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CertainTeed Kitchen Remodeling: The Los Angeles Owner’s Guide
If you’re searching for CertainTeed kitchen remodeling in Los Angeles, the short answer is this: we work with CertainTeed gypsum board, backer board, and finishing products on kitchen remodels across the city, and a full kitchen remodel here typically runs $16,520 – $53,100 depending on cabinet line, countertop material, and how much structural work the room needs. Most owners land on this page because a previous CertainTeed installation has failed in some specific way: cracked drywall at a seam, tile grout crumbling over a backer board that wasn’t set right, or water staining under a sink where the substrate gave out. We handle the correction and the remodel that follows, with a written price before anything gets pulled out.
Which CertainTeed Models This Applies To
CertainTeed makes the drywall, cement board, and finishing compounds that sit behind a Los Angeles kitchen’s visible surfaces, not the cabinets or counters themselves. The two products we deal with most on remodels are CertainTeed regular gypsum board and CertainTeed GlasRoc, which is the glass-mat backer board used behind tile and around sinks. If you’re trying to identify what’s in your kitchen, pull a switch plate or look inside a cabinet where the wall gap shows. GlasRoc has a textured, fiberglass-looking face that’s darker than the familiar paper covering on standard drywall. The compatibility gotcha most homeowners miss: standard drywall compound doesn’t bond the same way to glass-mat board. You want a setting-type compound rated for glass-mat surfaces, which is why some CertainTeed tile jobs in LA start showing hairline cracks at seams within a couple of years when the installer treated GlasRoc like regular drywall.
On OEM versus aftermarket: CertainTeed doesn’t sell “OEM parts” for kitchen remodeling the way an appliance brand does. What you’re choosing between is the right CertainTeed product for the right location. GlasRoc behind a backsplash is worth the extra cost per sheet. Regular gypsum on a dry wall away from water is fine and saves you money. Penhallow Remodeling is an independent contractor and not affiliated with CertainTeed, but we spec their boards because the product holds up in Southern California’s dry heat and the occasional humidity spike from coastal air. We also stock and install materials from KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone when the job calls for it.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CertainTeed Kitchen Remodeling Is Failing
- Hairline cracks running along tile grout lines. This usually means the backer board behind the tile was set with the wrong compound or the seams weren’t taped correctly. The board flexes just enough to transfer movement into the grout.
- Discoloration or soft drywall under the sink. Water intrusion has saturated the gypsum. CertainTeed regular board will swell and lose strength once wet, and the face paper becomes a mold host in Los Angeles’s warm air.
- Loose tiles that sound hollow when tapped. The bond between the thinset and the backer board has failed. On CertainTeed GlasRoc, this often traces back to contamination on the board face, dust, or using the wrong mortar.
- Visible screw pops or nail heads pushing through the wall surface. The framing behind the drywall has shifted, or the board wasn’t fastened tightly enough. Los Angeles sees enough minor seismic activity and temperature cycling to make this a recurring issue in kitchens that were drywalled quickly.
- Musty odor with no visible leak. Water has gotten behind the wall surface and is sitting against the backer board or studs. By the time you smell it, the affected CertainTeed board usually needs to come out rather than be spot-patched.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
Just replacing a failed section of CertainTeed drywall or backer board in a Los Angeles kitchen, without touching cabinets or counters, generally runs $1,000 – $3,500 depending on the square footage, whether tile has to come down and be reinstalled, and how much remediation the framing needs. A full kitchen remodel involving CertainTeed board replacement behind new tile, new cabinets, and new counters lands in the $16,520 – $53,100 range we reference above. What drives the number: cabinet line (KraftMaid versus Wellborn changes the total quickly), countertop material (Cambria or Silestone quartz costs more than basic laminate), and whether the failed board has water-damaged the studs behind it. That last item is the variable nobody plans for, and it’s exactly why we write a price before we open the wall. We rebuild the affected area to current code, and every repair carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing: if it fails inside a year, we come back and fix it at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
A homeowner can safely do the inspection work: pull a switch plate, look inside the sink base cabinet, tap the tile with a knuckle to find hollow spots. That tells you where the problem is. Replacing CertainTeed backer board behind tile is where DIY goes sideways, and we’ve been called to fix the results more times than I can count. Cutting out water-damaged gypsum releases dust and, often, mold spores you don’t want in your lungs without proper containment. Setting GlasRoc to produce a flat, stable tile plane requires knowing which fasteners to use (glass-mat board wants corrosion-resistant screws, not drywall nails), how to tape the seams, and how to waterproof the transitions at the countertop and around the sink. Trevor Nash studied construction technology at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and has been fixing Southern California kitchens for two decades; he’ll give you a number first, then pick up the tools. If you’ve got failing CertainTeed board in your kitchen, call (213) 277-6578 and we’ll come look at it.
FAQs
CertainTeed GlasRoc, installed correctly and kept dry, will outlast the tile on top of it: 30 to 50 years is a reasonable expectation in Los Angeles’s climate. The failure points are almost always installation errors or unaddressed water intrusion, not the board itself degrading. Call (213) 277-6578 if you’re seeing signs your existing board has failed, and we’ll tell you whether it needs to come out.
Small damaged areas of drywall, like a water spot the size of a dinner plate under a sink, can often be cut out and patched with new CertainTeed board. If the water has wicked up into the wall cavity or the tile bed over GlasRoc has started to fail, a patch becomes a temporary fix. We’ll tell you which situation you have before quoting the work.
Most isolated board replacement jobs in Los Angeles take one to two days, including drying time for compound and resetting tile if it was removed. A full kitchen remodel with board replacement, cabinets, and counters runs six to ten weeks depending on cabinet lead times and countertop fabrication.
We keep CertainTeed regular gypsum board, GlasRoc backer board, and setting-type compounds on the trucks and in local stock at our Los Angeles suppliers. Standard sizes are available same week. Non-standard thicknesses or specialty CertainTeed products get ordered per job, usually a two to five day lead time in the LA market.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Los Angeles, serving Los Angeles and nearby areas.
