Questions We Get Asked, Answered Straight

Albuquerque and its neighborhoods, Rio Rancho, Corrales, Bernalillo, Placitas, Santa Fe, Eldorado, Edgewood and the East Mountains, and Los Lunas and Valencia County. See all 18 on the service areas page. No travel charge.

No. Estimates are free and on-site. You get one written number that includes template, fabrication, tear-out, install, and sealing.

Jesus, the owner, and our own crew. No subcontract install crews. The people who measured are the people who build and install.

Yes. We are at 2369 Old Hwy 66, Edgewood, NM 87015. Call (505) 203-5508 first so someone is there to walk you through the slabs and the cabinets on the bench.

JYJ FLIPS LLC is a registered New Mexico limited liability company.

Most kitchens land in a per-square-foot range that depends far more on the slab you pick than on the labor. Entry-level granites cost noticeably less than exotic imported stone, and the total is driven by square footage, how many cutouts you need, edge profile, and whether the old tops have to come out. We measure your actual kitchen and give you one written number that includes template, fabrication, tear-out, and install — no per-item surprises after the fact. Call us at (505) 203-5508 and we will walk your numbers with you.

Yes, and in New Mexico it matters more than most places. Granite is a natural stone with some porosity, and our very dry air combined with mineral-heavy hard water means spills and water rings can leave marks if the stone is unsealed. We seal every granite top before we leave. After that, a simple water-bead test once a year tells you when it is time again — if water stops beading and starts darkening the stone, it is time to reseal. For most households that is every one to three years.

Granite is igneous rock that formed under heat, so a hot pan will not scorch it the way it would a solid-surface or laminate top. The realistic risk is thermal shock — setting a screaming-hot cast iron pan onto cold stone repeatedly in the same spot. We still recommend a trivet, mostly to protect the sealer rather than the stone itself.

From template to installed top is typically one to two weeks. We laser-template once your cabinets are set and level, cut and polish in our Edgewood shop, then install. The single biggest scheduling factor is slab availability — if you fall in love with a slab that has to be brought in, add time for that.

Neither is better outright — they fail in different directions. Quartz is engineered, roughly ninety percent ground natural quartz bound with resin, which makes it non-porous. It never needs sealing, it will not stain from wine or oil, and the pattern is consistent from slab to slab, so what you see in the showroom is what lands in your kitchen. Granite is natural, handles heat better, and every slab is unique. If you want predictability and zero maintenance, choose quartz. If you want a one-of-a-kind stone and do not mind sealing it, choose granite.

This is the one real caution with quartz here, and most shops will not bring it up. The resin binder in engineered quartz is not as UV-stable as natural stone, and we get intense high-altitude sun. In a normal kitchen this is a non-issue. But for a sunroom, a patio bar, or a countertop that sits in direct unfiltered south or west sun for hours a day, we will steer you toward granite or quartzite instead. We would rather talk you out of the wrong material than warranty-argue about it in three years.

No. Quartz is non-porous, so there is nothing for a sealer to soak into. Clean it with soap and water or a mild cleaner. Skip anything highly abrasive or strongly alkaline, and use a trivet under very hot pans — the resin can scorch at temperatures that natural stone would ignore.

Generally yes. Quartz is manufactured, so if you bring us a name and a color we can usually source it or show you a close equivalent. Bring a photo or a sample chip and we will tell you honestly whether the match is exact or approximate.

Etching and staining are two different things and it is worth knowing the difference before you buy. Marble is calcium carbonate, so anything acidic — lemon, vinegar, wine, tomato, some cleaners — reacts with the surface and leaves a dull spot. That is etching, and it is a chemical reaction, not dirt; a sealer slows staining but does not prevent etching. Staining is absorption, and sealing genuinely helps with that. If a few dull spots over the years would bother you, marble is the wrong countertop and we will say so.

