Kitchen cabinet installation in Lynn, MA costs $4,500 to $15,000 for a kitchen of boxes you have already bought, or $200 to $300 a linear foot for labor alone, and Custom Cabinets Lynn quotes it off your walls rather than off your cabinet list. Fitting a run into a pre-1940 opening adds $450 to $1,600, because plaster over lath gives you no straight wall and no square corner anywhere. One published North Shore job for a full installation came in at $28,564. We carry that because it is a real local number rather than a national average. Every figure sits on our cabinet price guide with its source.
Cabinets arrive square, flat and exact. Your kitchen is none of those things.
Most Lynn houses were built around 1946, so the wall behind your run has plaster over wood lath on it, the floor under it has settled toward one end, and no corner in the room is a true right angle. Installation is the trade of making those two things meet. The difference between a good installer and a cheap one is entirely visible in how they do it.
The cheap answer is a filler strip: a tapered piece of matching wood pushed into the gap where a square run meets a wall that is not. It is fast, it is fine on a modern wall, and in an old Lynn kitchen it leaves a wedge you look at from the doorway for twenty years. We cut your end panel to follow the actual wall instead, and we put that line on the quote so you can see what you are buying.
What we are installing for you
Installing cabinets you bought yourself
We hang, level, join and fit boxes you ordered from anywhere, and we set the doors, at $4,500 to $15,000 for a kitchen. That covers a KraftMaid or Fabuwood order as readily as anything else. The spread comes from how many boxes there are and how far out your walls run. You keep control of the purchase, and we take responsibility for whether it fits.
Installation as part of a kitchen we built you
Where we are making your cabinets, installation labor runs $200 to $300 a linear foot and lands at roughly 25% to 40% of the total job. That is worth knowing as a benchmark. A quote where labor sits far under that band has either underestimated your walls or plans to fill them. Building and fitting under one roof also means the extra material for trimming to the wall is drawn into the panels rather than discovered on site.
A single run, an island, or one wall at a time
You do not have to do a whole kitchen to get a fitted result. Plenty of our work here is one wall, a pantry bay or an island set into an existing room. Islands need their own attention, because the floor is usually where the settling shows most, and a level island in an unlevel room is what makes the rest read straight. We price these by the run rather than by the kitchen.
Removing what is there and dealing with what is behind it
Old cabinets come off the wall attached to plaster, and plaster comes away in sheets rather than in patches. We plan for that, patch back to a sound wall, and check the wiring and plumbing we uncover before anything new goes over it. That check is free, and it is the moment to move an outlet rather than the moment to discover you cannot.
How your installation runs
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We measure your opening at three heights
We measure every run at the floor, at counter height and at the top, then lay the run out off the tightest of the three. Working from a single measurement is how a cabinet arrives that cannot go in. Your kitchen has almost certainly moved since somebody last checked.
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We find your high point on the floor
We lay a laser across the room and mark the highest point in the floor, because every base cabinet gets set from there and packed down to it. A run leveled from the low end leaves you with a counter that dives, and no amount of adjusting the doors afterwards fixes it.
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We hang your uppers before your bases go in
We fix the wall cabinets first while there is still floor to stand on, and we screw them into solid wood in the wall rather than into plaster and hope. Your uppers carry real weight once loaded. A cabinet fixed into old plaster alone will pull away no matter how well the box was built.
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We cut your end panels to the wall rather than filling the gap
We trace the shape of your actual wall onto the end panel, then cut to that line, which is what closes a tapered gap without a wedge in it. Where a filler is honestly the better answer, we say so and show you why, since cutting into a panel that is already tight can weaken the frame.
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We set your doors and drawers last, then walk the run
We hang and adjust every door and drawer, setting the gaps for the damp end of the year rather than the dry one, and Blum hinges give us three directions of adjustment for it. You walk the kitchen with us before we leave, because a gap you can live with is a decision you should make in your own light.
What separates a real installation quote from a list of boxes
An outlet buried behind a new cabinet is an electrical line, not a surprise
The electrical code says no spot along a kitchen counter can be more than 24 inches from an outlet, which works out to outlets no more than four feet apart. A taller backsplash or a new run of wall cabinets that covers an existing outlet leaves a stretch of counter short. That has to be put back, and it belongs on your quote as an electrical line rather than turning up as a change order in week two.
Where a cabinet job stops being an ordinary repair
The state building code, 780 CMR 105.2.2, treats replacing cabinets as an ordinary repair with no permit, as long as plumbing, gas, wiring, structure and exits stay untouched. Moving your sink, adding a range circuit, taking out a wall or moving a vent all cross that line. Knowing which side your kitchen sits on before you sign is worth more than the permit fee, because it changes the schedule as well as the price.
Why Lynn homeowners call us to install
Nobody wants to pay for new cabinets and end up with a wedge of filler in the corner and a counter that runs downhill. Our team fits kitchens into houses built around 1946, where no wall is straight and no floor is level. We measure every run at three heights, set the bases off the high point of your floor, and cut the end panels to follow your walls. That fitting line runs $450 to $1,600 on an old opening, and it is on the quote where you can see it.
