Cabinet refacing and installation cost: pricing the boxes, the fronts and everything between

How do you count linear feet, and why does it matter more than square feet?

Cabinets are priced by the linear foot of run, counted separately for bases and uppers because uppers cost less. Measure along the wall at counter height for bases, including the island's perimeter as base run, and along the wall at upper height for uppers, skipping windows and the range hood. A typical 180-square-foot kitchen has 20 to 30 linear feet of base and 15 to 25 of upper; a galley has more base per square foot than a square room.

Tall cabinets, pantries and oven towers count as base at a premium, because they use more material and often more hardware. Corner units cost more per foot than straight runs. Fillers, end panels and toe kicks are usually separate lines. A bid that quotes a single per-linear-foot figure for the whole kitchen is averaging these; ask for bases, uppers and talls separately so that two bids can be compared. Talls are where appliance storage lives: Houzz found 67% of 2026 renovators who built a butler's pantry included small-appliance storage.

What does refacing cost, and what is inside the per-foot figure?

HomeAdvisor's June 2026 guide puts the average refacing job at $7,230, and Modernize's August 2026 guide at $4,000 to $9,500. Block Renovation's guide gives a wider $4,000 to $13,000 for most kitchens, or roughly $200 to $300 per door when bundled into a full job. Per foot, the site's table uses Modernize's $100 to $250 for laminate or thermofoil fronts and HomeAdvisor's $150 to $450 for wood veneer or solid wood. The figure includes new doors and drawer fronts, veneer or laminate on every exposed box face, new concealed hinges and usually new drawer slides, and installation. It excludes counters, which stay, and it excludes new drawer boxes, roll-outs and interior work, which appear as separate lines.

Labor is a larger share of refacing than of replacement, 50 to 70 percent of the total by Modernize's estimate, because the work is careful surface preparation and fitting rather than setting boxes. That is why refacing prices vary more by region than replacement does, and why a refacing bid in a high-labor metro can approach a stock-cabinet replacement bid. The material choice sets the rest: laminate fronts are consistent and cheap, wood veneer needs grain matching, solid wood costs most and moves with humidity.

Hardware upgrades belong in the refacing budget. The table puts a soft-close hinge and slide upgrade at $400 to $1,500 per kitchen, with adapters needed on older boxes, and roll-out trays at $150 to $450 per fixture. Houzz's 2026 study found 53% of renovators designed for current or future needs, with pull-out cabinets the most common feature; on a refacing job those are fitted into existing bases.

What does replacement cost by tier, and where does each tier stop making sense?

Stock cabinets, installed, run $100 to $300 per linear foot in the site's table: fixed sizes in 3-inch increments, limited finishes, particleboard boxes, delivered from inventory. Semi-custom runs $200 to $650: more sizes, plywood options, many finishes, six to ten weeks lead time. Custom runs $500 to $1,200: any dimension, any finish, longer lead time. Removal and disposal of the old cabinets adds $500 to $1,500. For whole-kitchen totals, Block Renovation puts stock cabinets in a small kitchen at $6,000 to $10,000, semi-custom in a typical kitchen at $12,000 to $30,000 and custom at $35,000 to $60,000 or more, installed.

Stock stops making sense when the room's dimensions leave large filler gaps or when the wet bases need plywood the line does not offer. Semi-custom is the tier most published medians describe and the one that most kitchens should default to. Custom makes sense for unusual dimensions, a specific wood such as the white oak NKBA's 2026 report found 51% of designers name most popular, or a kitchen where the cabinetry is the architecture. Houzz found wood tones edged past white at 29% vs 28%, and wood finishes cost more at every tier than painted.

Replacement pulls other lines with it. New counters are nearly always required, and the countertop cost guide prices them. Flooring under the cabinets may need to be extended, the backsplash usually changes with the counter height, and receptacles may need moving. A replacement bid should state which of those it includes.

How do lead time and scheduling change the cabinet cost?

Lead time does not change the cabinet price, but it changes the project cost. Semi-custom lines commonly quote six to ten weeks and custom shops longer, all outside HomeAdvisor's 6 to 10 weeks construction window. Cabinets ordered after demolition leave the kitchen unusable for the whole lead time, which for a family is weeks of eating out. Cabinets ordered before demolition, with the start date set to their delivery, cost nothing extra.

Refacing has almost no lead time: doors are made to measure in two to four weeks and the job itself takes three to five days, with the kitchen usable most evenings. That difference is part of refacing's real cost advantage and rarely appears in a bid. Rush orders on new cabinets carry premiums; a change to the cabinet order after it is placed, because an appliance model changed, carries larger ones. Lock appliance models before the order.

What should be cut first, and what should never be cut?

Cut first: custom where semi-custom fits, exotic veneers, glass doors and their interior finishing, decorative end panels on sides that face a wall, crown molding stacks, and interior organisers that can be added later from a catalog. Open shelving is a legitimate substitute: among Houzz's 2026 butler-pantry renovators, 52% used open shelving against 59% with enclosed cabinetry. Cut second: the number of uppers, if open shelving or a window wall suits the room, since uppers are the cheaper run but still a run. Cut third: the tier of the island bases, which take less abuse than the sink run.

Never cut: plywood or at least sealed particleboard on the sink and dishwasher bases, full-extension soft-close slides, concealed adjustable hinges, and drawer bases instead of door bases where storage matters. NAHB's What Home Buyers Really Want 2024 found pull-out shelves essential or desirable for 74% of buyers, and Houzz's 2026 Kitchen Trends Study found pantry cabinets at 47% of renovators. Those are the features that make a kitchen work and that cost most to retrofit.

How do you read a cabinet bid, and what should three sample budgets look like?

A cabinet bid should list the line and tier, box construction by cabinet type, door material and finish, hinge and slide brand and type, each accessory as a line, fillers and panels, removal and disposal, delivery, and installation as its own line. It should say whether counters, backsplash and flooring changes are included. Then normalise: add the counter line to a replacement bid, add hardware upgrades to a refacing bid if they are not in, and compare.

A $6,500 refacing of a 25-foot kitchen: laminate shaker fronts at about $200 a foot, veneered box faces, new hinges and slides, two roll-outs, counters kept, close to Modernize's $6,750 average. A $16,000 semi-custom replacement of the same kitchen: plywood wet bases, painted MDF doors, drawer bases on the cook run, removal and disposal, before $6,000 of new quartz counters. A $28,000 custom replacement: white oak throughout, a pantry tower, a paneled refrigerator, before counters. Use the cost calculator to place these in a whole-kitchen budget and the estimate request to have both routes priced.