Bathrooms and vanities, where nothing acidic ever gets set down, are where marble is close to perfect. Fireplace surrounds and accent areas too. In kitchens it is a lifestyle choice: bakers love it because the stone stays naturally cool for rolling dough, and plenty of people genuinely like the way it patinas. If you want a kitchen surface that looks identical in year ten, choose quartz that mimics marble veining instead — we fabricate a lot of it for exactly this reason.

They look similar and get confused constantly, including by suppliers. Quartzite is a metamorphosed sandstone — it is much harder, does not etch from acid, and holds up in a working kitchen. Marble is softer and reactive. If you want the dramatic veined look with real kitchen durability, quartzite is usually the honest answer, and we will show you both side by side.

Yes, and in a kitchen we often recommend it. A honed, matte finish does not hide etching entirely but it makes it far less visible, because you are not looking at a dull spot in an otherwise mirror surface. Polished marble is stunning and less forgiving.

Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do. As long as the boxes are level and solid we template directly on your existing cabinets. If the old tops were tile on a plywood substrate we remove the substrate too, so the new stone sits on the cabinet rails where it belongs.

Usually one day. We tear out in the morning, the new tops go on the same day in most cases, and the plumber reconnects the sink that afternoon or the next morning. The two-week lead time is in the shop, not in your kitchen.

If you have a four-inch stone or laminate backsplash it comes out with the top. If you have a tile backsplash that stops at the old countertop height, a thicker new top may leave a gap. We discuss this at the measurement — options include a matching stone backsplash strip, a new tile row, or planning a full new backsplash while the wall is open.

The sink and faucet have to be disconnected before tear-out and reconnected after install. We coordinate it so the gap is as short as possible. If your old sink is a drop-in and the new top gets an undermount, the new sink is set in the shop as part of fabrication.

Custom costs more per linear foot than a stock big-box run, and less than most people assume once you compare like for like. The real comparison is not price per box, it is what you get: stock comes in fixed three-inch increments, so an odd wall gets closed with filler strips, and you pay for cabinet you cannot use. Custom is built to your actual wall, so every inch becomes storage. On a kitchen with any irregularity — and most East Mountain homes have some — the usable-storage-per-dollar math often lands closer than the sticker suggests. Call (505) 203-5508 and we will price your actual layout.

It matters and it is worth understanding. Our humidity routinely sits near twenty percent and drops lower in spring, and wood gives up moisture and shrinks in that environment. On a solid-wood raised-panel door, the center panel can shrink inside its frame and expose a thin unfinished line at the edge — that is normal wood movement, not a defect, but it surprises people. We build for it: plywood boxes rather than particleboard, panels finished on all sides before assembly so the exposed edge is not raw, and door styles chosen with the climate in mind. This is the kind of thing a shop that builds here knows and a catalog does not.

Face-frame is the traditional American build — a hardwood frame on the front of the box. It is sturdy, takes an inset door beautifully, and reads more traditional. Frameless, sometimes called European or full-access, skips the frame so you get noticeably more usable opening and a cleaner modern line. Frameless gives you more storage in the same footprint; face-frame gives you a classic look and easier inset detailing. We build both and will show you the difference in person.

If the boxes are solid, square, and laid out the way you want, refacing is genuinely good value — new doors, drawer fronts, and veneer over the frames for a fraction of a full replacement. If the boxes are particleboard that has swelled, or the layout is the actual problem, refacing puts a new face on an old problem. We will look at your boxes and tell you honestly which situation you are in.

Refinishing keeps your existing doors and boxes and gives them a new sprayed finish — paint or stain. Refacing replaces the doors and drawer fronts entirely and covers the visible box faces with matching veneer, so the kitchen gets a new style, not just a new color. Refinishing is cheaper and makes sense when you like the door style. Refacing makes sense when you want Shaker doors on a kitchen that has raised-panel oak.

