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KraftMaid Home Additions & ADU: The Los Angeles Owner’s Guide
KraftMaid cabinetry in a home addition or ADU in Los Angeles typically runs $53,100 to $153,400 installed, depending on the size of the addition, the cabinet line you choose, and how much structural work the project requires. We stock and install KraftMaid and KraftMaid-compatible components for additions, garage conversions, and ADU builds throughout Los Angeles. Most owners call us after discovering their existing KraftMaid cabinets were installed incorrectly during the original build, or after a water event compromised the boxes and face frames.
Here’s the reality we see across Los Angeles: KraftMaid makes a solid cabinet. The failure point in additions and ADUs is rarely the cabinet itself. It’s the installation environment. A converted garage in the San Fernando Valley with no vapor barrier, or an unpermitted ADU in South LA where the cabinets were hung on drywall without hitting studs. Those are the jobs where KraftMaid parts start failing inside two years.
At Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles, we handle the full scope of a KraftMaid addition or ADU project: matching existing cabinet lines, reordering doors and drawer fronts, reinforcing box structures, and doing the rough carpentry and finish work that surrounds the cabinetry. We’re an independent remodeling contractor, not affiliated with KraftMaid, which means we can tell you plainly when a part is worth replacing versus when the whole run of cabinets needs to come out and be reset.
Which KraftMaid Models This Applies To
KraftMaid builds across three primary lines: Vantage (entry level, good bones, fewer finish options), Venicia (frameless, European-style, heavier boxes), and KraftMaid Momentum (mid-line framed construction, the most common line we run into in Los Angeles additions and ADUs). The parts we deal with most are doors, drawer fronts, drawer boxes, hinges, glides, and the occasional face frame section.
Here’s a compatibility gotcha most owners don’t know: KraftMaid has changed its hinge boring pattern at least twice in the last fifteen years. A door from a 2008 Vantage run will not take the same hinge as a 2019 Momentum door, even when the overlay looks identical. If you’re trying to match a single door on an addition built ten years ago, you need the manufacturing date from the label inside the drawer box or on the back of the door, not just the style name.
Our guidance for KraftMaid specifically: if the cabinet boxes are structurally sound, order exact OEM replacements for doors and drawer fronts through KraftMaid’s current stock program or a licensed dealer. If the boxes themselves are compromised, that’s the point where we recommend full replacement of the run. Aftermarket doors from a local cabinet shop can match a KraftMaid door style at 60 to 75 percent of OEM cost, but the finish match on KraftMaid’s maple and oak stains is close, not exact. For an ADU where the cabinets all face each other across a narrow kitchen, even a slight color shift is visible on a sunny Los Angeles afternoon.
We also work with Cambria, Silestone, and Kohler for countertops and fixtures on these same projects, so an addition or ADU can be carried through from cabinets to counters to sinks under one written guarantee.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your KraftMaid Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- Sagging or binding drawer boxes. KraftMaid drawer boxes installed in unconditioned ADU spaces in Los Angeles pick up moisture during the marine layer season and dry out during Santa Ana stretches. The result is a drawer that fights you on the glides or a box joint that starts separating at the corner. Underlying cause: the drawer box has absorbed enough humidity over enough seasons to change its dimensions.
- Doors that will not stay aligned. A KraftMaid door that needs hinge adjustment twice a year is telling you something. Usually the box has shifted because it was hung on drywall anchors instead of studs, or because the addition slab has settled. Los Angeles has enough expansive soil pockets, especially north of the 101 near the foothills, that slab micro-movement is a real factor in cabinet alignment.
- Water staining or swelling at the bottom run. We see this constantly in garage conversions around Los Angeles where the original concrete floor was not properly sealed before base cabinets were set. The bottom kick plate wicks moisture and the particle board core of the lower boxes swells. This is not a KraftMaid defect. This is a water-source problem that will re-fail until the moisture path is addressed.
- Hinges pulling loose from the door or the face frame. KraftMaid uses a press-in hinge system on most lines. Once the pressed-in cup has stripped out of the particleboard door core, the repair is a larger cup hinge or a new door. But the failure usually starts because the door was repeatedly over-opened past its stop, often in a tight ADU galley layout where the adjacent wall or appliance catches it.
