Kitchen remodeling
Bathroom remodeling
Home additions & ADU
Roofing
Windows & doors
Driveway & pavers
FenceFree written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
CGI Construction in Freedom, CA | Daly City Construction
We’re an independent construction crew that offers CGI sales & service, including specs, installs, and repairs across Freedom’s unincorporated Pajaro Valley parcels. The one thing that makes our CGI work different here is that every permit routes through Santa Cruz County, not a city hall, and we’ve handled enough of those county reviews to keep your kitchen or cabinet job moving without paperwork stalls. If you’re pricing out CGI cabinets or need a repair on an existing run, call us at (866) 505-5254 for a free estimate.
We’re not authorized or partnered with CGI. We simply know the product line well enough to build and finish with it correctly, and we’ve done exactly that on kitchens, rural additions, and ADU projects throughout Freedom.
Why Freedom Residents Choose Us for CGI Service
Noel Cabrera, our owner, grew up in Daly City’s Westlake district watching his uncle re-frame a garage on a postwar tract home. That’s where he learned what happens when moisture gets behind a cabinet run and nobody catches it for three winters. He brought that same eye to CGI work in Freedom, where the marine fog off the coast does the same thing to thermofoil and melamine edges that Daly City’s fog does to everything else.
We’ve built and finished with CGI across the Pajaro Valley, so we know how these boxes and fronts hold up under coastal fog and rural-parcel conditions. When we quote a CGI job in Freedom, we quote it for the house in front of us, not for a showroom photo. That means checking floor level, looking at how exterior walls breathe in wet months, and being honest about whether a cabinet box is worth saving or better off replaced.
We lean on CGI’s OEM hinges, drawer glides, and matching door fronts to keep the line’s warranty-intact fit. We use quality aftermarket soft-close hardware only where OEM is discontinued. If a box is swollen past the toe kick or floor line, we’ll tell you replacement is the honest call. A sound box with tired fronts gets a reface.
Styles & brands we work with
Common CGI Construction Problems We Solve in Freedom
Freedom’s damp marine air and older housing stock create a specific set of CGI failure patterns. These are the ones we see most often:
- Swollen melamine and thermofoil edges. CGI boxes wick moisture in Freedom’s fog and winter rains, and the first sign is usually edge swelling or lifted seam tape along the toe kick and sink base. We’ve repaired and replaced these on more Freedom homes than we can count, and the fix always starts with finding the water source, not just swapping the cabinet.
- Crumbling particleboard and MDF core panels behind sink runs. Slow leaks go unseen for months in older Freedom homes, especially where there’s no crawlspace access to catch them early. By the time we open the cabinet, the core has often blistered and lost all structural integrity. That’s a full box replacement, not a patch.
- Hairline cracks at rail-and-stile joints on Shaker-style painted CGI doors. The humidity swings through Freedom’s foggy season cause the joints to open just enough to let moisture in. The cracks start small, but they’ll keep growing every wet season. We replace the door fronts rather than pretending the joint will close back up.
- Drawer glides and doors binding on out-of-level floors. Freedom has a lot of rural parcels with floors that have settled over the years. When lower cabinets sit on those floors, the doors and drawers bind, and homeowners often think the hardware failed. It’s usually an install issue: the cabinet wasn’t shimmed level. We fix that before touching the hardware.
- Peeling thermofoil on older CGI runs against exterior walls. Cabinets on exterior walls in Freedom get hit with cold and damp from outside while the kitchen inside stays warm. The temperature differential stresses the adhesive bond, and the foil starts to peel at the seams. We see it most on west-facing walls that catch the coastal wind.
CGI Service in Freedom: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment
Here’s what separates Freedom from every other town we work in: Freedom is unincorporated, so every CGI kitchen or cabinet permit routes through Santa Cruz County building and planning rather than a city hall. That’s not a small detail. On rural parcels with wells and septic, the county often bundles an agricultural or septic review into the same job, adding inspection steps a Watsonville city permit never sees. We’ve shepherded CGI in Corralitos and nearby parcels through those county reviews on properties off Buena Vista Road and elsewhere in 95019, and we know what the county inspectors in this area will flag, what they’ll pass, and what paperwork needs to be in before they’ll even schedule the inspection. If you’re replacing cabinets on a rural Freedom parcel with a well or septic system, plan for the county to look at more than just your kitchen.
On one rural parcel off Buena Vista Road, CGI service in Amesti and our crew gutted a fog-dampened kitchen where the original CGI sink base had swollen past the toe kick and the thermofoil fronts were peeling at the seams. We re-leveled the out-of-square floor, set new hardwood-box CGI cabinets with soft-close OEM glides, and topped them with a quartz surface, then tied the remodel into the Santa Cruz County permit and rural utility review already open on the property. The county’s review added a week and a half, and we told the owner that up front. That’s the kind of thing a contractor who only works city jobs gets blindsided by.
