Kitchen & Bath contractors in Massachusetts

Kitchen and bathroom remodels are where every Massachusetts trade rule shows up at once: a building permit in nearly every case, the state plumbing and electrical codes with their own inspectors, the Home Improvement Contractor law on the contract, lead-safe rules on pre-1978 homes and, in older housing, asbestos in floor tile and pipe wrap. Costs run well above national averages. A mid-range bathroom remodel is about $16,000 to $32,000, a primary bath $28,000 to $55,000; a mid-range kitchen $30,000 to $65,000, a high-end one $60,000 to $130,000, with period-matching restorations in Victorian and colonial-era houses reaching $150,000 and beyond. Adding a half bath runs $10,000 to $30,000 depending on how far the plumbing has to travel and whether the house is on septic, and cabinet refacing lands at a third to half of replacement.

The contract is where Massachusetts differs most. The Home Improvement Contractor law requires a written contract for any job over $1,000, caps the deposit at one third of the price, gives a three-day cancellation right, and requires the contractor, not the homeowner, to pull the permit; if the homeowner pulls it, the state Guaranty Fund no longer applies. That fund can pay up to $25,000 on an unpaid judgment against a registered contractor, and the state's arbitration program is the usual route to it.

Design-build firms have become common in the Boston suburbs because they carry the design, permitting and construction under one contract; general contractors working from an independent designer's plans remain the norm elsewhere. Either way, the schedule is set by the inspection sequence: rough plumbing, rough electrical and framing inspections before the walls close, then finals. A project without those inspections is a project without a permit.

Septic homes add a wrinkle. Under Title 5, adding a bathroom does not by itself increase a septic system's design flow, but a remodel that creates a room the board of health counts as a bedroom does, so plans in septic towns are worth a call to the board of health before the permit application.