Hiring a kitchen remodeler in Tampa Bay runs $15,000 to $25,000 for a small or basic kitchen, $25,000 to $40,000 for a mid-range remodel, and $40,000 to $60,000 or more for a high-end kitchen, with most jobs on site 4 to 8 weeks. CraftLine Remodeling is a licensed design-build general contractor, Florida licence CBC1269114, working across Hillsborough and Pinellas. This page answers the part the search results skip: how to tell which of those companies is qualified, and how to check it yourself.
What a Tampa Bay Kitchen Costs Before You Call Anyone
Search “kitchen remodelers near me” and the first page is directories showing a national average and a lead form. Here are our own Tampa Bay numbers. To put a figure on your own kitchen before you read further, run the kitchen remodel cost estimator. And if you are trying to work out where the budget actually concentrates, the most expensive part of a kitchen remodel is rarely the line homeowners expect.
| Kitchen scope | Tampa Bay cost | Time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Small or basic (paint, hardware, counters) | $15,000 to $25,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Mid-range (new cabinets, counters, backsplash, appliances) | $25,000 to $40,000 | 4 to 6 weeks |
| High-end (full gut, layout change) | $40,000 to $60,000+ | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Luxury custom (custom cabinetry, structural work) | $95,000 to $175,000+ | 3 to 5 months |
One completed job for scale: a 10 by 12 South Tampa kitchen came in at $27,900 including quartz countertops, soft-close custom cabinets, and a tile backsplash. Price your own scope with our free Tampa Bay remodeling cost calculator, then read the Tampa Bay kitchen cost guide or the realistic 2026 kitchen budget if you are pricing custom work.
Look Up the Licence Before You Look at the Reviews
Reviews are easy to buy. A licence is not. Florida runs a free public licence search at myfloridalicense.com, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation portal, searchable by licence number, name, or city. Put in the company name from your proposal and read three things.
- Status. You want Active. Null, delinquent, expired, or inactive means they cannot pull your permit.
- The entity on the licence. A licence is held by a qualifying agent for a specific business. If your proposal says one company and the record says another, ask why.
- The category and prefix. The part almost nobody reads, covered next.
A second check costs nothing. Florida Statute 489.119 requires the licence number to appear in every offer of services, proposal, bid, contract, and advertisement, in any medium. A company whose website, truck, or estimate carries no number is in violation, and the board issues a notice of noncompliance. Ours is CBC1269114, which is why it is on this page.
What CGC, CBC, and CRC Actually Mean
Those letters are not marketing. Florida Statute 489.105 defines them, and they tell you what the holder may build.
- CGC, certified general contractor. Services unlimited as to the type of work.
- CBC, certified building contractor. Buildings up to three stories, plus remodeling, repair, or improvement of any size building where the work does not affect structural members. This is the licence a kitchen sits under, and the one CraftLine holds.
- CRC, certified residential contractor. One, two, and three family residences up to two habitable stories.
The first letter matters most. A licence beginning with C is state certified and valid across Florida. A licence beginning with R is registered, and Florida Statute 489.117 limits a registrant to contracting only where they have met that jurisdiction’s licensing requirements. Any of the three can do a kitchen. You are checking that the number is certified, active, and held by the company writing your contract.
A General Contractor, a Cabinet Shop, and a Handyman Are Three Different Things
All three appear in the same “near me” results and they are not interchangeable. A cabinet-only company sells and installs boxes, often very well, but is not licensed to move a wall, relocate a sink drain, or add circuits, so it brings in trades you never meet or hands that list back to you. A handyman is not a licensed contractor, and 489.119 lets a local government fine anyone who claims to be licensed or insured in a bid when they are not.
One question sorts them: who pulls the permit, and under whose licence number? A design-build general contractor answers with a name, a number, and an office. If the answer is that you pull it as the owner, you have found a company that cannot, and you have taken on responsibility for code compliance on work you did not perform.
What Florida Statute 489.126 Says About Your Deposit
This is the most useful law to know before writing a deposit cheque, and no directory mentions it. Under Florida Statute 489.126, a contractor who takes an initial payment of more than 10 percent of the contract price on residential work must apply for permits within 30 days and start work within 90 days after they are issued, unless there is just cause or you agreed in writing to longer. It applies to anyone promising that work, licensed or not.
