Kitchen remodeling in Henrico County

41%⁴ of Henrico's homes were built before 1980, a little under the metro's 44%⁴, and another 33%⁴ went up in the 1980s and 1990s. The older kitchens are often closed rooms off a dining room; the newer ones more often open toward a family room, so the work tends to be about opening walls in one and replacing worn surfaces in the other.

When cabinets, window trim or a plaster wall come out of a pre-1978 house, the paint rules matter. EPA's lead renovation rule requires anyone paid to disturb painted surfaces in a home built before 1978 to be lead-safe certified, and the EPA says about three-quarters of U.S. homes built before 1978 still contain some lead-based paint.¹¹ Ask how the crew will contain dust and clean up at the end of each day.

Circuits are the most common upgrade in an older kitchen. The 2021 International Residential Code calls for at least two 20-ampere branch circuits for kitchen and dining-area receptacle outlets, and allows an outlet for a specific appliance to have its own circuit.¹² The same code requires ground-fault (GFCI) protection on receptacles that serve kitchen countertop surfaces.¹³ A panel from the 1950s or 1960s may not have room for that, so have it looked at before you settle on appliances.

Henrico requires a permit for new and replacement installations of gas ovens, gas or wood stoves or heaters, and gas or oil water heaters.⁹ Henrico exempts the replacement of mechanical appliances in houses, townhouses and condominiums only when the equipment is not fueled by gas or oil.⁸ That means both a swap from one gas range to another and a switch from electric to gas go through the county, so build the permit and inspection into the schedule.

If Richmond Gas Works serves your street, the piping inside the house is yours to look after. Richmond's Department of Public Utilities says the owner or occupant of a building supplied with natural gas is responsible for maintaining any piping between the gas meter and the appliances.⁶ The 2021 International Residential Code says a kitchen range exhaust must discharge outdoors through its own airtight duct with a backdraft damper, never into an attic, crawl space or other indoor area; listed ductless hoods are the exception.¹⁴ The EPA says a stove hood with a fan vented to the outdoors greatly reduces exposure to pollutants during cooking, and advises installing and using exhaust fans over gas stoves and ranges.¹⁵

Henrico's 2025 water quality report says its water comes from the county's own treatment facility and from the City of Richmond's plant, which supplies Henrico about 13 million gallons a day, and that both draw surface water from the James River.¹⁶ Henrico's 2025 water quality report points residents to the Henrico Water Service Inventory Map to look up the material of their water service line.¹⁶ The county's report doesn't list hardness, so ask the utility for a reading before you buy a softener or a filter for the icemaker line. Homes on private wells can use the county's testing clinic: Henrico Extension's 2026 clinic for private wells, springs and cisterns tests water for hardness, iron, manganese, lead, copper, pH, coliform bacteria and other items, at $70 per sample.¹⁷

More than one in four adults 65 and older fall each year.¹⁸ The National Institute on Aging suggests keeping frequently used pots, pans and utensils where they are easy to reach, and preparing food while seated to prevent fatigue or loss of balance.¹⁹ In a one-story ranch the kitchen already sits on the only floor, which makes it a good place to add drawers in place of low cabinets and a counter section you can work at sitting down.

Henrico's Moderate Housing Rehabilitation Program, administered for the county by project:HOMES, offers improvements of up to $45,000, including adaptability improvements, to low- or moderate-income homeowners who are elderly (62 or over) or disabled.²⁰ If you plan to stay for decades, mention it when you call so the layout can be planned around it. NAHB's Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) credential trains remodelers in home modifications for aging in place.²¹

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Before you sign or pay a deposit, look the company up yourself. Virginia's Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation advises hiring only licensed contractors, and its License Lookup shows a license's status and any past disciplinary actions.²² Virginia's Board for Contractors licenses contracting businesses as Class A, B or C; the class sets the dollar value of jobs a firm may take on, and its classification or specialty sets the type of work it may do.²³ Check a Virginia license