General Contractor in Manhattan, KS

Kingdom Builders Co. works as a general contractor in Manhattan, Kansas. We are based in Topeka at 6121 SW 22nd Park, which is roughly 55 miles east of Manhattan, a bit under an hour on I-70 and K-177. We do not have an office, a yard, or a showroom in Manhattan, and I am not going to dress up a Topeka address to look like a local one. We drive up.

Ryan Felix owns the company and runs the jobs personally. That means the person who walks your house at the estimate is the person on site while the work happens, which matters more on an out-of-town job than a local one. We hold a 5.0-star rating on Google across 31 five-star reviews and we are fully insured, with a certificate we will send to you or your lender before anything starts.

Here is the tradeoff, stated plainly. Because of the drive, we take fewer and larger jobs in Manhattan than we do in Shawnee County. A two-hour punch list is not worth two hours of windshield time to either of us, because you end up paying for that time one way or another. Full kitchens, full bathrooms, basement finishes, additions, and multi-room remodels are the work that makes the trip make sense. If your project is smaller than that, say so on the phone and I will tell you honestly whether we are the right call.

Homeowners searching for a contractor in Manhattan KS are usually in one of two spots. Either they have a project that touches several trades at once and they do not want to be the one scheduling a plumber against a tile setter, or they called three local outfits and got one callback. We can help with both. Call (785) 329-4551 or send us the details of your project and we will tell you within a day whether it fits our schedule.

Every service below is work we do week in and week out around Topeka. The links go to our full service pages, which explain materials, sequence, and what drives the price.

Kitchen Remodeling

Kitchens are the largest share of what we build. That covers layout changes, cabinets, counters, backsplash, lighting, flooring, and the electrical and plumbing moves underneath all of it. In older Manhattan houses the wall between the kitchen and dining room is usually the first question, and the answer depends on whether it carries load, which we determine from the basement and the attic rather than by guessing. Read the full breakdown on our kitchen remodeling service page, and see the material comparison on quartz, granite, and butcher block countertops. If you are choosing between refacing and replacing, our page on cabinet installation walks through both.

Bathroom Remodeling

Bathrooms are the highest-value search in Manhattan by a wide margin, and I understand why. Half the housing stock near campus has one bathroom serving three or four bedrooms, and the fixtures date to an era when nobody expected two adults to get ready at the same time. We do full gut remodels, tub-to-shower conversions, tile shower builds with proper waterproofing, vanity and lighting swaps, and adding a second bath where the plumbing stack allows it. Start with our bathroom remodeling page, or read the numbers behind a tub-to-shower conversion before you decide.

Whole-Home and Multi-Room Remodeling

When the scope crosses several rooms or several trades at once, it becomes a general contracting job rather than a specialty one. Basement finishes, additions, opening up a chopped-up floor plan, structural repairs, and post-purchase renovations all land here. One contract, one schedule, one phone number. Our whole-home renovation page covers how we phase that work so you can keep living in the house while it happens.

Decks, Fences, and Outdoor Work

Manhattan gets the same Kansas weather Topeka does, plus more wind on the ridge lots west of town. We build cedar, treated pine, and composite decks, pergolas, and fences. Composite costs more up front and saves you a weekend of sanding and sealing every other spring, which is the whole argument in one sentence. See our deck building service for framing details and material costs, and fence installation for post depth and property line questions.

Manhattan straddles the Riley and Pottawatomie county line, and the housing changes character fast as you move across town. We work throughout 66502 and 66503, including:

• Downtown and the Aggieville area, where the houses are the oldest in the city and most have been rentals at some point.
• The City Park and Poyntz Avenue corridor, with a lot of pre-war homes on tight lots and original plaster still on the walls.
• Northview, north of the Kansas River bottoms, mostly modest post-war houses with one bath and finished-off basements of varying quality.
• Westloop and the Anderson Avenue side, 1960s and 1970s ranches and split levels, which are prime candidates for opening a kitchen wall.
• The Wildcat Creek corridor, where anything in the floodplain needs its finished basement detailed with that in mind. Those areas have taken water before and it changes what we recommend for basement flooring and mechanical placement.
• Colbert Hills, Grand Mere, Miller Ranch, and Lee Mill Heights, newer construction from the 2000s onward, where the work is usually finishing a basement, building a deck, or updating a builder-grade kitchen.
• Blue Township and the Pottawatomie County side, including the acreages east of the river.