If nothing happens, the statute gives you the next move: written demand to apply for the permits, start the work, or refund the payment, sent certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address in the contract. If the contractor does not act within 30 days of that demand, it may be inferred there was no just cause. The section also bars a contractor holding money in excess of the value of work performed from stopping work for 90 days, or any shorter period written into your contract.
Penalties scale with the money: a misdemeanour under $1,000, a third degree felony from $1,000 to under $20,000, a second degree felony from $20,000 to under $200,000. A Tampa Bay kitchen deposit sits in the felony bands. Keep the first payment modest, and write a stop-work window shorter than 90 days into the contract, because the statute honours the period you agreed on.
Notices to Owner and Lien Releases, in Plain English
A few weeks in, certified mail arrives from a cabinet supplier you have never heard of. That is a Notice to Owner and it is normal. Chapter 713 requires a subcontractor or supplier with no direct contract with you to serve it before starting, or no later than 45 days after starting to furnish labour, services, or materials, and in any event before final payment. It is a prerequisite to perfecting a lien, not an accusation.
What protects you is what you collect. With each progress payment, take a signed release of lien from every party who sent a notice, for the amount just paid. At the end, Section 713.06 requires the contractor to give you a final payment affidavit stating that all lienors who served a notice have been paid in full, or naming those who have not. Do not release final payment without that affidavit and the matching releases. Ask any remodeler how they handle this. A real general contractor answers in one sentence.
A Line-Item Proposal Versus a One-Page Allowance Sheet
Most homeowners collect three quotes and cannot compare them, because two are allowance sheets. An allowance sheet is one page: cabinets $14,000, counters $4,500, labour $9,000. Nothing on it is a commitment, because nothing on it is a specification. A real proposal is longer, duller, and contains this.
- Cabinets by line, door style, box construction, glide and hinge type, and finish, not a dollar figure
- Countertop material, thickness, edge profile, square footage, and fabricator
- Plumbing and electrical written out: fixture count, new circuits, panel work, whether the drain moves
- Every allowance labelled as one, with a number and a rule if you run over
- Permit fees, which office it goes to, and whose licence pulls it
- A payment schedule tied to visible milestones, and a written change order process
- A start date, a completion date, the licence number, and insurance certificates
Detail matters most where the kitchen carries services. If your plan includes an island, the proposal should say what that island is for, because seating, prep, cooking, and storage islands are four different prices once you count a plumbing or gas run through a slab and the circuits an appliance island needs, which our guide to kitchen island functionality walks through. A quote that says “island” and a number has not been thought through.
Questions That Separate a Design Build Contractor From a Lead Reseller
If you filled in a directory form and your phone rang four times in ten minutes, your number was sold. Ask whoever calls:
- Who is your qualifying agent, and what is the licence number? A real contractor recites it without looking.
- Is the person quoting my kitchen the person who runs the build?
- Do you pull the permit under your own licence, and which office handles my address?
- Are the crews your employees or subs you have worked with before?
- What happens if I get a Notice to Owner, and what does a change order cost me in time?
Our Tampa kitchen design page covers design fees, cabinet lead times, and block-house layout limits.
Where Your Address Is Matters as Much as Where the Contractor Is
Tampa Bay is not one permitting jurisdiction. Addresses inside city limits go to the City of Tampa. Unincorporated Hillsborough, including plenty of homes with a Tampa mailing address, goes to Hillsborough County. St. Petersburg, Gulfport, Largo, and Clearwater each run their own departments, while unincorporated areas go to Pinellas County. Our kitchen remodel near me Tampa page breaks that down office by office, so we will not repeat it here.
The hiring consequence belongs here. A state certified contractor can permit at any of those offices. A registered contractor is limited to the jurisdictions where they hold local competency, so “we work all over Tampa Bay” from an R-prefix licence deserves a follow-up question. The house matters too. A 1925 Seminole Heights bungalow, a 1960s block ranch in Town ‘n’ Country, and a 2005 Wesley Chapel build hide different problems behind the cabinets. Ask what a remodeler expects to find behind yours.
