Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
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Before
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Before
AfterWhy Sunnyvale Homeowners Choose CWS Construction
Cws in Sunnyvale from Rowan Construction Group provides independent cabinet installation, repair, and refacing service across the city, with written pricing delivered before any work begins and a 365-Day Done Right Promise on every job. We are not a CWS dealer or authorized representative - we’re a local construction firm that has installed enough CWS Custom Wood Surfaces product in Sunnyvale kitchens to know where the line fails and how to fix it right. Call (650) 405-3637 to schedule your free estimate.
CWS - Custom Wood Surfaces - is a semi-custom cabinet line that local homeowners order through dealers and big-box channels across Santa Clara County. We’ve installed and refaced enough of it in Sunnyvale to know its box construction, drawer hardware, and door profiles inside out. Our only obligation is to the fit and finish in your home, not to a manufacturer’s sales quota. That independence means we tell you when a reface will hold and when the box is too far gone to save.
Why Trust Rowan Construction Group Sunnyvale for Your CWS Construction?
Grant Rowan grew up in Beverly Hills and picked up his first framing hammer before he could drive, trailing a family friend who remodeled homes in the flats off Wilshire. He trained in construction technology at Santa Monica College, where coursework covered structural load calculations, blueprint reading, and site safety - fundamentals he still references when scoping our Kitchen Remodeling services today. For more than two decades Grant and his crew have worked across Sunnyvale, including extensive remodel and build-out work in the Lakewood Village neighborhood near Washington Park, handling everything from permitted additions to full gut renovations.
That background matters with CWS product because these cabinets sit in a specific spot in the market - better than stock, not fully custom - and the installation discipline is what separates a kitchen that looks right in year three from one that shows its seams in six months. We measure every run with a laser level against the slab, document the existing floor flatness with photos, and note any post-tensioned cable zones before we drill. The photo record goes to the customer before we leave. Under Clause 1 of the Haven Standard, the price is written before anyone starts. Under Clause 4, if it’s not done right, we make it right - backed by terms, not a handshake.
Our technicians are background-checked and uniformed. A live person answers calls 24/7. And we stock Blum and Grass hardware locally for the CWS bore patterns we see most often, so we’re not waiting two weeks on a glide order while your kitchen sits torn apart.
Common CWS Construction Problems We Fix in Sunnyvale
- Warping and grain-checking on painted shaker doors. CWS painted shaker doors are built with hardwood frames and MDF center panels. In Sunnyvale’s dry summer air - humidity routinely drops below 30% from June through October - the hardwood frame shrinks faster than the panel, opening hairline cracks at the joint called grain-checking. Garage-level installations are worse; the temperature swing between a hot Santa Clara Valley afternoon and a cooled interior stresses the paint film until it checks. We’ve refaced dozens of these in Birdland and Lakewood Village. The fix is either a full door replacement with proper acclimation time, or in select cases a controlled humidity protocol before installation.
- Particleboard or MDF core boxes swelling at the toe kick. CWS base cabinets use a composite deck and toe-kick panel that wicks moisture slowly. The failure pattern we see in Sunnyvale: a pinhole leak in an ice-maker supply line or a slow drip from a reverse-osmosis drain line pools under the dishwasher opening or sink base, and the toe-kick swells before the homeowner notices any visible water. By the time the drawer starts dragging, the deck is delaminated. We replace the compromised end panel or base box, trace the leak source, and install a moisture barrier before the new cabinet goes in.
- Soft-close drawer glides wearing out on wide pot drawers. CWS kitchen islands commonly spec 30-inch and 36-inch wide pot drawers with paired undermount glides rated for 75-100 pounds. In practice, these drawers load heavy - cast iron, stand mixers, stockpots - and the glide nylon rollers fatigue over five to seven years. The drawer sags, the front dips, and the soft-close mechanism chatters instead of damping. We see this most on 2010s-era CWS frameless installs in the Ranchos and Ponderosa neighborhoods. We match the original bore pattern with Blum Tandem or Grass Dynapro replacements, whichever fits the side-wall thickness.
- Door and drawer alignment shifting on frameless boxes over uneven slabs. Sunnyvale’s dominant housing stock is 1950s-1970s single-story tract ranch on slab-on-grade. The expansive Bay clay beneath the valley floor shrinks in dry season and heaves when winter rains return, making foundation movement endemic. A CWS frameless cabinet run - which relies on precise box-to-box alignment for consistent door gaps - will show racked doors and binding drawers within a year if the installer didn’t shim to the floor’s actual plane, not its theoretical one. We re-level with composite shims or adjustable leg systems, then re-gap every door to 1/8-inch tolerance.
- Face-frame joint loosening on painted finishes near heat sources. CWS face-frame cabinets with painted finishes can show joint separation when installed adjacent to self-cleaning ovens or warming drawers without adequate clearance. The thermal cycling works the dowel joint, and the paint film cracks at the stile-rail intersection. We repair with pocket-screw reinforcement, fill, and spot-finish - or replace the door if the joint movement is too severe.
Before
AfterCWS Parts & Our Repair-vs-Replace Approach
We match CWS OEM hinge, glide, and shelf-pin components when they’re available on current lead times. When OEM is backordered - which happens on discontinued color matches and older series hardware - we use high-quality aftermarket hardware from Blum and Grass approved for the same 35mm hinge bore and 5mm shelf-pin spacing. The function is identical; the warranty on our workmanship covers it regardless of source.
