General Contractor in Lawrence, KS

Kingdom Builders Co. works as a general contractor in Lawrence, KS, out of a shop at 6121 SW 22nd Park in Topeka. Lawrence sits about 28 miles east of us, roughly a 30 minute run down I-70 or US-40 depending on the hour. We do not have an office, a yard, or a showroom in Lawrence, and we are not going to dress up a Topeka address to look like a local one. The city hub with neighborhood notes is our Lawrence service area page.

What we do have is a crew that drives over and stays. When we take a Lawrence job, we block the days and work them straight through instead of splitting a crew between two cities and showing up for four hours on a Thursday. The drive is the reason we schedule that way. Paying two guys to make a 56 mile round trip for a half day of work is a bad deal for us and a worse experience for you.

Ryan Felix owns the company and runs the jobs himself. The person who measures your kitchen and writes your number is the person standing in it while the work happens. That matters more in Lawrence than it does at home, because you cannot swing by our office to ask a question. You get Ryan's cell number instead.

Kingdom Builders holds a 5.0-star rating on Google across 31 five-star reviews and carries insurance on every project. We are fully insured, and we will send the certificate to you or to your HOA before we start if you want it in hand.

We are a full-scope residential contractor, which means one contract, one schedule, and one person to call when the tile guy and the plumber need to be in the same room on the same morning. The four things Lawrence callers ask for most:

Kitchen Remodeling

Cabinets, counters, tile, lighting, flooring, and the plumbing and electrical behind all of it. A gut kitchen usually runs four to seven weeks from demo to the final walkthrough, and most of that clock is cabinet lead time rather than labor. We order cabinets first and demo second for exactly that reason. Details on scope, sequencing, and materials are on our kitchen renovation page, and the surfaces themselves are covered under quartz and granite countertop work and cabinetry installation.

Bathroom Remodeling

Full gut baths, tub to shower conversions, tile showers with proper waterproofing behind the board, vanities, and layout changes that move the toilet or shift a wall. Bathrooms are the highest-value square footage in a house because everything in them is either wet or connected to something wet. Our bath remodel service covers the process, and if you are weighing a conversion we wrote up the numbers in what a tub to shower conversion actually costs.

Whole-Home Remodeling

Multi-room projects, additions, basement finishes, and the kind of renovation where the floor plan changes. This is where a general contractor earns the fee, because the value is in sequencing. Framing before rough-in, rough-in before insulation, insulation before drywall, and inspections in the right order so nobody has to open a finished wall. See how we handle multi-room and whole-house renovations.

Decks and Fences

Cedar and composite decks, elevated decks over a walkout, privacy fence, and the railing and stair work that goes with them. Lawrence has a lot of sloped lots east of Iowa Street and in the older river-side neighborhoods, so elevated framing and footing depth come up often. Our deck construction service and fencing work both travel to Lawrence.

We take work anywhere inside the Lawrence city limits and in the surrounding parts of Douglas County. A few areas come up enough to be worth naming, mostly because the housing stock in each one behaves differently once you open a wall.

• Old West Lawrence. Late 1800s and early 1900s houses west of downtown, many of them in the historic district. Beautiful trim, plaster over lath, and a review process for anything that changes the exterior. Interior remodels are usually straightforward paperwork. Exterior changes are not, and we will tell you that before you spend money on drawings.
• Oread. The hill neighborhood around the University of Kansas campus. Heavy rental density, tight street parking, and a lot of houses that have been chopped into units and partially chopped back. Access and dumpster placement need planning here more than anywhere else in town.
• Pinckney. North and west of downtown, a mix of pre-war cottages and mid-century infill. Common projects are kitchen openings, basement finishing, and bathroom additions on the main floor.
• Brook Creek. East Lawrence, mostly small older homes on modest lots. Kitchens here are often 8 by 10 or smaller, so the win is usually a wall removal rather than fancier cabinets.
• West Lawrence. Everything out past Kasold and Wakarusa, largely built from the 1980s forward. Newer systems, bigger footprints, and the work skews toward master bath updates, deck replacement, and finishing a basement.
• Downtown and the Massachusetts Street area. Upper-floor residential units and adjacent older homes. Loading and material staging on Mass Street takes coordination, and we plan deliveries for early morning.

We also work in North Lawrence, Barker, Schwegler, Prairie Park, and Deerfield, plus Eudora, Lecompton, and Baldwin City when the schedule allows.

A large share of housing in Old West Lawrence, Oread, Pinckney, and East Lawrence went up before 1940. Those houses are worth remodeling. They also carry three specific conditions that change a bid, and a contractor who does not price for them is going to hand you a change order in week two.

Plaster and lath. Real plaster is heavier, harder, and messier than drywall. Cutting an opening for a can light or a new outlet cracks the field around it if you do it fast. Demo produces roughly twice the debris weight of drywall, which means more dumpster pulls. And patching plaster to match a finished wall is a skill, not a step. We usually recommend one of two paths: keep the plaster and patch it properly, or take the room to the studs and hang new board. Half measures look like half measures forever.

Knob-and-tube era wiring. Houses of that vintage often still have original circuits somewhere in the system, usually in the attic or behind a back bedroom wall. Knob-and-tube has no ground, it is not rated to be buried in insulation, and most insurers will not write a policy on a house that still runs it. If we find it in the area we are working, we replace what we open, and we tell you what is left elsewhere in the house. Rewiring a kitchen circuit properly is a few hundred dollars. Finding out about it after the drywall is up is a few thousand.

