply while a kitchen is unusable. We document the room’s condition and the rebuild timeline so you can put that question to your carrier with evidence, and we phase the work to keep water and power on overnight.
Waterproofing and thinset done right is what keeps a bathroom dry for decades.
Cabinets, Counters, and Code, Answered Before Demo Day
Kitchen and Bathroom Restoration Questions Homeowners Ask Us
Do water damaged cabinets need full replacement or just new doors?
It depends on the boxes. Particleboard and MDF boxes that wicked water swell permanently and need replacement, while plywood boxes that saw brief clean-water exposure can often stay, in which case doors and faces are refinished or swapped. The catch is matching: when a door style is discontinued, replacing only part of a run leaves a visible mismatch, so we check availability before recommending either path.
Can my granite or quartz countertop be reused on the new cabinets?
Often, yes, but with a risk we state up front. Removal stresses a slab at its seams and sink cutout, and even careful detach-and-reset work cracks some tops. We give you the reuse odds in writing before demolition, scope the detach-and-reset as its own line item, and notify the adjuster of the crack risk in advance so a failed removal becomes a covered replacement, not a dispute.
Are my appliances included in the insurance claim?
When the loss damaged them, yes. Built-in appliances such as the range, dishwasher, and wall oven are generally part of the dwelling claim, while freestanding units often fall under contents coverage, and replacement cost versus depreciated value depends on your policy. We photograph model and serial plates before anything moves and submit a documented appliance schedule, which is what turns a verbal list into a paid one.
Can you reuse the old tile, or does the shower get rebuilt behind it?
A wet-area tile assembly gets rebuilt as a system, not patched. Once water has been inside the wall, setting new tile over the old substrate seals moisture in and repeats the failure, so the substrate, waterproofing membrane, and pan are replaced together with cement or foam board and a bonded membrane before tile is set. Dry-area tile outside the wet zone can sometimes stay when it meters dry and sits on sound backing.
Can we stay in the house during a kitchen or bathroom rebuild?
Usually, yes. We phase demolition and rough-in so water and power come back on each night, contain dust at the work zone, and keep a working bathroom available whenever the house has more than one. For the weeks the kitchen is out of service, many policies include additional living expense coverage, and we document the room’s condition and timeline so you can raise that with your carrier backed by evidence.
The Two Most Expensive Rooms in the House Deserve the Most Honest Scope.
Free inspection, documented cabinet-to-fixture rebuilds, and direct insurance billing with no upfront cost on covered work.