We also take work in Ogden, Riley, St. George, Wamego, and Junction City when it fits the same trip. If you are not sure whether your address is in range, call and ask. The answer is a yes or a no, not a maybe.

Kansas State University shapes the housing market here in ways that show up in the drywall. About a third of the city's population is students, and for decades the most profitable thing an owner could do with a house near campus was cut it into as many bedrooms as the code would allow.

You can see the result when you open a wall. Bedrooms added in basements without egress windows. Non-structural partitions framed with whatever was on the truck. A second laundry hookup teed off a line that was never sized for it. Deadbolts on interior doors. Kitchens with three different cabinet lines in one room because they were replaced one section at a time as tenants wrecked them. None of this is a scandal. It is what happens when a house earns rent for thirty years.

What has changed is who is buying those houses now. Families and K-State staff are purchasing former student rentals in the older neighborhoods and turning them back into single-family homes. That project has a specific shape. You are removing partitions, consolidating bedrooms back to a reasonable count, rebuilding a kitchen that was designed to be cheap rather than good, and often adding a real second bathroom. Budget for surprises behind the plaster, because there will be some.

The older stock near downtown also brings the usual pre-1960 items: cast iron drain lines that have thinned at the joints, galvanized supply lines that have narrowed to a straw, undersized panels, plaster and lath instead of drywall, and floor systems that have settled enough that nothing is level. We check for all of it during the estimate rather than finding it on day three and handing you a change order. Our full home remodeling page explains how we handle older houses.

One more Manhattan-specific note. Permits for work inside city limits come from the City of Manhattan rather than Riley County, and the process is not the same one Topeka uses. We advise on what your project needs and coordinate the inspections, and the homeowner pulls the permit. Ask any contractor you talk to how they handle this, and be careful with anyone who tells you the work does not need one.

Every number in this section is a published national or regional market average from industry sources, specifically HomeAdvisor, Angi, and the Remodeling Magazine Cost vs Value Report. They are not Kingdom Builders quotes and they are not what your job will cost. They are a starting point so you can tell whether the bids you are collecting are in the right universe.

• Minor kitchen remodel (cabinet fronts, counters, appliances, no layout change): the Cost vs Value Report puts a midrange minor kitchen remodel in the mid-$20,000s nationally.
• Full kitchen remodel: HomeAdvisor and Angi both publish broad ranges of roughly $15,000 to $60,000 depending on cabinet grade, counter material, and whether walls move. Midrange jobs cluster around $30,000.
• Full bathroom remodel: Angi publishes roughly $6,600 to $18,000 for a standard bath, with midrange remodels in the Cost vs Value data landing higher, in the mid-$20,000s, once tile showers and moved plumbing are involved.
• Tub-to-shower conversion: commonly published between $3,000 and $12,000 depending on whether it is an insert or a built tile shower.
• Basement finishing: generally published between $25,000 and $60,000 for a full finish with a bathroom.
• Deck construction: Cost vs Value figures put a midsize wood deck in the high teens and a composite deck of the same footprint near $25,000.

Kansas labor rates sit below the national averages those reports are built on, so treat the published numbers as a ceiling rather than a target. Three things move a Manhattan project up the range faster than anything else: moving plumbing, moving load-bearing walls, and discovering that the last person to work on the house did not pull a permit either. For a deeper look at how a kitchen budget actually breaks down line by line, read our guide to what a kitchen remodel costs in northeast Kansas.

We give a written, itemized estimate before any work starts, and we offer financing if you would rather spread the cost out.

Do you actually take jobs in Manhattan, or just advertise there?