Typical installed refacing runs $150–$350 per linear ft installed, which usually lands around forty to sixty percent of what new custom cabinets would cost for the same kitchen. The number depends on door style, wood or paint, and how many drawer fronts versus doors you have. We measure, count, and give you one written price. Call (505) 203-5508.

If the boxes are plywood or solid wood, square, firmly attached to the wall, and dry, almost certainly yes. If they are particleboard that has swelled at the sink base or under a dishwasher, no — veneer over a swollen box is money thrown away, and we will tell you so at the measurement. The honest test is to open the sink base and press on the floor of it.

Within limits. Refacing keeps the boxes where they are, but we routinely add a pull-out trash cabinet, convert a pair of lower doors to drawers, add a pantry pull-out, or build a new matching cabinet for an open wall. Anything bigger than that and you are into a partial replacement, which we also do.

For a cabinet-and-countertop remodel without moving plumbing or walls, plan on roughly three to five weeks from demo to final walkthrough. Custom cabinetry is the long pole — it is built for you, and that build time is real. Countertops are templated after cabinets are set and installed about one to two weeks later. Jobs that move gas, plumbing, or load-bearing walls run longer because of trade scheduling and inspections. We give you a written schedule up front and tell you the days your kitchen is genuinely out of service.

It swings widely, and anyone who quotes a number before seeing your kitchen is guessing. The drivers are square footage, whether cabinetry is refaced or fully rebuilt, the countertop material, and whether anything mechanical moves. A refacing-plus-new-tops project is a fraction of a full gut with relocated plumbing. We come out, measure, and give you one written estimate with the line items visible so you can see exactly where the money goes and what you could adjust.

Partially. There is a stretch between cabinet demo and countertop install where the sink and range are genuinely out. We tell you which days those are in advance so you can plan — most clients set up a temporary microwave and coffee station elsewhere in the house. We seal off the work area to control dust and we clean up daily.

We coordinate the full job. Cabinetry and countertops we build and install ourselves; licensed trades handle gas, plumbing, and electrical where the scope calls for it, scheduled by us so you are not chasing four contractors. You get one point of contact and one schedule.

A vanity-and-countertop refresh is usually a few days once materials are in hand. A full bathroom — new vanity, tops, tile, fixtures — typically runs two to four weeks depending on tile scope and whether plumbing moves. Custom vanity build time is the main scheduling factor, and it happens before we ever disturb your bathroom.

Bathrooms are the one place we recommend marble without hesitation. Nothing acidic ever gets set on a vanity, so the etching problem that makes marble risky in kitchens simply does not apply, and the material looks extraordinary. Quartz is the other strong choice — non-porous, zero maintenance, and it shrugs off toothpaste, cosmetics, and hair products. Granite works well too. In a bathroom you genuinely can pick on looks.

That is most of why people call us. Stock vanities come in fixed widths, and older homes and half-baths rarely cooperate. We build to the actual opening, work around existing plumbing, and can do floating, furniture-style, or full-height storage. Awkward spaces are where custom pays for itself most obviously.

We coordinate the full remodel. Vanities and countertops we build and install; tile, plumbing, and electrical are handled by licensed trades we schedule and manage, so you deal with one company and one timeline.

Our commercial work includes Hilton, Holiday Inn, Marriott Pyramid North, Homewood Suites, and Markana Uptown. Hotel renovations are repetitive, schedule-driven work: dozens of identical vanity tops that have to match and land on the day the GC says. That is a different discipline from a single kitchen, and we have it.

Yes. Because we fabricate in our own Edgewood shop we can run a full floor of vanity tops ahead of the install window and stage them, then install floor by floor as rooms turn over. We work with the general contractor’s schedule rather than around it.

Reception counters, transaction tops, break room runs, conference credenzas, and restroom vanities for offices, clinics, and restaurants. Quartz is the usual specification for commercial because it is non-porous and consistent across a large order.

JYJ FLIPS LLC is a registered New Mexico limited liability company.