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CWS Kitchen Remodeling: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
A full CWS kitchen remodeling project in Fort Lauderdale typically runs between $14,000 and $45,000 installed, depending on cabinet configuration, countertop material, and whether we’re moving plumbing or electrical. Most owners reach out after living with a kitchen that’s partially failed: sagging cabinet shelves, delaminating cabinet boxes from humidity, or countertops pulling away from the wall. We stock CWS-compatible hardware, hinges, drawer slides, and matched replacement cabinetry components on our trucks, and we can usually diagnose and price the fix during the first visit.
What we see most often in Fort Lauderdale kitchens isn’t a single dramatic failure. It’s a slow cascade. The laminate edge on a lower cabinet near the dishwasher starts peeling from years of steam and moisture. A hinge hole strips out and the door drops by a quarter inch. The soft-close mechanism on a drawer gives up silently. None of these alone is an emergency, but together they make the kitchen feel like it’s coming apart, and most owners tell us they didn’t realize how bad it had gotten until they started planning a full replacement.
Key Takeaways
- CWS kitchen remodeling in Fort Lauderdale runs $14,000 to $45,000 for a full project
- Humidity and salt air accelerate cabinet wear, hinge corrosion, and laminate delamination
- We match CWS door styles, finishes, and hinge specs so repairs blend with existing cabinetry
- Written price before work starts, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise on every completed project
Which CWS Models This Applies To
CWS cabinetry runs in several configuration families, and the compatibility details matter more than most homeowners expect. The most common lines we work on in Fort Lauderdale are the standard overlay full-access cabinets, the inset-door cabinet series, and the frameless laminate lines that builders installed heavily in condos and townhomes from the early 2000s forward. The frameless units, in particular, use European-style cup hinges with a 35mm bore, and if someone installs an American-style face-frame hinge on one of those doors, the geometry never sits right. We’ve fixed that exact swap more times than we can count.
To identify what you have, open a cabinet door and look at the hinge cup stamped into the back of the door. CWS frameless cabinets typically use a press-in cup hinge with either a 107-degree or 110-degree opening angle. The older face-frame CWS lines use a surface-mount hinge with a 1/2-inch overlay. If you can’t see a stamp, the overlay measurement tells you most of what you need: measure how much the door overlaps the cabinet opening, and that usually narrows it to the right hinge family.
On the OEM-versus-aftermarket question: for hinges and drawer slides, we carry Blum and Grass hardware, which were the original suppliers on most CWS frameless lines. They’re spec-grade and they hold up to Florida humidity better than the generic import hinges you’ll find online. For doors and drawer fronts, once a cabinet line is discontinued, exact factory matches get hard to find, so we work with a local Fort Lauderdale door manufacturer who scans the profile and reproduces the door in matching wood species and finish. It’s a detail that keeps a partial repair from looking patchy.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CWS Kitchen Remodeling Is Failing
- Cabinet doors that won’t stay closed or hang crooked. This almost always traces back to stripped hinge screw holes or a wallowed-out cup bore. Humidity in Fort Lauderdale softens particleboard over time, and once the screw loses its bite, the door weight works the hole wider every time it swings open.
- Soft-close drawers that slam or stick. The damper inside a Blum-style soft-close slide wears out, or the nylon roller bearings grind to a halt after a decade of salt air and kitchen grease. The drawer usually still works, but the motion gets rough and loud long before it fails outright.
- Laminate peeling at the bottom edge of lower cabinets. Dishwasher steam, sink splashes, and Florida’s ambient moisture creep into the seam and separate the laminate from the particleboard core. By the time you see the bubble, the edge underneath has usually swollen.
- Countertop pulling away from the wall or cabinet top. This can mean the caulk and adhesive have broken down, or the cabinet boxes underneath have shifted from moisture expansion. In Fort Lauderdale homes built on concrete slabs, we also see this when the slab settles a fraction of an inch over time.
- Drawer fronts separating from drawer boxes. The factory staple joints on older CWS drawers let go after years of daily opening, especially in kitchens without air conditioning or with wide humidity swings between seasons.
See the difference
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After
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After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A full kitchen remodel in Fort Lauderdale runs $14,000 to $45,000, with the final number driven by cabinet quality, countertop square footage and material, and whether we’re relocating plumbing or electrical. A small kitchen remodel typically lands between $9,000 and $20,000. Cabinet installation alone runs $4,000 to $13,000, countertop installation $2,000 to $6,500, backsplash installation $800 to $2,500, and a kitchen island installation $3,000 to $10,000.
Every quote from us includes the parts, the labor to install them, disposal of the old material, and the trip to your home. We deliver a written price before any work begins, and that’s the price you pay. No verbal estimates that grow, no change orders unless you ask us to expand the scope. Every completed project is covered by a written guarantee with clearly stated terms, and if the work fails within 365 days of completion, we come back and make it right at no cost to you. We stock hinges, slides, and matching cabinet components, but quartz and granite slabs are custom-cut to your kitchen, which is part of what drives the range.
DIY or Call Us?
Replacing a single softened-close hinge or swapping out a worn drawer slide is within reach for a patient homeowner with a screwdriver and a tape measure, as long as you match the hinge overlay and cup bore exactly. Getting that match wrong wastes time and leaves you with a door that binds. Replacing a countertop, moving an electrical outlet, or pulling and reinstalling lower cabinets is a different story: that work involves plumbing disconnects, wall anchors, leveling, and sealing, and a mistake there gets expensive quickly.
We tell you what we found, what it takes to fix it, and what it will cost, before we touch a thing. Isaac Pruett has spent the better part of two decades doing remodeling across South Florida, and he’s seen every shortcut a previous owner or handyman has left behind in Fort Lauderdale kitchens. If you’re not certain what you’re looking at, call (754) 354-3720 and describe what’s happening. We’ll tell you whether it’s a ten-minute fix or a full kitchen project, and we’ll put the price in writing before any work starts.
FAQs
How long does a CWS kitchen remodel last in Fort Lauderdale?
A CWS kitchen remodel built correctly in Fort Lauderdale typically lasts 15 to 25 years before major components need replacement. The Florida-specific reality is that humidity and salt air shorten the life of unsealed particleboard cabinets and uncoated hinges, so the materials we choose and the way we seal edges during installation matters more than the brand name on the box. Call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll assess what you have before you commit to a full replacement.
Can a failing CWS kitchen be repaired instead of replaced?
It depends on the extent of the damage. Loose hinges, worn drawer slides, and single peeling door edges can usually be repaired for a fraction of the cost of a full remodel. Widespread cabinet box swelling, water damage behind the sink, or countertop delamination usually points to replacement. Call (754) 354-3720 and we’ll give you an honest read on which path makes sense, with the price in writing either way.
How long does the CWS kitchen remodel swap take?
A typical full kitchen remodel in Fort Lauderdale takes 3 to 6 weeks from tear-out to final walk-through, depending on cabinet lead time and countertop slab fabrication. If you’re repairing rather than replacing, the swap on hinges, slides, or a few drawer fronts usually takes a day or less. During your estimate, we’ll give you a schedule with start and finish dates, not a vague window.
Do you stock CWS parts or do I have to order them?
We stock hinges, drawer slides, and matching hardware on our trucks, and we work with a local Fort Lauderdale fabricator to reproduce discontinued CWS doors and drawer fronts in matching species and finish. We also work with KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone lines when your remodel needs new materials. For a full replacement, we’ll walk you through what’s in stock and what has a lead time before you sign anything.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale at Mason Remodeling Co Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
