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CGI Construction in Pajaro, CA | Timberline Contractors
We provide independent CGI cabinet and countertop service across Pajaro, CA, and also offer CGI repair in Watsonville. Our focus is repair and replacement work in the flood-damaged and aging homes that dominate this unincorporated Monterey County community. Since Pajaro sits in a flood plain and answers to county, not city, building rules, our CGI work here always accounts for moisture, elevation documentation, and the specific way CGI’s particleboard and MDF cores fail when they get wet. Call (866) 253-5808 for a straight answer about your cabinets.
Timberline Contractors is not a factory-authorized CGI dealer. We’re an independent general contractor that has pulled enough swollen CGI boxes out of Pajaro kitchens to know exactly what holds up and what doesn’t. Nelson Fung grew up watching his grandfather argue tile prices in Chinatown LA, learned the trade at LATTC, and now runs a crew that treats every cabinet pull like a small piece of the house’s long-term health. We carry CGI sales & service expertise into every job, but our loyalty is to the homeowner, not the manufacturer’s parts catalog.
Why Pajaro Residents Choose Us for CGI Service
We’ve worked on dozens of CGI kitchens in Pajaro’s single-story bungalows and farmworker rentals, many of them damaged by the March 2023 levee breach. That experience means we know which CGI series hold up in this marine climate and which ones turn to mush. Our approach is simple: if the boxes are sound, we save them. If the particleboard has swollen, we tell you the truth and recommend plywood-core replacements that resist moisture far better than CGI’s original substrate.
Being independent matters here. A manufacturer-affiliated shop pushes factory parts even when they’re the wrong choice for a flood-prone home. We don’t. We source OEM CGI doors and drawer fronts when matching an existing layout makes sense, and we steer you to aftermarket plywood boxes when durability wins. In Pajaro service area homes along the river side, that call gets made on almost every job.
Styles & brands we work with
Common CGI Construction Problems We Solve in Pajaro
- Swollen particleboard boxes from flood exposure. CGI’s Prelude and Lancaster lines use particleboard cores for the cabinet boxes. When the Pajaro River breached in 2023, water wicked into these boxes through the toe kicks and seams. The substrate swells, crumbles, and loses all structural strength. Doors often look fine while the box behind them is unsalvageable.
- Rusted steel drawer slides and hinges. Pajaro’s damp marine air plus post-flood humidity attacks the metal hardware CGI ships with its cabinets. Drawers start sticking within months. In unheated homes without climate control, the corrosion accelerates. We replace the hardware with coated slides that hold up better near the sloughs.
- Peeling thermofoil doors. CGI’s Ellenton series uses white painted MDF and thermofoil wraps on some models. The temperature swings and high humidity in unheated Pajaro homes cause that foil to delaminate at the edges. Once it peels, moisture gets underneath and the door face is done.
- Moisture wicking from slab-on-grade floors. Many Pajaro homes sit directly on concrete slabs with no crawl space. Lower cabinets mounted flush to the slab pull moisture up from the ground, especially in the flat, low-lying lots near the river. The base boxes rot from the bottom up while the uppers stay dry.
- Cracked or failed seams on CGI Stonehenge quartz. Quartz itself doesn’t absorb water, but the seams and the substrate underneath can. In Pajaro’s flood-prone homes, water gets under the countertop edge, the plywood underlayment swells, and seams open up. A countertop that looked fine pre-flood needs seam repair or full replacement.
CGI Service in Pajaro: What Local Conditions Mean for Your Equipment
Here’s the part most contractors won’t tell you. Pajaro is unincorporated Monterey County land. There is no city building department. Every kitchen or bath remodel that involves structural changes, floodproofing, or post-flood rebuild work along the river side goes through county channels. That means elevation certificates, floodproofing documentation, and a county inspector who knows exactly what happened here in March 2023. Contractors who work in Salinas or CGI repair in Corralitos and occasionally cross the river don’t always know that. We do. We prepare the floodproofing paperwork before demo starts, because the county won’t issue a final inspection sign-off without it. For CGI cabinet replacement on the river side of Pajaro, that documentation is not optional. It’s the first thing the inspector asks for.
