WORCESTER | HOLDEN | SHREWSBURY | LEOMINSTER
Full kitchen renovations built by one company, from demolition through the last piece of trim. Layout changes, cabinets, counters, tile, and flooring. ARM Construction remodels kitchens across Worcester County.
A kitchen remodel touches more trades than any other room in a house. Demolition, framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, cabinetry, countertops, tile, flooring, and finish carpentry, in a specific order, in a room the family needs back. When those trades are coordinated across four different companies with four different schedules, the gaps between them are where the weeks disappear.
ARM Construction runs the whole project. We self-perform the demolition, framing, tile, flooring, and finish carpentry, and we bring in the licensed electrician and plumber as Massachusetts requires and schedule them around our own work rather than around theirs. Andrew Mercurio is on the job site. You have one number to call and one person accountable for the result, which matters most in the middle of the project when something needs a decision the same day.
A cosmetic refresh, meaning new countertops, backsplash, hardware, paint, and flooring while keeping the existing layout and cabinet boxes, generally runs $15,000 to $35,000. A mid-range full remodel with new cabinets, counters, appliances, lighting, and flooring runs $35,000 to $75,000. A high-end remodel, or one that changes the layout, runs $75,000 to $130,000 or more.
The single biggest driver is whether the layout changes. Replacing a sink where a sink already is costs a fraction of moving it across the room, because moving plumbing, gas, and electrical means opening floors and walls and reworking what is behind them. Cabinetry is the next largest line item and has the widest range, since stock, semi-custom, and full custom differ by multiples. After that come countertop material, appliance tier, and whatever the demolition uncovers, which in a Worcester County home built before 1960 is often knob and tube wiring, undersized electrical service, or plumbing that should have been replaced two owners ago.
Most of the kitchens we are called about were laid out for how people cooked in 1955 or 1978. Closed off from the dining room, short on counter space, and lit by one fixture in the middle of the ceiling. Opening a kitchen into the adjacent room is the change that transforms how a house feels, and it is also the change that turns a remodel into a structural project.
A load-bearing wall can come out. It needs a properly sized beam, posts to carry the load down, and a footing at the bottom capable of taking it, which on an older home frequently means work in the basement under the kitchen. Whatever is inside the wall has to be rerouted: plumbing stacks, HVAC ducts, electrical runs. This is exactly the kind of work that separates a general contractor from a kitchen installer, and it is why Andrew's Construction Supervisor License matters on a project most people think of as cabinets and counters. If your kitchen needs more space than the house currently has, a bump-out or a kitchen extension is sometimes the better answer than rearranging what is there.
Worcester County housing stock runs old, and kitchens are where that shows up first. Floors that are out of level enough that cabinets need shimming and countertops need scribing. Plaster and lath rather than drywall. Framing on irregular spacing that does not line up with modern cabinet dimensions. Knob and tube wiring, or a service panel without the capacity for an induction range and a dishwasher on separate circuits. Cast iron waste lines at the end of their life.
None of this is unusual and none of it is a reason not to remodel. It is a reason to have someone open the walls who has seen it before and knows what it means for the schedule and the budget when they find it. We tell you the same day, with what it changes, and Massachusetts requires any change to the contract be put in writing and signed by both parties before the work proceeds. What we do not do is discover a problem, work around it quietly, and hand you a kitchen with a fifty-year-old electrical panel behind a new backsplash.
Most full kitchen remodels run four to eight weeks of construction once materials are on site. The ordering window before that is frequently longer than the build itself. Custom cabinets commonly run six to twelve weeks from order to delivery, and countertops cannot be templated until the cabinets are actually set, which adds another one to three weeks after that. A cosmetic refresh can be done in two to three weeks.
We do not start demolition until the long-lead items are ordered and confirmed. A kitchen torn apart and waiting on cabinets is the single most common way these projects go wrong, and it is entirely avoidable with sequencing. Plan on losing the use of the kitchen for the duration. Most families set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere with the refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee maker, and we work out where that goes before demolition day. We seal off the work area to control dust, because a kitchen demo produces a great deal of it and it travels through a house.
We remodel kitchens in Worcester, Holden, Princeton, Sterling, West Boylston, and Boylston, along with Shrewsbury, Leominster, Westborough, Northborough, Southborough, and Grafton.
