Kitchen Remodeling in Millburn, NJ

Millburn Township is about nine square miles of Essex County, and it contains more variety than people expect. The median home dates to 1954, about a third of the housing predates 1940, roughly 79 percent is single-family detached and 81 percent is owner-occupied.

The township also includes the Short Hills section, which has its own page because the housing there is distinct enough to warrant one.

Median year built

1954of 7,436 housing units

Built before 1940

33.4%62.9% before 1960

Single-family detached

78.8%89.1% in 1–4 unit buildings

Owner-occupied

81.3%9.33 sq mi, Essex County

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates. Figures describe Millburn township, Essex County, NJ.

The range within one township

Near the village center and the train station, the housing is older and more tightly spaced, prewar houses on smaller lots, some two-family and apartment stock, and streets laid out before the car. Kitchens in these are frequently the original small work room at the back, with a pantry and a rear door, and the project is usually about combining rooms and opening toward the dining room.

Moving outward and up toward South Mountain and the Wyoming section, houses get larger and lots get bigger. Kitchens have more raw square footage and the constraints shift: the question becomes how to organize a large room well rather than how to find space in a small one.

Construction era tracks that geography loosely but not reliably. A third of the housing is prewar, which means plaster, settled framing, and the possibility of galvanized supply lines. The rest is postwar and considerably more cooperative.

What we handle in a Millburn kitchen

Demolition, framing, cabinetry, countertops, backsplash, flooring, and the plumbing and electrical work involved. We work to a designer's or architect's drawing where one exists. Permits filed with the township and inspections scheduled.

Open Concept Kitchens in Millburn

The most requested change in the older housing here. In a prewar colonial the kitchen-to-dining wall typically runs perpendicular to the joists above and is carrying them, which means a properly sized beam (engineered lumber for most spans, steel where a flush installation is wanted and the depth will not otherwise work) plus posts and a load path down to the basement, sometimes to a new footing. There is usually a vent stack, heating line or circuit inside that wall to reroute as well. In postwar houses the same job is often simpler. See open concept kitchens.

Kitchen Layout Changes in Millburn

In the older houses, absorbing a butler's pantry or a rear hall is frequently a non-bearing partition removal and the cheapest real square footage in the house. Most of these houses have open basements, so relocating a sink is ordinary work: new supply, a drain with correct fall, proper venting. In larger kitchens the layout question is different, usually about establishing a workable primary zone in a room big enough that everything can end up too far apart. See kitchen layout remodeling.

Kitchen Cabinets in Millburn

Custom and semi-custom cabinetry is common here, and in the prewar houses it earns its cost: rooms with chimney chases, non-square corners and ceilings tall enough that a standard 30-inch upper wastes real height. Underneath the door style, the things that determine whether a kitchen still feels right in year fifteen are plywood box construction, dovetailed drawer boxes on full-extension soft-close slides, and an installation that shims and scribes properly against a floor that slopes and a wall that bows. See kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen Islands in Millburn

In the larger kitchens an island is straightforward and the questions are about function rather than fit: is it a prep and storage block, a sink island, or a seating island, because trying to be all three at once is how a room ends up with an island nobody can walk around. Clearances are 42 inches on every side and 48 where seating goes. A sink island needs supply, drain and a code-compliant vent through the floor, plus receptacles roughed in before flooring. Seating overhang past ten inches needs steel bracket support. See kitchen islands.

Kitchen Countertops in Millburn

Longer runs and larger islands mean the seam conversation matters here. Slabs come in finite sizes, so a large kitchen will have at least one seam and where it lands is decided at template, at a sink cutout or a corner rather than mid-run. Choosing the actual slab at the yard rather than approving a sample is worth the trip on a natural stone, since variation between slabs is the whole point of granite. Allow one to two weeks after cabinet install. See kitchen countertops.

Kitchen Flooring in Millburn

In the prewar houses, hardwood usually runs through the first floor, and continuing it into the kitchen is often what makes an opened-up ground floor read as one space rather than two rooms joined by a hole. Engineered flooring is more stable than solid in a kitchen. Where tile is preferred, the subfloor in an older house generally needs stiffening or an uncoupling membrane first. Radiant heat under tile is worth considering and goes in at this stage or never. See kitchen flooring.

Kitchen Backsplashes in Millburn

In older houses, flattening old plaster is often half the labor of a backsplash, and skipping it is what produces lippage that catches the light along the whole run. In a kitchen with a window over the sink, setting the tile layout out from the window rather than a corner makes the cuts fall symmetrically. Full-height tile behind the range reads deliberate, particularly with a hood rather than an over-range microwave. Box extenders at every outlet. See kitchen backsplash.

Permits and inspections in Millburn

Millburn Township's Building Department issues and inspects construction permits for both Millburn and Short Hills addresses, under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code. Kitchen work altering plumbing or electrical requires one. Removing a bearing wall brings in the building subcode and generally a sealed drawing from an engineer or architect.

Where we work in Millburn

Across the township: the streets around Millburn center and the station, the Wyoming and Glenwood sections, up toward South Mountain, and throughout Short Hills.