- Face frames separating at the stile joints. This happens on older KraftMaid installations in Los Angeles additions that were not climate-controlled during construction. The face frame stile pulls away at the joint, and suddenly the door reveal changes. Structural issue, not cosmetic.
Replacement Cost & What’s Included
A full KraftMaid home addition or ADU project in Los Angeles runs $53,100 to $153,400. The range is driven by site conditions more than anything else: whether the addition sits on a raised foundation or slab, whether your existing electrical panel has capacity, whether the ADU requires new sewer laterals, and which KraftMaid line and finish you select. A 400-square-foot bedroom addition with a simple utility wall of KraftMaid Vantage cabinets lands at the lower end. A 750-square-foot ADU with a full kitchen of Momentum or Venicia cabinetry, Cambria counters, and the plumbing and electrical rough-in to support it lands at the higher end.
Here’s what the Penhallow number includes, in writing, before work starts: all demolition and hauling, rough framing to Los Angeles code, cabinet installation by our own crew, countertop fabrication and install, paint-grade finish work, and a written line-item price that does not change at the door. What it does not include are change orders you do not approve in advance. Give you a number first, then pick up the tools. That’s how we work.
Every project carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if anything we installed fails inside a year due to our workmanship, we come back and fix it at no charge. In writing, on every job.
See the difference
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AfterDIY or Call Us?
What you can do safely: check the manufacturing label inside a drawer box or on the back of a door. That label tells you the line, the finish code, and the production date. Take photos of the full cabinet run and the specific failing parts. That is genuinely useful information for us.
What you should not do: attempt to re-hang a full upper cabinet run, repair face frame separation with construction adhesive and clamps, or try to route a larger hinge cup into a door with a hand router. We see owner repairs on KraftMaid cabinets where the hinge was epoxied back into the stripped hole, and the door dropped three months later, cracked the countertop edge, and turned an $80 hinge issue into a $2,300 countertop replacement.
If the problem is a single hinge, a loose drawer glide, or a door that needs a proper adjustment, that’s a small repair. If the boxes are swelling, pulling apart, or hanging off the wall, that’s exactly the job you want us to see before you spend money guessing. Call (213) 277-6578 and we’ll take a look.
FAQs
KraftMaid cabinets installed correctly in a conditioned Los Angeles space typically last 20 to 30 years. The boxes are built to last. The doors and drawer fronts show wear first, and in unpermitted or poorly conditioned ADU spaces, that number drops significantly because of moisture cycling.
If your cabinets are failing at year three, something about the installation or the site is the problem, not the cabinet. Call (213) 277-6578 for an honest assessment, free.
Yes, in most cases. Individual doors, drawer fronts, drawer boxes, hinges, and glides are all replaceable parts. The only time we recommend full replacement is when the cabinet box itself is water-swollen, structurally separated, or the loss of one door leaves the rest of the run visually mismatched beyond an acceptable level.
A hinge, glide, or single door replacement is a same-day job when the part is in hand. A partial run replacement with OEM KraftMaid doors typically takes two to three weeks from order to install, and a full addition or ADU scope runs anywhere from six to fourteen weeks depending on the site and permitting backlog in Los Angeles.
We’ll give you a written timeline before work starts. Call (213) 277-6578 to schedule a walkthrough.
We carry common KraftMaid hinge types, glide replacements, drawer hardware, and adjustment tools on every truck. OEM doors and drawer fronts are ordered to match your label and finish code. We are not a KraftMaid parts counter; we are a remodeling contractor that installs and services KraftMaid cabinetry as part of larger addition and ADU projects in Los Angeles.
Get a Written Number Before Any Work Starts
If your KraftMaid cabinets in a Los Angeles addition or ADU are failing, don’t guess and don’t keep living with the thing that annoys you every morning. Call (213) 277-6578. Trevor Nash and our crew will come out, look at what you have, and hand you a written price with a written guarantee before we touch a single cabinet. A real person answers the phone, day or night.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles at Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles and nearby areas.
