Custom cabinets in Columbia City, Indiana

For most Columbia City kitchens the real choice is between three prices. National cost guides put a full custom cabinet project at about $2,800 to $13,000, refacing at about $4,200 to $10,200, and having a kitchen's cabinets painted at $2,500 to $6,500. The boxes decide it. Solid boxes in a layout you like can be painted or refaced. Swollen, sagging or badly placed ones are a rebuild.

Houses near the courthouse

The Columbia City Historic District, on the National Register since 1987, takes in about 98 acres around the Whitley County Courthouse, with buildings dating from 1840 to 1937. A kitchen in a house that old has likely been redone at least once, so the cabinets can be decades younger than the walls around them, and sometimes painted over more than once.

That paint is the first thing to sort out. In a home built before 1978, the EPA's renovation rule calls for a Lead-Safe Certified firm when indoor work disturbs more than 6 square feet of painted surface in one room. Sanding a set of doors for cabinet painting crosses that line fast, and so does prying out old painted boxes. A lead test before the quote tells you whether the job needs the extra containment and cleanup, which adds to the price.

If the test is clean and the boxes are sound, painting has the lowest price range of the three. If you want different doors, refacing replaces them and covers the frames with new veneer.

Newer houses outside the center

In a newer Columbia City house the question is usually upgrades: custom kitchen cabinets to replace the builder's set, an island added later, or built-ins for a mudroom or office. Those houses tend to need less leveling, so installation often lands on the shorter end of the two to five days a kitchen takes.

Permits in Whitley County

Columbia City is outside Allen County. If the sink moves or new circuits go in for lights or outlets, call the city or Whitley County to find out which office covers your street.

Columbia City cabinet questions