Remodeling an Eichler Kitchen

What the house gives you

• An open plan. Most Eichler kitchens already open to the family room or a multipurpose room, often with a peninsula and a view to the atrium or yard. You rarely need to take out a wall.
• A post-and-beam ceiling. Exposed beams and tongue-and-groove ceilings set the height and rhythm of the room. Tall upper cabinets, soffits and crown molding fight them.
• A concrete slab. The sink drain, the gas line if there is one, and sometimes supply lines run through or under the slab, alongside the radiant-heat tubing.
• Glass walls. Window walls and clerestories bring in light but leave less wall for upper cabinets.

Layout: keep the sink, move everything else

The sink drain is the most expensive thing to move in an Eichler kitchen. Ranges and refrigerators are much easier: a range needs a circuit or gas line and a hood duct, a refrigerator needs a plug and sometimes a water line. A good Eichler layout usually keeps the sink near where it is and rearranges the rest around it.

When the sink does have to move, to a new island or another wall, the slab is scanned for radiant tubing, cut, trenched for the new drain and poured back before flooring.

Cabinets and materials that suit the house

• Flat-panel or slab doors, in walnut, teak-tone or rift oak veneer, or painted in a period-friendly color.
• Horizontal grain and long, low runs, which follow the lines of the house.
• Fewer, lower uppers. Open shelves or a single run of uppers under the beam line, with more storage in drawers below.
• Quartz or solid-surface counters in simple colors, with a thin edge profile.
• No soffits. Ducts and wiring are planned between the beams instead.

Electrical, induction and the roof

Eichlers were built with small electrical panels by today’s standards. A modern kitchen with induction, a dishwasher, a microwave drawer and under-cabinet lighting often needs a panel or service upgrade, and that is easier to do with the kitchen open than afterward. In Palo Alto, service upgrades go through City of Palo Alto Utilities; elsewhere on the Peninsula they go through PG&E.

There is no attic, so a range hood duct goes up through the roof or out a wall, and lighting is usually surface-mounted or on tracks along the beams rather than recessed. Any new roof penetration needs to be flashed for the roof type.

Before you start

• Test for asbestos in original flooring, mastic and joint compound before demolition.
• Locate the radiant tubing if anything in the slab will move.
• Check the panel for the circuits you want, especially induction.
• Plan the hood duct and lighting around the beams before cabinets are ordered.
• Check exterior rules if you are changing a window or adding a skylight. Some cities have Eichler design guidelines or neighborhood overlays for exterior work.

Where the money goes

An Eichler kitchen that keeps the sink in place costs about the same as any other kitchen of the same size and finish. Slab work for a moved sink, a panel upgrade for induction and a roof penetration for the hood are the three line items that push an Eichler kitchen higher, and each is priced separately on our estimate.