Kitchen Remodeling in Orange, NJ

The City of Orange Township is the smallest municipality in our service area by land area, about 2.2 square miles, and one of the densest, with nearly 13,000 housing units. Roughly 16 percent are single-family detached and about a quarter are owner-occupied, with 28 percent of the stock built before 1940.

That prewar quarter includes some genuinely fine housing, particularly in the Seven Oaks area, which is where the more ambitious kitchen projects here tend to be.

Median year built

1958of 12,883 housing units

Built before 1940

28%52.5% before 1960

Single-family detached

16.3%49.6% in 1–4 unit buildings

Owner-occupied

25.5%2.21 sq mi, Essex County

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

What the housing here means for a kitchen

The Victorian and Edwardian houses have a very particular kitchen problem. They were built with a service wing: a modest kitchen, a pantry, a rear hall, sometimes a back stair, all chopped into small rooms because the layout assumed domestic staff. Ceilings are high, windows are tall, and the total square footage in that wing is often considerable.

That is a good problem. Those internal partitions are frequently non-bearing, which means combining two or three of those rooms is a straightforward removal rather than a beam-and-posts project. It is usually the cheapest genuine square footage available anywhere in the house.

The multi-family housing is a different situation and the constraints are the familiar ones: kitchens aligned vertically around a shared waste and vent stack, compact footprints, and electrical that predates the appliances now plugged into it.

Across both, expect plaster over lath in anything prewar, framing that has settled and is not square, and a real possibility of galvanized supply piping still in the walls.

What we handle in an Orange kitchen

Demolition, framing, cabinetry, countertops, backsplash, flooring, and the plumbing and electrical work involved. Permits filed with the city and inspections scheduled.

Kitchen Layout Changes in Orange

In the Victorian houses this is the whole game. Absorbing a pantry or rear hall usually means removing a non-bearing partition (check first for a vent stack inside it, which does come up) and produces a kitchen with a long uninterrupted counter run instead of three short segments. Most of these houses have open basements, so relocating a sink is ordinary work. In the multi-family housing, layout change means reorganizing within the plumbing wall rather than moving across the unit. See kitchen layout remodeling.

Kitchen Cabinets in Orange

The high ceilings in the older houses change the cabinet decision. Standard 30-inch uppers leave three or four feet of blank wall above them, and the better answers are a taller upper run with a glass-front or open top section, or cabinets to about nine feet with a deep crown. Custom or semi-custom earns its cost where there is a chimney chase, an odd wall dimension or a corner that is not ninety degrees, which in a Victorian is most of them. Installation means shimming from the high point of a settled floor and scribing to walls that bow. See kitchen cabinets.

Small Kitchen Remodeling in Orange

For the apartment and two-family kitchens, the space is what it is and the gains come from using it better. Removing a soffit and running uppers to the ceiling adds a full shelf. Deep drawers instead of base cabinet doors make the back half of every cabinet reachable. A pull-out in the blind corner recovers roughly nine cubic feet you already paid for. A counter-depth refrigerator stops narrowing the aisle. None of it is glamorous and together it changes the room. See small kitchen remodeling.

Kitchen Islands in Orange

Once a Victorian service wing has been combined into one room, an island frequently works. These are among the few kitchens in our service area with genuine width. The clearances are 42 inches of aisle on every side, 48 where seating is. A sink island needs supply, drain and a code-compliant vent routed through the floor, realistic over an open basement. In the multi-family housing, a peninsula is almost always the honest answer instead. See kitchen islands.

Kitchen Countertops in Orange

Long runs in a combined Victorian kitchen raise the seam question, and where a seam lands is decided at template, at a sink cutout or a corner rather than in the middle of an open span. Templating happens after cabinets are installed and level, which in a house where a wall bows half an inch across ten feet is the only way to get a top that sits tight. Allow one to two weeks between cabinet install and counter delivery. See kitchen countertops.

Kitchen Backsplashes in Orange

Wall preparation dominates the labor here, because old plaster behind a removed splash is rarely flat and tile follows exactly what it is set on. Flattening first is what prevents lippage catching the light along the whole run. In a room with a tall window over the sink, setting the layout out from the window rather than from a corner makes the cuts fall symmetrically. Box extenders at the outlets, a finished edge where the tile stops, flexible sealant at the counter joint. See kitchen backsplash.

Kitchen Flooring in Orange

In the Victorians, hardwood usually runs through the main floor and carrying it into a combined kitchen makes the whole wing read as one space. Engineered flooring handles kitchen humidity better than solid. In multi-family housing, luxury vinyl plank is the practical choice, with an acoustic underlayment worth specifying on upper floors. Where tile is wanted in an older frame building, the subfloor generally needs stiffening first. See kitchen flooring.

Permits and inspections in Orange

The City of Orange Township issues and inspects construction permits through its Building and Construction Division under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code. Kitchen work altering plumbing or electrical requires one, and structural work brings in the building subcode along with a sealed drawing. Rough work is inspected before it is covered.

Where we work in Orange

Throughout the city, including the Seven Oaks area and the blocks around Orange Center, plus the multi-family housing toward the East Orange and Newark lines.