CGI Models & Products We Service in Pajaro
We service the CGI Prelude series (framed cabinets with particleboard cores), the CGI Lancaster line (raised-panel oak faces, popular in the older bungalows), the CGI Ellenton series (white painted MDF doors), and CGI Stonehenge quartz countertops. For matching existing layouts, we order OEM CGI doors and drawer fronts. For flood-damaged boxes, we switch to plywood-core replacements from aftermarket fabricators built to the same dimensions. The plywood resists moisture better and costs about the same as OEM particleboard, so the choice is easy. We keep common slide hardware, hinges, and mold inhibitor on the truck for faster Pajaro turnaround.
See the difference
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AfterCGI Service Pricing in Pajaro
What you’ll pay depends on what actually survived. Refacing a kitchen with salvaged doors costs far less than pulling out every swollen box. Here are the ranges we quote most often in Pajaro:
| Service | Typical Range |
|---|---|
| Full Kitchen Remodeling | $14,000 – $45,000 |
| Cabinet Installation | $4,000 – $13,000 |
| Small Kitchen Remodel | $9,000 – $20,000 |
| Bathroom Vanity Installation | $800 – $3,000 |
A free estimate includes a full inspection of your cabinet boxes, doors, hardware, and countertop substrate. We’ll tell you what’s salvageable and what isn’t before you spend a dollar. Call (866) 253-5808 and we’ll walk the job with you.
Serving Pajaro, CA — Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Pajaro area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage — if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs – CGI Construction in Pajaro
Salvage depends entirely on where the water went and how long it sat. If the particleboard boxes wicked moisture for more than 24 hours, they’ve likely started to swell and crumble. Doors that didn’t touch water are often reusable. On a flood-damaged bungalow near the Pajaro River levee, we pulled out a CGI Prelude kitchen where the particleboard boxes had swollen and the thermofoil doors were peeling from months of dampness after the 2023 breach. We replaced the base cabinets with plywood-core boxes set on a shimmed moisture barrier and reinstalled the owner’s salvaged CGI Lancaster uppers after treating the frames with a mold inhibitor. The county inspector signed off on the floodproofing documentation, and the kitchen is back in service. Call (866) 253-5808 to have us assess what’s salvageable.
You need county permits if the remodel involves structural changes, electrical relocation, plumbing moves, or floodproofing documentation. Straight cabinet box replacement without moving walls, outlets, or plumbing usually falls under a simple fixture replacement and doesn’t trigger permit review. But post-flood rebuilds along the river side almost always need floodproofing paperwork that the county reviews before issuing a sign-off. We handle that paperwork for you. Call (866) 253-5808 and we’ll tell you what applies to your specific property.
That’s thermofoil delamination. CGI’s Ellenton line wraps MDF door fronts in a plastic film that peels when exposed to the humidity and temperature swings common in unheated Pajaro homes. Once the film lifts at an edge, moisture gets into the MDF underneath and the door face is finished. The fix is either new doors or a swap to painted wood fronts. We can quote both. Call (866) 253-5808.
Yes, in most cases. When the cabinet boxes are sound and only a few door faces are ruined, we order OEM CGI doors and drawer fronts in the matching series and finish. CGI still manufactures the Lancaster raised-panel oak and Prelude styles, so match-molding is straightforward. If the color has sun-faded or the finish has aged, we’ll tell you honestly whether a perfect match is possible or whether blending refinish work makes more sense. Call (866) 253-5808 for a match assessment.
Quartz, including CGI’s Stonehenge line, handles water exposure better than laminate or butcher block. The stone itself won’t absorb water. What fails is the seam and the plywood underlayment beneath it. We recommend a sealed seam, a moisture-resistant underlayment, and proper shimming so water can’t pool at the edges. For kitchens that saw flood depth above the countertop, we often replace the underlayment even if the quartz looks fine. Call (866) 253-5808 for an exact quote – estimates are free.
Service Areas Near Pajaro
We serve Pajaro and the surrounding Monterey County communities. Our crews regularly work in CGI service in Las Lomas and CGI service in Aromas, plus the nearby neighborhoods that share the same marine climate and flood-sensitive construction. If you’re within a short drive of ZIP 95076, chances are we already work your street.
Book Your CGI Service in Pajaro Today
If your CGI cabinets are showing moisture damage, swelling, peeling doors, or rusted hardware, don’t wait for the next flood season. Call (866) 253-5808 to schedule a free estimate. We’ll inspect, tell you what’s worth saving, and quote the fix.
Written by Nelson Fung, Owner & Pajaro General Contractor at Timberline Contractors, serving Pajaro and Monterey County. Do it right the first time or explain yourself twice.