Expert Kitchen & Bathroom Remodeling in Albany & the East Bay

Kitchen remodel cost in Albany and the East Bay depends on size, finish level, and how much plumbing, electrical, and structural work is involved. Cosmetic refreshes — new counters, hardware, paint, and lighting — sit at the lower end. Full gut renovations with relocated plumbing, removed walls, and custom cabinetry sit at the higher end.

We provide fixed-price contracts after the design phase, so you'll know your exact cost before demo starts. The biggest cost drivers are cabinetry, counters, tile, fixtures, and any wall removal or load-bearing structural work. Book a free consultation and we'll walk through every line item in person.

Bathroom remodel cost depends heavily on whether the layout is staying the same or you're relocating fixtures. Keeping the toilet, shower, and vanity in place keeps cost down. Moving plumbing, expanding the footprint, or adding a curbless walk-in shower with custom tile pushes cost up.

In older Albany, Berkeley, and Kensington homes we plan for surprises behind the walls — old galvanized supply lines, undersized vents, or out-of-level subfloors — and price for them up front so there are no mid-project shocks.

From signed contract to final walkthrough, most kitchens in our portfolio take 4–6 months total: 4–6 weeks for design and selections, 4–6 weeks for permits and ordering, and 8–12 weeks of on-site construction. Bathrooms typically run 2–4 months total.

Gut renovations with moved walls or relocated plumbing run longer; cosmetic refreshes are faster. We give you a clear schedule before construction starts and update it weekly during the project.

Yes. Any time you move plumbing, change electrical, remove a wall, or add ventilation, the city requires permits and inspections. Cosmetic-only work — paint, hardware, drop-in counters with no plumbing change — sometimes does not, but anything structural or mechanical does.

We handle the entire permitting process for you — submitting plans, scheduling plumbing, electrical, and final inspections, and pulling sign-offs from Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, and surrounding cities.

Almost always — but it depends on whether the wall is load-bearing. In Albany and Berkeley bungalows, the wall between the kitchen and dining or living room is often a partition wall that comes out easily. Sometimes it's load-bearing and we add a flush beam or LVL header sized by a structural engineer.

We'll evaluate the wall during the consultation, get an engineer involved if needed, and price the structural work into the fixed-price contract. Open-concept conversions are one of the most popular things we do.

We are a design-build firm, which means our in-house design team creates layouts, 3D renders, cabinet plans, and a full material list as part of the contract. For most kitchens and bathrooms, this is faster and more cost-effective than hiring a separate designer or architect.

If you already have a kitchen or bath designer you love, we work with them seamlessly. Either way, you get one accountable team from concept through final walkthrough.

Most of our clients stay in the home during a kitchen or bathroom remodel, especially if it's the only kitchen or only full bath. We set up a temporary kitchenette in another room, dust-protect the rest of the house with zip walls, and clean the work area at the end of every day.

For full gut renovations of the only kitchen, some families choose to stay with relatives for the worst 2–3 weeks. We'll talk through the realistic plan during the consultation.

Yes — and we're especially good at making them not look institutional. Curbless walk-in showers, grab bars that look like designer fixtures, lever handles, wider doorways, comfort-height toilets, and barrier-free thresholds.

We've done aging-in-place modifications for Albany and Berkeley clients who want to stay in the home they love for another twenty years. Done right, the bathroom feels like a high-end spa, not a hospital room.

Homes built before 1978 in the East Bay frequently have lead paint, and homes built before 1980 may have asbestos in flooring mastic, popcorn ceilings, or pipe insulation. We are EPA RRP-certified for lead-safe work practices and partner with licensed asbestos abatement firms when testing comes back positive.

If your home is old enough that lead or asbestos is a possibility, we'll talk through testing and abatement during the consultation and price it into the project up front.

Absolutely. East Bay bungalows, Craftsman homes, and Mid-Century moderns each have their own design language, and a remodeled kitchen or bath should feel like it belongs to the rest of the house — not like it was dropped in from a different building.

We work with cabinet makers and tile suppliers who carry period-appropriate options, and our design team is good at blending modern function (open layouts, dishwashers, large islands) with the original character of the home.

Yes. Every Hometelligent kitchen and bathroom is covered by a 10-year structural workmanship warranty and a 1-year fit-and-finish warranty. Cabinet, appliance, and fixture manufacturer warranties pass through to you on top of that.

If anything fails during the warranty period due to our work, we come back and fix it. We are local, licensed (#935175), insured, and we plan to be here in another 33 years.

We remodel kitchens and bathrooms throughout the East Bay, including Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Livermore, Dublin, Napa, Alamo, Moraga, Pleasanton, Orinda, Martinez, and Concord.

Each jurisdiction has slightly different inspection procedures, but we know each planning and building department by name and have built strong relationships over three decades.