A Realistic Schedule From Signature to Final Inspection
The 4 to 8 weeks people quote is on-site time, only part of the calendar. The honest sequence:
- Design and selections, finished before anything is ordered.
- Contract and permit application, on a 30 day statutory clock once your initial payment passes 10 percent. Review times vary by office, so ask for the current turnaround, not a promise.
- Cabinet order, the long pole, placed as early as the design allows.
- Demolition, two to three days, and where surprises surface.
- Rough-in and inspection, which must pass before anything closes up.
- Drywall, paint, flooring, roughly a week.
- Cabinet installation, then the countertop template. Stone is not measured off a drawing.
- Counters, backsplash, trim-out, appliances.
- Final inspection and punch list.
A finished kitchen in ten days is refacing, not a remodel. See the most expensive part of a kitchen remodel and kitchen remodel financing.
What Is Included When You Hire CraftLine
- In-home consultation, full measurements, and a fixed written scope and price
- A 3D design and an itemised proposal, so the budget is set before demolition
- Permits pulled under licence CBC1269114 at the right office, inspections managed
- Cabinets, countertops, backsplash, flooring, lighting, and appliances installed by our crew
- One project manager from design through the punch list
- A written change order process and a workmanship warranty
Kitchens We Have Built Around Tampa Bay
See the modern kitchen remodel in Tampa, the contemporary kitchen renovation in Wesley Chapel, the traditional kitchen refresh in Brandon, and the custom kitchen renovation in Clearwater. The South Tampa kitchen remodel cost page goes deeper, and quartz countertops in Tampa covers the default local surface.
What Homeowners Say
CraftLine Remodeling is a licensed, insured design build contractor (Florida licence CBC1269114) and a NARI Tampa Bay member, with a 5.0 rating across 93 Google reviews. One in-house crew handles design, permits, and the build.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do kitchen remodelers near me charge in Tampa Bay?
A small or basic kitchen runs $15,000 to $25,000, a mid-range remodel $25,000 to $40,000, and a high-end kitchen $40,000 to $60,000 or more. Custom cabinetry and a high-end appliance package push a luxury kitchen to $95,000 to $175,000 and up. A recent 10 by 12 South Tampa kitchen was $27,900.
How do I check that a Tampa kitchen remodeler is actually licensed?
Search the licensee at myfloridalicense.com, the Florida DBPR portal, by name, number, or city. Confirm the status is Active, the licence is held for the business on your proposal, and the prefix is certified, such as CGC, CBC, or CRC. Florida Statute 489.119 also requires that number on every proposal and advertisement, so a missing one is a violation.
Is a large deposit normal for a kitchen remodel in Florida?
Once an initial payment exceeds 10 percent of the contract price on residential work, Florida Statute 489.126 requires the contractor to apply for permits within 30 days and to start work within 90 days after they issue, absent just cause or your written agreement to longer. Keep the first payment modest and tie the rest to visible milestones.
The contractor I called has a licence starting with R and my house is in unincorporated Hillsborough. Is that a problem?
It might be. An R prefix means a registered licence, and Florida Statute 489.117 allows a registrant to contract only in the counties, municipalities, or districts where they have met local licensing requirements. A C prefix is state certified and valid anywhere in Florida. Ask which jurisdictions their registration covers, and confirm unincorporated Hillsborough, which permits through the county rather than the City of Tampa, is one.
How long does a kitchen remodel take, and do you pull the permits?
Most Tampa Bay kitchens are on site 4 to 8 weeks, a small refresh closer to 2 to 4, a full gut 6 to 10. Design, permit review, and cabinet lead time sit ahead of that. We pull every permit under licence CBC1269114 at the right office and manage inspections through final.
Get a Real Number for Your Kitchen
Tell us what you want to change and what you want to spend, and you will get a line-item scope and a fixed price with the licence number on it. Book a free in-home consultation on our free quote page or call (813) 522-4359. Bring the other quotes and we will show you what is missing.