The work looks different depending on the housing stock. In Princeton, Sterling, and Holden, we are usually working in older colonials and farmhouses where the kitchen was added or reconfigured decades after the house was built, and where plaster, uneven floors, and dated systems are part of the job. In Shrewsbury, Grafton, Northborough, and West Boylston, postwar colonials and ranches tend to have closed-off kitchens with a wall between the kitchen and the dining room, and opening that wall is the most requested change in those towns. In Worcester and Leominster, we work in everything from triple deckers to single families, where the constraint is often the electrical service and the plumbing rather than the framing.
Andrew Mercurio is a fourth-generation builder who started in masonry and grew ARM Construction into a full general contracting company. That background matters more in a kitchen than it sounds, because the kitchens that go wrong are usually the ones where a structural or systems problem showed up mid-project and nobody on site was qualified to solve it.
Andrew has held Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License #CS-093044 since 2011, and ARM Construction & Management Inc is a registered Massachusetts Home Improvement Contractor, registration #153199. We handle the design, the permits, the inspections, and the build. Our Google reviews mention kitchen renovations specifically, along with communication and attention to detail, which are the two things that actually determine whether a homeowner enjoys the process or endures it.
What Our Customers Say
I can't say enough good things! I needed a small finish job done at the last minute, and Andrew made it happen quickly and without any stress. The craftsmanship was perfect and everything looks amazing. I'm extremely happy and would recommend him to anyone!
Andrew and his team are detail-oriented. They are skilled and helped me understand the process of renovating my kitchen. Fantastic communication & high quality service! I am so lucky to have them and recommend them to anyone! When they built my deck, it was so fast & efficient! Call Andrew, you won't regret it
Andrew replaced a garden window in my kitchen, and a sliding door. He did a meticulous job, and went above and beyond to accommodate some special requests that I had. His attention to detail and willingness to do whatever it took to make me happy didn't go unnoticed. Will definitely use him each and every time!
Here are the questions Worcester County homeowners ask us most about kitchen remodels. If yours is not here, call us at (774) 249-0221.
A cosmetic refresh, meaning new counters, backsplash, hardware, paint, and flooring with the existing layout and cabinet boxes, generally runs $15,000 to $35,000. A mid-range full remodel with new cabinets, counters, appliances, lighting, and flooring runs $35,000 to $75,000. A high-end remodel or one that changes the layout runs $75,000 to $130,000 or more. The single biggest cost driver is whether the layout changes, because moving plumbing, gas, and electrical is far more expensive than replacing what sits in the same place.
Most full kitchen remodels run four to eight weeks of construction once materials are on site, and the ordering window before that is often longer than the build. Custom cabinets commonly run six to twelve weeks from order to delivery, and countertops are templated only after the cabinets are set, adding another one to three weeks. A cosmetic refresh can be done in two to three weeks. We do not start demolition until the long-lead items are ordered and confirmed, because a kitchen sitting torn apart waiting on cabinets is the most common way these projects go badly.
Usually, but the answer depends on whether the wall is load bearing and what is inside it. A load-bearing wall can come out, but it needs a properly sized beam and posts carrying down to a footing that can take the load, which on older homes often means work in the basement as well. Plumbing stacks, HVAC ducts, and electrical runs inside the wall all have to go somewhere. This is structural work, and it is the reason a kitchen with a layout change needs a general contractor holding a Construction Supervisor License rather than a kitchen installer.
For most full remodels, yes. Replacing cabinets and counters in the same footprint may not require one, but any structural change, any move of plumbing or gas, and most electrical work does, and those permits come with inspections. Massachusetts also requires that a licensed electrician and a licensed plumber perform their respective work. ARM Construction pulls the permits and coordinates the inspections as part of the project.
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is setting you up for a bad few weeks. Plan on losing the kitchen for the duration. Most families set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house with the refrigerator, a microwave, and a coffee maker, and we help figure out where that goes before demolition starts. We also seal off the work area to control dust, because a kitchen remodel generates a great deal of it and it travels.
Massachusetts allows one ADU by right on most single-family lots. Here is what the law permits. ...more
Additions & ADUs
August 05, 2026•7 min read
ARM Construction & Management Inc
131 Houghton Road
Princeton, MA 01541
(774) 249-0221
Licensed and insured in Massachusetts. MA CSL #CS-093044 | MA HIC Reg. #153199
© Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions. Sitemap