CGI Models & Products We Service in Freedom
We work with the full CGI line: Ready-to-Assemble (RTA) all-plywood kitchen cabinets, Euro-style melamine and thermofoil cabinet fronts, Shaker-style painted and foiled door lines, and CGI quartz and granite countertop programs. When a Freedom customer calls us because a door front is damaged or a drawer glide is grinding, we match the existing line rather than forcing a mismatch. For OEM parts, we order CGI hinges, glides, and door fronts so the repair stays warranty-intact and looks like the rest of the run. For discontinued parts, we source aftermarket soft-close hardware that matches the original spec closely enough that nobody spots the swap. We don’t stock every CGI SKU in a Freedom warehouse, but we know what’s available locally and what has to come from the manufacturer, and we build that lead time into the quote instead of discovering it mid-job.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterCGI Service Pricing in Freedom
Here’s what Freedom homeowners can expect to budget for CGI work, based on the scope of the job:
| Service | Typical Price Range |
|---|---|
| Full Kitchen Remodel | $14,000 – $45,000 |
| Small Kitchen Remodel | $9,000 – $20,000 |
| Cabinet Installation | $4,000 – $13,000 |
| Countertop Installation | $2,000 – $6,500 |
What drives the cost on our General Contractor in Freedom jobs is usually the condition of the subfloor and the county review. A rural parcel with an ag or septic review bundled into the permit will run more in time, and time has a cost. A straight cabinet swap on a level slab with a clean county permit will sit at the lower end of the range. A full kitchen gut on an out-of-level rural floor with water damage behind the cabinets will climb. Every estimate we give is free and line-itemed, and we’ll walk you through exactly what you’re paying for. Call (866) 505-5254 to schedule yours.
Serving Freedom, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Freedom area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs – CGI Construction in Freedom
Yes, in most cases. Freedom is unincorporated, so cabinet replacement that involves plumbing or electrical changes, structural work, or layout changes triggers a Santa Cruz County building permit. If you’re on a rural parcel with a well or septic, the county often bundles an ag or septic review into the same job. A simple cabinet swap with no plumbing or electrical changes may not require a permit, but we’ll confirm the scope with the county before we start. Call (866) 505-5254 for a free estimate and we’ll check your specific parcel.
Freedom’s damp marine air and winter rains cause the adhesive bond on thermofoil fronts to fail, especially on exterior walls where cold and wet press against the back of the cabinet while the kitchen stays warm inside. The peeling starts at the seams and spreads. We replace the fronts with new CGI thermofoil or painted hardwood doors, depending on your budget and how the rest of the run has held up.
Usually no. If your parcel is zoned agricultural or has a well and septic, the county will likely require a review before approving any structural change, including moving or adding cabinetry that changes the kitchen’s footprint. The review isn’t always a roadblock, but it adds time. We handle the paperwork and scheduling so the review runs alongside the cabinet work instead of stalling it. Call (866) 505-5254 and we’ll walk you through what your parcel will trigger.
The fog and damp that settle in the Pajaro Valley push moisture against exterior walls, and CGI cabinets mounted on those walls absorb it through the back panel and toe kick over time. The result is edge swelling, delamination, and mold along the back of the cabinet. If your kitchen has a run on a west or north exterior wall, we recommend checking those cabinets every winter and addressing any water staining before it spreads.
If the boxes are sound, level, and free of water damage, refacing with new CGI doors and drawer fronts is the cheaper and faster move. If the boxes have swollen past the toe kick or floor line, or the particleboard core has blistered, replacement is the honest call. We’ll tell you which one applies after we open a few doors and look behind the sink base. Call (866) 505-5254 to schedule a free look at your cabinets.
Service Areas Near Freedom
We serve Freedom and the surrounding Watsonville and Monterey Bay communities. That includes work in CGI service in Interlaken, CGI service in Watsonville, and all of Freedom service area. Every job is handled by our own crew, not subcontracted out.
Book Your CGI Service in Freedom Today
Whether you’re planning a full CGI kitchen, a cabinet reface, or a repair on a fog-damaged run, call us at (866) 505-5254. We’ll schedule a free estimate, walk the site, and give you a straight answer on what the house needs and what it’ll cost. As Noel puts it: tell me what the house needs, not what you think it needs, then we’ll figure out the right fix.
Written by Noel Cabrera, Owner at Daly City Construction, serving Freedom and the Pajaro Valley.