We take jobs in Manhattan. Kingdom Builders Co. is based in Topeka, 55 miles east, and we drive up for projects that are large enough to justify the trip, generally full kitchens, full bathrooms, basement finishes, additions, and multi-room remodels. We have no office or crew stationed in Manhattan.

How far is Manhattan from your shop, and does that cost me more?

It is about 55 miles and just under an hour each way from 6121 SW 22nd Park in Topeka. Travel is built into the estimate you receive, so there is no separate mileage line item added later. On larger jobs the travel is a small fraction of the total. On small jobs it is a large fraction, which is why we steer small jobs to a local contractor instead of overcharging you for the drive.

How much does a bathroom remodel cost in Manhattan, KS?

Published market data puts a standard bathroom remodel between roughly $6,600 and $18,000, with midrange remodels involving a tile shower and relocated plumbing landing in the mid-$20,000s according to the Remodeling Magazine Cost vs Value Report. Those are national averages, not our prices. Kansas labor runs under those figures. Your actual number depends on whether the plumbing stays put, whether you want a tile shower or an acrylic unit, and what happens when the old floor comes up.

How much does a kitchen remodel cost in Manhattan, KS?

Industry sources publish a range of roughly $15,000 to $60,000 for a full kitchen, with midrange projects clustering near $30,000. Cabinets are usually the largest single line, counters second. Moving a sink or a range to a different wall adds plumbing and electrical work that a same-footprint remodel avoids entirely.

Can you remodel a house that is currently a student rental?

Yes, and it is a common request in the older neighborhoods near campus and Aggieville. Converting a rental back to a single-family home usually means removing added partitions, consolidating bedrooms, replacing a patchwork kitchen, and adding or rebuilding a bathroom. Expect the walls to hide at least one thing nobody knew about. We build a contingency into the conversation up front rather than surprising you with it later.

Who pulls the building permit?

The homeowner pulls the permit and we advise on what the project requires and coordinate the inspections. Work inside Manhattan city limits goes through the City of Manhattan, which has its own process separate from Riley County and different from Topeka's.

Are you insured?

Yes. Kingdom Builders Co. is fully insured and we will send the certificate directly to you, your lender, or your HOA before work starts. Ask every contractor you are considering for the same document, and ask for it from the insurer rather than as a photo on a phone.

How long will my Manhattan project take?

A full bathroom is typically two to four weeks of active work. A full kitchen is typically four to eight weeks, and the countertop fabrication window of one to three weeks sits inside that after templating. Because we are driving in, we schedule Manhattan work in consecutive blocks rather than a day here and a day there, and you get those dates in writing before we start.

Do you offer free estimates in Manhattan?

Yes. The walkthrough and the written estimate are free, including the drive. Call (785) 329-4551 or use the form on our contact page and include photos of the space if you have them, since that helps us tell you quickly whether the project is a fit.

Can you handle flooring, electrical, and plumbing on the same project?

Yes. That is what hiring a general contractor buys you. We coordinate the trades in the right order and carry the schedule, so you are not the one calling an electrician to find out why the tile setter cannot start. See our flooring services for material options that come up on most whole-house jobs.

Our home market is Topeka and Shawnee County, and most of our 31 reviews come from there. Manhattan is a market we serve by traveling to it, and we would rather say that clearly than build a page that implies a storefront on Poyntz Avenue.

What that means for you in practice:

• Every photo on this page is from a project near Topeka. When we finish Manhattan jobs, we will label them as Manhattan jobs and not before.
• We schedule Manhattan work in consecutive blocks so the crew is on site steadily rather than in scattered half days.
• We turn down projects that are too small to justify the drive, and we will tell you that on the first call instead of quoting a number designed to make you go away.
• Material deliveries get coordinated to the site directly, so a forgotten box does not cost a round trip.

If that works for you, call (785) 329-4551 or request a free estimate. If you want to see the full range of what we build before you call, our general contracting page lays out how we manage multi-trade projects from planning through the final walkthrough.