The harder call is box condition. If a CWS cabinet deck is swollen at the toe kick or the face frame is racked beyond what shimming can correct, we’ll tell you refacing won’t hold. A new skin on a compromised substrate looks good for six months, then telegraphs every flaw. We’ll quote a targeted cabinet replacement for the affected units, matched to the existing door profile and finish code when possible, and we’ll show you the photo evidence so you understand why. No enthusiasm, just the condition of the material and what it means for longevity.
Call (650) 405-3637 for an exact quote - estimates are free.
Our CWS Service Process - Step by Step
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Diagnosis with documentation. We arrive with a laser level, moisture meter, and camera. We measure floor flatness across the cabinet run, check for slab heave or slope, and photograph every box, door, and drawer front. If there’s water damage, we trace the source. You get the photo record before we leave.
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Written scope and price. Under Clause 1 of the Haven Standard, we deliver a flat written price with material costs, labor hours, and subcontractor scope listed separately. For CWS work, this includes hinge and glide specifications, door finish codes, and any countertop templating coordination. No work starts until you sign.
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Repair or install with matched parts. We acclimate CWS doors and panels in your home for 48 hours before hanging when seasonal humidity swings are extreme. Frameless runs are shimmed to the actual floor plane, not a level line on the wall. Every bore is drilled with a jig, not freehand.
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Function test and gap check. Every drawer is loaded to rated weight and cycled twenty times. Every door is checked for consistent reveal and soft-close damping. Island cabinets are verified plumb in both directions - critical for the countertop template that follows.
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Warranty documentation. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is printed on your invoice. The photo record of completed work is emailed. If we installed countertops through our quartz and granite service, the template and seam map are included.
CWS Products We Service & Install in Sunnyvale
We work with the full CWS Custom Wood Surfaces semi-custom line: all-wood face-frame and frameless box cabinets with adjustable shelves; raised-panel and shaker-style hardwood doors in painted and stained finishes; pantry, wall, base, and island cabinet run configurations. We service existing installs and coordinate new Santa Clara Cws service delivery for full kitchen remodels, including cabinet installation, refacing, and countertop templating on Cambria, Silestone, or granite surfaces.
For Sunnyvale’s teardown-rebuild market, we’ve specified CWS product in new custom kitchens where the budget sits between big-box stock and full custom millwork - a common landing spot in the $1.5M-plus lot market where the house is new but the finishes need to pencil. We know the lead times, the dealer channels, and the freight damage rates well enough to pad the schedule realistically.
We Also Service These Brands
Our cabinet and kitchen work extends across fifty-plus vetted brands. We regularly install KraftMaid and Wellborn cabinet lines, template Cambria and Caesarstone countertops, and rough in Kohler and Toto fixtures. Multi-brand fluency matters because most Mountain View Cws service areas and Sunnyvale kitchens mix products - a CWS cabinet run with a Cambria island top, or KraftMaid pantry towers flanking a CWS base run. We quote each component with honest numbers rather than inflating one line to cover uncertainty in another.
FAQs - CWS Construction Service in Sunnyvale
No. We are an independent construction firm, not a CWS dealer or authorized representative. We install and service CWS product based on hands-on familiarity with its construction, not on a manufacturer affiliation. Our obligation is to the fit and finish in your home.
Refacing works when the box is dry, square, and structurally sound. We replace doors, drawer fronts, and veneer skins while keeping the existing CWS boxes. If the deck is swollen, the face frame is racked, or the sides are delaminating, we’ll show you the photo evidence and quote targeted box replacement instead. Call (650) 405-3637 and we’ll assess which path fits.
Usually it’s a glide problem on the wide pot drawers CWS specs for islands. The paired undermount glides fatigue under load and lose their lift adjustment range. We replace with Blum or Grass glides matched to the original bore pattern. If the drawer box itself is out of square or the side wall is stripped, we’ll rebuild the box. The distinction matters for price - glides run a few hundred dollars; drawer box replacement adds labor and material.
Painted finishes are more vulnerable than stained. The hardwood frame shrinks against the MDF panel, and the paint film checks at the joint. Stained finishes move with the wood and show less cracking. We recommend whole-house humidification if you’re installing painted CWS product and the home lacks climate control. For existing painted doors showing checking, we can spot-repair or replace affected doors.
Yes, if the run is level within 1/8 inch over ten feet and the boxes are fastened to wall and floor. We template directly over the existing CWS cabinets, accounting for overhang and appliance clearances. If the slab is out of plane, we level first - quartz doesn’t flex like laminate, and a high spot will crack the stone. We’ll tell you before we template, not after.
A typical CWS reface on a 10×10 kitchen runs four to six business days: two for demo and prep, two for door and drawer installation, one for touch-up and hardware adjustment. A full CWS cabinet replacement with new boxes runs two to three weeks, depending on electrical and plumbing relocation. Countertop templating adds another week after cabinets are set. We build the schedule in writing, and no change extends it without a signed change order.
Book Your CWS Service in Sunnyvale, CA
Call (650) 405-3637 to schedule your free estimate. We’ll review your existing CWS cabinets or plan your new install, deliver a written line-item price before any work starts, and back the result with our 365-Day Done Right Promise. Measure it twice, write it down, then build it.
Written by Grant Rowan, Owner at Rowan Construction Group Sunnyvale, serving Sunnyvale since 2007.