Settled floors and out-of-square rooms. A hundred year old house on Kansas River bottom soil has moved. We routinely find an inch or more of drop across a 12 foot kitchen. That matters because cabinets have to be shimmed level before counters get templated, and a counter can only be as flat as what it sits on. It also means the wall you want to open may not be as plumb as your cabinet layout assumes. We shoot a laser level in every old house before we quote cabinetry.

None of this is a reason to avoid an old Lawrence house. It is a reason to get a real inspection before you sign anything, and to hire someone who has already priced these conditions into the number instead of discovering them on your dime.

Lawrence has an unusually high share of rental housing because of the University of Kansas, and that shapes when remodeling work can actually happen. Most leases turn over around the end of July and the first week of August. Owners who want a unit refreshed have a narrow window between the last tenant leaving and the next one arriving, and every trade in town knows it.

If you own a rental near campus, book the work in April or May for a summer turnover. By late June the calendar is full and you are competing with every other owner on the hill for the same painters and floor guys. We schedule turnover work in blocks and will tell you honestly if we cannot hit your date rather than taking the deposit and hoping.

Rental scopes are different from owner-occupied scopes, and we price them differently. Durable finishes, luxury vinyl plank instead of engineered wood, solid surface instead of a delicate stone, and hardware that survives a hundred move-in days. If you want a full breakdown of material choices that hold up, our flooring service page covers what we install and where each product makes sense.

The figures below are published market averages from HomeAdvisor, Angi, and the Remodeling Magazine Cost vs Value Report. They are national and regional category averages, not Kingdom Builders quotes. Your number comes from a written estimate on your actual house.

• Kitchen remodel, mid-range: roughly $25,000 to $45,000 for a full gut with new cabinets, counters, flooring, and appliances.
• Kitchen refresh: roughly $12,000 to $20,000 when cabinet boxes stay and you replace doors, counters, backsplash, and lighting.
• Full bathroom remodel: roughly $12,000 to $30,000 depending on tile work, whether the layout moves, and shower size.
• Tub to shower conversion: roughly $6,000 to $15,000, with tile showers at the high end and acrylic units at the low end.
• Half bath update: roughly $4,000 to $8,000.
• Basement finish: roughly $25,000 to $60,000 depending on whether you add a bathroom and an egress window.
• Wood deck, 300 square feet: roughly $9,000 to $18,000 in cedar, higher in composite.

Two Lawrence-specific things move a number inside those ranges. Older homes in the central neighborhoods carry the plaster, wiring, and leveling work described above, which adds real hours before any finish material gets installed. Newer West Lawrence homes skip most of that and the budget goes further into finishes instead. We break the Topeka side of these numbers down further in our kitchen remodel cost guide, and the same logic applies 28 miles east.

Our estimates are itemized in writing. If a number changes mid-project, you see the change order before we do the work, not on the final invoice.

Do you actually travel to Lawrence, or is this just a web page?

We travel. Lawrence is about 28 miles from our Topeka shop and we run projects there regularly. We are honest that Kingdom Builders is a Topeka company with no Lawrence office, no Lawrence yard, and no Lawrence phone number. Everything routes to (785) 329-4551.

Do you charge extra for the drive to Lawrence?

There is no separate trip charge on a full remodel. Drive time is inside the labor number the same way it is on any job, and it does not add a line item. For very small repairs, a single door or a piece of trim, the drive stops making sense for both of us, and we will say so instead of quoting a number that wastes your money.

How long does a kitchen remodel take in Lawrence?

Four to seven weeks for a full gut, measured from demo day. Cabinet lead time is the variable and it usually runs four to eight weeks on its own, which is why we order cabinets before we tear anything out. A refresh that keeps the existing boxes is typically two to three weeks. Old houses with plaster and wiring work add about a week.

Do I need a permit to remodel in Lawrence?

Yes for most structural, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work. The City of Lawrence Development Services department issues residential building permits, and work in the Old West Lawrence historic district may also need review from the Historic Resources Commission before an exterior change. We pull the permits for the work we do and schedule the inspections. Confirm current requirements directly with the city, since fees and thresholds change.

Are you insured?

Yes. Kingdom Builders is fully insured, and we provide a certificate of insurance on request before work begins. Ask any contractor you are considering for the same thing, and ask for it in writing rather than taking a verbal answer.

Can you work on a house in the Old West Lawrence historic district?

Yes, with the understanding that exterior changes carry a review process and interior work generally does not. We plan the timeline around that review instead of pretending it will not happen. If your project is a kitchen or bath that stays inside the envelope, the historic designation usually has no practical effect on the schedule.

How do you handle payment?

A deposit to hold the schedule and order materials, progress payments tied to completed phases, and the balance at the final walkthrough. We do not ask for the full amount up front, and you should not pay any contractor who does. Financing options are available if you want to spread the cost.

What is the fastest way to get a number?

Call (785) 329-4551 or use the estimate request form. We come out, measure, and put an itemized scope in writing. There is no charge for the visit and no charge for the estimate.

Kingdom Builders Co. is based at 6121 SW 22nd Park, Topeka, KS. We serve Topeka and Shawnee County as our home market, and we take remodeling and construction work in Lawrence and Douglas County, roughly 28 miles east. We also work Manhattan and the corridor between.

Every project photo on this page was taken at a Topeka-area job. We do not have a Lawrence portfolio to show yet, and we would rather say that than caption a Topeka kitchen as something it is not. The work is the same, and the references are real. Ask and we will connect you with homeowners you can call.

If you are in Lawrence and you want a number on a kitchen, a bathroom, an addition, or a deck, call (785) 329-4551 or send us the details through our contact page. Tell us your neighborhood and roughly when the house was built. Those two facts change the estimate more than almost anything else you can tell us.