Kitchen Renovations in Lacombe: Two Kinds of House
Lacombe has two kinds of house and they need different kitchen renovations. What we look at in each before pricing anything.
By David Hutten, Owner, Green Ladder Contractors
Lacombe has two housing stories running side by side. There are the older character homes on the streets around the historic downtown, solid places built to last with small closed kitchens. And there are the newer builds out on the acreages north and west, with big open plans and a builder grade kitchen nobody has touched since possession.
We are Green Ladder, a builder out of Red Deer, and we renovate kitchens across Lacombe through the winter. The two kinds of house need very different conversations.
The older homes: what is behind the plaster
A character home is a pleasure to work on and it holds surprises, so we would sooner find them on day one than at rough-in.
Plaster and lath instead of drywall changes demolition and it changes patching. Original framing is often true dimensional lumber, which is stronger than modern equivalents and does not always sit at the spacing you would expect. Floors have usually settled, so a cabinet run has to be shimmed and levelled to a floor that is not level (which is normal, and is why templating counters off installed cabinets matters even more here).
The services are the bigger item. Older Lacombe kitchens often carry galvanized supply lines that have narrowed inside over decades, cast iron drains, and an electrical panel that was never asked to run a kitchen full of modern appliances. None of that is a reason not to renovate. It is a reason to have a licensed electrician and plumber look at it before a scope is written, because finding it after the cabinets are ordered is what turns a budget upside down.
The older homes: the layout you actually have
Kitchens in these houses were built as a working room, often with a separate dining room, sometimes with a back porch or pantry attached. Opening that up is usually the goal and it is usually possible.
The question is the same one it always is: does that wall carry load. In a house of this age we want to see how the loads run from the roof down, because the answer is not always where you would guess it. Where a beam is needed we build it properly, and where the city wants engineered drawings for it we work alongside the engineer.
The acreage builds: good bones, dated finishes
A newer acreage kitchen is a different job entirely. The framing is straight, the electrical is modern, the plumbing is in the right places. What people want changed is the finish level: builder grade cabinets, a laminate counter, a layout that works but was never designed for how the family actually cooks.
That is the best kind of kitchen renovation to price, because so little of it is unknown. If the plumbing and the appliances stay roughly where they are, the work is cabinets, counters, tile, flooring, lighting and paint, and the schedule is predictable.
Where it gets more involved is an island with a sink or a range in it, because that means running supply, drain and power out under the floor to the middle of the room.
Water on an acreage
If you are on a well, water hardness is worth thinking about while the kitchen is open. Hard water is hard on fixtures and it shows on everything it touches, and the moment to add or upgrade treatment is while the plumbing is already accessible rather than a year later.
It is a small thing that gets skipped and then gets expensive.
Permits
Structural work and new plumbing or electrical need a permit. In Alberta the homeowner is the permit applicant, so it goes in under your name and we support you through all of it: which permits apply, what goes with the application, and the work ready at each inspection.
On an older home the inspection step is worth building into the schedule properly rather than treating it as a delay, because the rough-in has to pass before anything closes up.
How we quote it
We walk the kitchen first. On an older Lacombe home we are looking hard at the services and the floor. On an acreage build we are mostly confirming that what looks straightforward actually is.
Then the price comes firm in writing. We do not publish kitchen ranges, because the same square footage in these two kinds of Lacombe house is not the same job.
Kitchen Renovations
Full kitchen renovations in Red Deer and Central Alberta, managed from demolition to the final fixture.
See Our Kitchen Renovations Work →One we built
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David Hutten
Owner, Green Ladder Contractors
David Hutten started building at age 10 and has 25 years of hands-on construction experience. Green Ladder Contractors builds custom outdoor living spaces, decks, fences, pergolas, and landscaping, across Red Deer and Central Alberta.
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