Kitchen Cabinet Replacement in Toronto — For When the Boxes Are Finished
Replacing the cabinets is the step refacing and painting are designed to save you. It is the right call in fewer kitchens than most people assume — but when it is, it is the only one.
From $18,000
Cabinetry, assembled and installed
4–6 weeks
Contract signed to cabinets installed
5 years
Cabinetry cover. One year on installation
4.9
Rated on Google
The ranges
Four door styles, a hundred and twenty kitchens in the catalogue
Every range we install, grouped by the door, not the manufacturer. Pick the look first and the quote that follows is quicker and more exact.
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Shaker
The most requested door — white or grey, in MDF or solid wood.
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Slim & double shaker
A slimmer frame, or a double-shaker profile for more depth than a plain shaker gives.
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Flat slab
Frameless and flat, in matte or gloss. Matte shows fewer fingerprints; gloss makes a small kitchen feel bigger.
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Wood grain
Oak and walnut finishes for a kitchen that should read as wood, not paint.
What replacing your cabinets means
The cabinet boxes are taken out and new ones are installed. Nothing else we do goes that far. Painting changes the colour of your doors. Refacing fits new doors to the boxes you already have. Replacement swaps the boxes themselves, which is where the extra cost and the extra upheaval come from.
What it is not is a renovation. The layout stays as it is: no walls move, the sink and the window stay where they are. If the kitchen does not work the way you cook, new cabinets in the old positions will not change that — that is renovation work, led by a different trade.
So the honest description is a narrow one: new cabinetry, properly installed, in a kitchen whose layout already works.
When replacement is the right call
Three things justify replacing over refacing. Very little else does.
The boxes are damaged beyond repair. Bases swollen by a leak under the sink, shelves that have bowed, back panels gone soft, or a run that has pulled out of square. New doors on a damaged box just put good money on the wrong part.
The openings need to be different sizes. Refacing works to the openings you have. A wider space for a dishwasher, a tall cabinet for a built-in oven, or deep drawers in place of a shelved cupboard all mean new openings, and new openings mean new cabinets.
It is a frameless kitchen and matching doors do not exist. Some older frameless systems will not accept a made-to-measure door without looking wrong, and that is a compromise you would see every day.
If none of these applies, refacing will very likely do what you want, and we will tell you that before we price anything. It costs us the bigger contract and saves you the bigger bill.
Where the cabinetry is made
We do not manufacture cabinets, and a renovation company that says it does is usually describing somebody else's factory.
Most of the cabinetry we install comes from a manufacturer we buy from as a dealer. It is frameless, European-style and made from 18mm board, and it arrives flat with soft-close runners and six-way adjustable hinges already on it — hinges that would be an extra line on a refacing quote. We assemble every box ourselves before installing it.
You can choose before you ask for a price. The [kitchen cabinets catalogue](/northyork/kitchen-catalogue/) has a hundred and twenty finished kitchens in the ranges we install, arranged by door style: shaker, slim shaker, matte and gloss slab, and wood grain. Pick one and it goes on your written quote.
When the doors you want are not in any catalogue, we buy the boxes in and make the doors ourselves, spraying them in our booth in the same catalysed 2K polyurethane we use on refaced kitchens. That is the part of the trade we genuinely do in-house, and it is why none of this job has to be handed to another company.
We choose the route based on what your kitchen needs. It does not change your price or your cover, which is the only reason it is fair for the decision to be ours.
Who does what, in order
This is where most quotes go quiet, so here it is step by step.
- The old kitchen is taken out — by us, and priced as a line of its own.
- The new cabinetry is assembled and installed, levelled and scribed to walls that are rarely as straight as they look, with every door adjusted to sit true.
- The countertop is templated on the installed cabinets, never from a drawing, because a slab cut to plans seldom fits the room it is delivered to.
- Appliances, plumbing and electrical — your trades, after the stone.
Our work ends at step two. Four to six weeks means installed cabinetry, not a working kitchen, and the time in between belongs to trades we do not schedule. Better to say that in writing now than to sound optimistic on the phone and be wrong later.
