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CWS Kitchen Remodeling: The West Palm Beach Owner’s Guide
We install and replace CWS kitchen remodeling components throughout West Palm Beach, with full kitchen remodels typically running $14,000 to $45,000 depending on cabinet layout, countertop material, and whether we’re moving plumbing or electrical. Most CWS owners call us about a failed hinge, a warped drawer box, a delaminating cabinet door, or a countertop seam that’s opened up in Florida humidity. The faster catch is usually a soft-close mechanism that’s stopped catching, or a drawer slide that grinds no matter how many times you adjust it.
For clarity: Bradford Remodeling Co West Palm Beach is an independent remodeling contractor. We’re not affiliated with CWS, but we work on CWS cabinetry and kitchen systems every month because they’re common in homes along the Northwood Village corridor and throughout older West Palm Beach neighborhoods. We know the hardware, the box construction, and the failure points.
Which CWS Models This Applies To
CWS kitchen cabinetry shows up in West Palm Beach under several configurations: framed and frameless boxes, stock and semi-custom lines, and a range of door profiles from flat slab to raised panel. Here’s the compatibility gotcha that trips up most homeowners: CWS has used at least two different hinge bore patterns over the years. Older CWS cabinets from the late 1990s and early 2000s commonly use a 35mm cup hinge with a 9.5mm overlay, while later runs moved to a 35mm cup with a 13mm overlay. If you order the wrong overlay hinge, the door sits proud of the frame by a few millimeters and never closes flush. Measure the overlay before you buy anything.
The other variable is drawer slide length. CWS drawer boxes have shipped in 18-, 21-, and 24-inch depths depending on the line. Pull a drawer out, measure the box side from front to back, and match it. A 21-inch slide in an 18-inch cavity binds; an 18-inch slide in a 24-inch cabinet leaves the drawer sagging. We stock common CWS-compatible hinges, slides, and lift mechanisms on the truck, and we can order OEM CWS parts or quality aftermarket equivalents like Blum or Salice hardware, which often outperform the original at a lower price. Kurt Laine, our lead carpenter, prefers Blum soft-close slides on CWS retrofit work because the mounting holes line up on most post-2005 boxes without redrilling. For older boxes, we redrill and fill the old holes so the new hardware sits square.
One more West Palm Beach-specific note: CWS cabinet boxes in coastal condos and homes near the Intracoastal take a beating from salt air and humidity. We routinely see particleboard drawer boxes swelling along the bottom edge where the clearcoat failed. That’s not a hinge problem; it’s a box replacement. We can rebuild drawer boxes rather than swap the whole cabinet, which saves hundreds per drawer.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CWS Kitchen Remodeling Is Failing
- Soft-close doors that slam or don’t latch. The damper inside the hinge has worn out or the spring tab snapped. On CWS cabinets, this usually starts on the doors that get the most use: the sink base and the trash pull-out. The fix is a hinge swap, not a cabinet replacement.
- Drawer fronts that sag or no longer align. The slide’s nylon rollers have flattened, or the slide has pulled loose from the back of the cabinet because the mounting screw stripped the particleboard. Once the box material gives way, you need slide relocation or a drawer box rebuild.
- Doors that rub against the frame or each other. Humidity in West Palm Beach swells wood and MDF. If the reveal between doors has closed to nothing and the doors bind, the cabinet frames are absorbing moisture. We check for a failed door seal or a missing vapor barrier behind the cabinet before we plane or adjust anything.
- Countertop seams that weren’t there before. Stone countertops don’t open seams on their own. When a seam opens on a CWS install, the substrate has flexed or settled. In West Palm Beach, that often traces to a slab foundation shift or a cabinet that’s gone out of level. Re-caulking the seam without fixing the movement means it opens again in six months.
- Warped cabinet doors that won’t flatten even after you adjust the hinges. A door that bows or cups has lost its moisture barrier, usually along an edge. Once the core is compromised, we replace the door and match the profile and finish rather than chase a losing adjustment battle.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In West Palm Beach, full CWS kitchen remodels run between $14,000 and $45,000. That range covers everything from a straightforward cabinet swap with laminate countertops to a full gut with custom cabinet sizing, stone tops, a new island, backsplash, and plumbing or electrical changes. Smaller scopes fall under these numbers: cabinet installation alone runs $4,000 to $13,000, countertop installation $2,000 to $6,500, and backsplash work $800 to $2,500.
What drives the price is what’s behind the cabinets. If the drywall, studs, and rough-in are sound and we’re simply swapping boxes and tops, you’re at the lower end. If we’re relocating a sink, adding a hood vent, or correcting a floor that’s out of level by more than half an inch, the number goes up. We give every project a written price before work starts, and that price doesn’t move at the door. No change orders unless you change the scope, and if something changes in the field, Curtis Lane calls before we touch it. Straight number, full scope, no surprises after the invoice. Every CWS kitchen remodeling job we complete in West Palm Beach carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the work fails within the first year, we come back and make it right at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things without a toolbox. Pull the soft-close hinges and count the overlay. Measure drawer slide lengths. Check whether cabinet frames are level with a four-foot level. Look for swelling along drawer box bottoms. Those diagnostics tell us what we’re dealing with before we set foot in your kitchen.
What we’d tell you to avoid is replacing drawer slides or hinges yourself on CWS boxes if the particleboard has already started to crumble around the mounting screws. You’ll strip the holes wider, the new hardware will sit crooked, and the repair gets more expensive. The same goes for anything involving electrical, plumbing, or load-bearing walls. Kitchen remodeling in West Palm Beach means pulling the appropriate permits and meeting current code, including hurricane-strapping requirements in remodeled sections. We handle that as part of the job. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, call (728) 203-9809 and describe it. We’ll tell you over the phone whether it’s a simple fix or a bigger conversation.
FAQs
In West Palm Beach’s humidity and salt air, CWS cabinets typically last 15 to 25 years depending on construction. Boxes made from particleboard or MDF near the coast fail earlier than plywood boxes, particularly along the bottom edges where moisture collects. We also work with KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone components when owners want a different material path or brand-specific retrofit.
Yes. If the hinge, slide, or drawer box is the problem, we repair it for a fraction of a full cabinet replacement cost. Repairs start with a site visit to measure the hardware, check box condition, and confirm the overlay. Call (728) 203-9809 for an exact quote. Estimates are free.
Most full kitchen remodels in West Palm Beach take three to six weeks from demo to final cleanup. The range depends on permit review timelines, cabinet lead times, and whether we’re moving plumbing or electrical. No job gets a fake “done in a week” number.
We stock common CWS-compatible hinges, drawer slides, soft-close dampers, and lift mechanisms on our trucks, along with OEM and aftermarket options from Blum and Salice. If we need a specific OEM CWS part, we order it and update you on the ETA before the day’s work is done.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling Co – West Palm Beach at Bradford Remodeling Co West Palm Beach, serving West Palm Beach and nearby areas.
