A whole home remodel in Orlando: same house, different life.

A whole home remodel is the biggest thing most families ever hire someone to do. It's also the project people tell the worst stories about — the crew that vanished for three weeks, the number that doubled, the contractor who stopped answering the phone in month four.

I'm Johnny Kaplan. Kaplan Remodeling & Construction is my family's business, and I run every job myself. When you call, you get me. You get one fixed written number before demo day. And you get my own crew in your house — not whoever a project manager could scrape together that week.

We handle whole house renovation work throughout Central Florida: Lake Mary, Heathrow, Longwood, Sanford, Winter Park, Maitland, Oviedo, Altamonte Springs and greater Orlando.

What a whole home remodel actually covers

No two are identical, but a full-scope project usually includes most of this:

• Demolition, protection of anything staying, and dust containment
• Structural work — removing or opening walls, new headers and beams, reframing
• Kitchen: cabinetry, countertops, appliances, plumbing and electrical
• Bathrooms: full gut, waterproofing, tile, vanities, fixtures
• Whole-house electrical — new circuits, panel or service upgrade, recessed lighting, fixtures, GFCI and AFCI protection, interconnected smoke and CO alarms
• Plumbing — repipe where needed, drain repairs or replacement, new fixture locations
• HVAC — new equipment, duct replacement or redesign, new returns
• Windows and exterior doors with proper Florida product approval
• Insulation, drywall, texture and paint throughout
• Flooring, baseboard, casing, interior doors and trim carpentry
• Closets, built-ins and millwork
• Permits, engineering coordination, and every inspection from start to final
• Daily cleanup, debris removal, and a real punch list at the end
• 1-year workmanship warranty, plus all manufacturer warranties on materials

Do you live in it, or move out?

This is the first real decision, and it changes everything downstream.

Moving out is faster. The crew gets full run of the house, trades can overlap, and we don't have to rebuild dust barriers every afternoon. For a gut-level renovation, it's usually the cheaper path per day of work even after you pay for somewhere to stay.

Living in it works when the scope is zoned — bedrooms and one bath first, then kitchen and living areas. We build temporary dust walls, keep one working bathroom online at all times, set up a temporary kitchen, and stage the schedule so you always have a place to sleep and shower. It takes longer and it asks more of you. It's the right call for plenty of families anyway.

Either way, your house stays your house, even mid-project. My crew doesn't smoke on your property, doesn't play music you didn't approve, and cleans up before they leave. That's not a policy in a binder — it's how I'd want someone to treat my mother's house.

Sequencing: why the order can't be rushed

People assume delays come from laziness. Usually they come from a trade being called in before the one ahead of it finished. The order is roughly fixed:

1. Demo and structural work
2. Framing, then rough plumbing, rough electrical and HVAC — all coordinated so nothing lands in the same cavity
3. Rough inspections. Nothing gets covered until an inspector signs off
4. Insulation, then drywall, then texture
5. Interior doors, trim and paint
6. Cabinetry, then countertop template and install
7. Tile and flooring
8. Fixtures, appliances, hardware, final electrical trim
9. Final inspections, punch list, walkthrough

One trade slipping doesn't cost you a day — it costs you everything stacked behind it. That's why I keep my own crew and don't run four jobs at once hoping the subs show.

Structural work in Florida block-and-slab homes

Most Central Florida houses are concrete block with stucco on a slab, with a wood truss roof. That construction changes what's easy and what isn't, and it's worth understanding before you fall in love with a plan.

Interior walls are often not load-bearing. Roof trusses typically span exterior wall to exterior wall, so a lot of interior partitions are just partitions. That's why the wall between your kitchen and living room can frequently come out for less than people expect. But not always — girder trusses and interior bearing points exist, and the only way to know is to look in the attic. I never guess on this one.

Openings in block walls are a different animal. Widening a window or cutting in new sliding doors means saw-cutting concrete block, shoring, and installing a properly sized lintel or beam. That requires an engineer's design and a permit. It's absolutely doable — we do it regularly — it just isn't a same-week decision.

Windows and doors have to meet code for your address. The Florida Building Code sets a design wind pressure based on where your house sits, and replacement units need Florida Product Approval and the right installation detail. This isn't optional paperwork; it's what the inspector checks.

Plumbing lives in the slab. Moving a kitchen or bathroom to a new part of the house means cutting the slab, trenching, running new drain lines and re-pouring. It's routine work but it's real money, and it's the single biggest reason "just move the laundry room" costs more than people expect.

Budgeting for what's behind the walls

I can price everything I can see. Behind drywall in a fifty-year-old house, there are things nobody can see until demo day. In Central Florida the usual suspects are deteriorated cast iron drain lines in homes from the sixties and seventies, polybutylene supply piping in eighties and nineties homes, aluminum branch wiring, outdated or recalled electrical panels, past leaks that left rot in a wall bottom plate, and ductwork that was never sized right.

Here's how I handle it honestly: we scope and camera what we can before we price. Anything we find, I show you — photos, the actual condition, and a written cost to correct it before we proceed. And I tell every whole-home client to set aside roughly 10 to 15 percent above the contract as a contingency for exactly this. If we don't need it, you keep it. Any contractor who tells you a project this size has zero unknowns is selling you the first chapter of a horror story.

How long a whole home remodel takes

Two phases, and people forget the first one.

Pre-construction — roughly 6 to 14 weeks. Design and drawings, structural engineering if needed, HOA or architectural review if you have one, and permitting through your city or Seminole County. Review cycles and comment responses are the variable here, and they're largely outside anyone's control.

Construction — roughly 4 to 9 months for a typical Central Florida whole home remodel. A cosmetic-level refresh of a mid-size ranch — paint, flooring, trim, lighting, one bath — can land in 3 to 4 months. A studs-out renovation with structural changes, a repipe, new windows, new HVAC and two or three baths runs longer.

What drives the variance: permit review cycles, structural engineering, the number of kitchens and baths, window and appliance lead times, whether you're living in the house, and how quickly finish selections get made. That last one is the most common cause of delay and the easiest to fix — I give you a selections deadline schedule up front so nothing sits waiting on a tile decision.

Honest cost framing

I won't put a price-per-square-foot on this page, because it would be a made-up number and you'd hold me to it. What I can tell you is how the number gets built.

Whole home remodels price off two things: how much of the house you touch, and how deep you go in each room. Kitchens and bathrooms carry the highest cost per square foot by a wide margin, because that's where plumbing, electrical, tile, cabinetry and appliances all stack up. Bedrooms and living areas are the least expensive space you'll renovate.

The biggest movers, in rough order: structural changes and new openings in block; relocating plumbing on a slab; a whole-house repipe or electrical service upgrade; window and exterior door replacement counts; HVAC replacement; the number of bathrooms; finish level in the kitchen; and whether the house is occupied during construction.

You get one fixed number for labor and construction, plus clearly written allowances for finishes you haven't picked yet. Choose above or below an allowance and the difference is handled by a simple written change order before we order — the labor stays the same. Payments are tied to progress milestones, not to the calendar. You never pay for work that hasn't happened.

Things people ask before hiring us

Let's sit down and talk about it

Call me and we'll set up a kitchen-table meeting at your house. We'll walk every room, talk about what's worth doing and what isn't, and I'll be straight with you about what your budget will and won't buy. You'll get a real plan with a real number. We build, you live your life. I'd be glad to earn your business.