Extra material for fitting is a dimension, not an adjustment
A run built to the exact width of an opening has nowhere to go once the wall turns out to lean. So the end panels have to be drawn oversized on purpose and cut back on site. Fitting and leveling into a pre-1940 opening runs $450 to $1,600. A quote for an old Lynn kitchen with no line for it has either not measured the walls or intends to close the gap with a filler strip.
The numbers the drawing has to hit
| Installing cabinets you already have | $4,500 to $15,000 per kitchen |
|---|---|
| Installation labor alone, custom work | $200 to $300 per linear foot |
| Scribing and leveling into a pre-1940 opening | $450 to $1,600 added |
| Published North Shore installation figure, Salem | $28,564 |
| Countertop receptacle spacing, NEC 210.52(C)(1) | 24 inches maximum |
| Shelf load test, ANSI/KCMA A161.1 | 15 lb per square foot |
Fully custom cabinetry in Lynn runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, or $10,000 to $26,500 for a 10x10 kitchen. Semi-custom runs $150 to $700 per foot and stock $100 to $400. What moves the number is the box, the door and how far out of square the wall is.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Fully custom cabinetry, built to the openingDrawn to your kitchen rather than assembled from catalog sizes. Any width, any height, any depth, and no filler strips standing in for a wall that is not straight. | $500 – $1,200 | per linear foot, installed |
| High-end custom: inset doors, specialty species, hand-applied finishInset doors sit inside the frame rather than over it, which means every reveal has to be even and every one is visible. That is where the hours go. | $1,200 – $2,500 | per linear foot, installed |
| Semi-custom cabinetryCatalog boxes with real choices on door style, finish and some sizes. The middle of the market and the honest answer for most Lynn kitchens. | $150 – $700 | per linear foot, installed |
| Stock cabinetryFixed sizes off a shelf, usually in three-inch increments. Cheapest per foot, and the version most likely to need filler strips against a pre-1940 wall. | $100 – $400 | per linear foot, installed |
| Fully custom 10x10 kitchenThe standard comparison kitchen the industry prices against, roughly 20 linear feet of cabinetry. Use it to sanity-check a quote, not to price your own room. | $10,000 – $26,500 | installed |
| Stock or semi-custom 10x10 kitchenThe same comparison kitchen in catalog boxes. The gap against the custom line above is the whole decision in one number. | $3,000 – $11,000 | installed |
| Building and installation labor alone, on custom workRuns 25% to 40% of the total on a custom job. Worth knowing, because a quote where labor is far under that is either using catalog boxes or leaving something out. | $200 – $300 | per linear foot |
| Installing cabinets you already haveHanging, leveling, scribing, joining and setting the doors on boxes bought elsewhere. The spread is mostly about how true the walls and floor are. | $4,500 – $15,000 | per kitchen |
| A published North Shore figure for the same job, Salem MAOne live, published, local number for a full cabinet installation. Carried because it is the only one in this table that came from this side of the state, and because it sits above the top of the national custom range. | $28,564 | as quoted |
| Scribing and leveling a run into a pre-1940 openingPlaster over lath, a floor that has settled, and no corner at a true 90 degrees. Scribing the end panels and stiles to the real wall instead of filling the gap. On a 1946 kitchen this is normal work, not an extra. | $450 – $1,600 | added to the job |
Want yours measured properly?
We come out, measure the opening at three heights and check how far off square your walls sit, then put a written number on it before anything is ordered.
Questions we get asked
How much does kitchen cabinet installation cost in Lynn?
$4,500 to $15,000 to install cabinets you already bought, or $200 to $300 per linear foot for labor on custom work. Fitting and leveling into a pre-1940 opening adds $450 to $1,600, and one published North Shore installation came in at $28,564.
How long does it take to install kitchen cabinets?
Three to five working days for a standard kitchen once the boxes are on site. Removal and plaster repair can add a day or two, because old cabinets usually take some of the wall with them when they come off.
Do I need a permit to replace kitchen cabinets in Massachusetts?
No, where nothing else moves. The state building code treats cabinet replacement with no change to plumbing, gas, wiring, structure or exits as an ordinary repair. Moving a sink, adding a range circuit or taking out a wall does cross that line.
Can you install cabinets I bought myself?
Yes, at $4,500 to $15,000 for a kitchen. We hang, level, join and fit boxes from any supplier, and we set the doors. We do check your order against your walls before installation day, because a stock run in three-inch steps rarely lands on an old opening.
What is a filler strip and why do installers use them?
It is a tapered piece of wood that closes the gap where a square run meets a wall that is not straight. It is fast and fine on a modern wall. In a 1946 Lynn kitchen we cut the end panel to follow the wall instead, at $450 to $1,600 added to the run.
Who installs kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn installs kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore at $4,500 to $15,000, boxes supplied or not. We measure each run at three heights and set the bases off the high point of your floor, which is what keeps a counter from diving at one end.
Installation is the part of a kitchen you cannot see once it is finished and the part you notice every day if it went badly. We would rather spend an hour with a laser and a tracing tool than hand you a run with a wedge in the corner.
If you are still choosing what to install, custom kitchen cabinets and semi-custom cabinets set the two routes out with their prices. Where the walls themselves are the problem, cabinets for out-of-square walls goes further into it, and everything we handle lists the rest.