If you have a general contractor, we work to their programme and they own the dates. If you do not, we will set out the sequence so you can book each trade in the right order.
Warranty on replacement cabinets
Five years on the cabinetry and the fronts. One year on the installation.
That is less than we give on refacing, for a straightforward reason. On a refaced kitchen we make the doors and apply the finish, so we know exactly how they will wear. Manufactured cabinetry carries its maker's cover, with ours on top for the installation.
The five years covers the cabinets and fronts against defects in materials and workmanship. The one year covers how they were installed — levelling, scribing, a door that drifts out of line. Neither covers normal wear, water damage or impact.
Whatever the problem, you call us. We do not pass you on to a manufacturer and leave it there.
Replacement is the biggest answer, and usually not the right one
Most Toronto kitchens we are asked to look at have cabinet boxes with years left in them — level, dry and solidly fixed. The real complaint is the door colour or a dated profile, and those are fixed for about a third of the price, without taking the room apart. Deciding whether the cabinets themselves are the problem is where every quote should start, and the page above this one compares refacing and replacement on cost, time and disruption.
What cabinet replacement costs in Toronto
From $18,000, with no ceiling.
That is the cabinetry assembled and installed, and it is the entry point rather than the average. Three things move it: the number of cabinets, the door style, and how much has to be made to measure rather than taken from standard sizes. A large kitchen in solid timber goes well past the starting figure, and we would rather say there is no ceiling than quote one we could not keep.
Taking out the old kitchen is priced on its own, as are hardware upgrades, millwork and any countertop we coordinate. Separate lines work for you: a cost you can see is a cost you can leave out, which one combined total never lets you do.
For comparison: refacing the kitchen you have costs $8,000 to $15,000, and a renovation that changes the layout costs $25,000 to $40,000 once trades, countertops and finishing are counted. Replacement falls between them — more work than new doors, far less than a renovation.
The quote you get is the price you pay. It comes back within 24 hours of your photographs and it does not change.
Questions
Common questions about replacing kitchen cabinets in Toronto
- What does the $18,000 cover?
- New cabinetry, assembled and installed — boxes, doors, drawers, hinges and runners, levelled and scribed to your walls. It does not cover the countertop, appliances, plumbing or electrical, and taking out the existing kitchen is quoted separately, so that cost is visible on its own line.
- Is there a maximum price?
- No. The number of cabinets, the door style and the amount of made-to-measure work all push the price up, and a large kitchen in solid timber can reach several times the starting figure. Painting and refacing are quoted within a range; replacement has no honest upper figure, so we do not give one.
- How long until the kitchen works again?
- Our part takes four to six weeks, from signed contract to installed cabinets. After that the countertop is templated on the new boxes, and appliances, plumbing and electrical follow the stone — work done by your own trades on their own timelines. We give you a firm date for our part and tell you what comes next.
- Who manufactures the cabinets?
- Not us. Most kitchens use cabinetry from a manufacturer we buy from as a dealer; it arrives flat and we assemble and install every box. When the doors you want are not in the catalogue, we buy the boxes in and make the doors ourselves, sprayed in 2K polyurethane — the finish used on our refacing. The route is our decision and it changes neither your price nor your warranty.
- What warranty comes with it?
- Five years on the cabinetry and fronts, one year on the installation. Any problem comes back to us rather than to a manufacturer — one contract and one number for the whole job.
- Is replacement cheaper than a renovation?
- It is a different, smaller job. A renovation rearranges the kitchen and brings in walls, plumbing and electrical, and runs $25,000 to $40,000 once trades, countertops and finishing are counted. We change the cabinets and nothing else, which is why the starting figure is lower.
- Will you take on a full renovation?
- No. We supply and install cabinetry, and staying in that lane is how we keep it good value. If walls, plumbing or floors are changing, a general contractor should hold that contract and we will fit into their programme.
Not certain your cabinets need replacing?
Send wide photographs of every cabinet run and tell us what you would change about the kitchen. You will have a written price within 24 hours — and if refacing what you have would get you there for a third of the cost, the quote will say so.
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