Solon, Ohio
Kitchen remodeling in Solon
A Solon kitchen that moves the sink, the range, or a wall is a full building permit, not one of the city’s simplified forms, and every subcontractor on the application has to be registered with the city before the permit issues.
Solon houses look alike until the cabinets come off the wall. The stock is production and custom from the 1970s onward: gypsum board, attached garages, HOA covenants on the elevations. Demolition is the predictable part; the paper is the variable. Solon’s contractor registration asks for $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate liability naming the City of Solon as additional insured, a sealed $25,000 bond, and a $100 fee. Applications go to Permit@Solonohio.org, and the city typically needs 7–10 business days on one.
Swapping boxes in the same footprint is one job. Moving the sink, the range, or a wall is another, and in Solon it is a full application, not one of the simplified forms the city keeps for reroofs, siding, windows and doors, and furnace or AC. Roman writes which job you are buying into the estimate. When the kitchen touches the elevation and the subdivision has a board, the estimate carries the association’s clock next to the city’s.
The photographs on this page are from our own jobs on Cleveland’s east side. Each caption says what is in the frame and when. None is presented as work in Solon.
The permit path in Solon
- Write the certificate to Solon’s formRegistration precedes the application, and Solon’s is heavier on paper than Beachwood’s. NIR carries $1,000,000 general liability plus contractors errors and omissions; the Solon certificate is issued to the city’s wording, City named as additional insured, $2,000,000 aggregate, rather than lifted from the website line. Orange Village registration #4235 does not carry into Solon.
- Close the trade list before filingThe plumber and the electrician go on the application by name. Solon does not issue the permit until each listed subcontractor is registered with the city. A plumber added after filing delays the permit, so the list closes before the packet goes in.
- Apply to Permit@Solonohio.orgA layout-changing kitchen goes in as a full application with measured drawings of the existing kitchen and the proposed one. Solon typically needs 7–10 business days to act on it. Nothing is demolished on the promise of a stamp; the start window in the estimate begins after the permit is in hand.
- Run the association clock alongsideWhen the subdivision has a board and the kitchen changes the outside of the house, the HOA filing runs in parallel with the city. NIR prepares it; you sign it. Grantwood and boards like it can refuse a color the city has already stamped, and a board approval is not a building permit. Both dates go on the schedule.
- Inspections the city callsSolon enforces the Residential Code of Ohio and inspects the work itself. On a kitchen that opens walls the holds are usually rough plumbing, rough electrical, framing if a wall moves, insulation if an exterior wall is opened, and a final. The city sets the list; NIR schedules each one.
The estimate says which of these this kitchen triggers, the Solon turnaround ahead of the start window, and whether a board adds a second date.
What Solon houses do to a kitchen estimate
Production and custom houses from the 1970s through the 2000s are built in gypsum board, so demolition and patching are drywall lines, not the plaster-on-lath work of Cleveland Heights. The earliest Solon houses fall inside the years when plumbing in the wet wall often cannot be reused, and the estimate treats that as a change-order rule written before demolition rather than a line on the last invoice. Cabinets are marked stock, semi-custom, or custom, and the counter either names its fabricator or carries an allowance.
Moving a sink moves the drain, and the drain is reached from below. A Solon basement is often already partly finished by a prior owner, sometimes without a permit, so the estimate says what opening that ceiling involves and how unpermitted work found there is handled: a change order you sign before anything is built. Induction in place of gas is an electrical line and often a panel question. A range hood that dumps into the attic is not a legal termination.
Questions from Solon
Why is a Solon kitchen not one of the city’s simplified permit forms?
Solon keeps simplified applications for reroofs, siding, windows and doors, and furnace or AC. A kitchen that moves a wall, the plumbing, or the electrical is none of those, so it goes to Permit@Solonohio.org as a full application with existing and proposed drawings. Painting, wallpaper, and same-size floor covering typically need no permit at all, and the estimate says which of these lines this kitchen crosses.
Can I do part of the Solon kitchen work myself?
Solon lets an occupying homeowner work on the house they live in if they are not in the trade. Anyone you hire still registers with the city. The estimate names what NIR and its trade partners do and marks anything you keep for yourself as excluded.
How long before a Solon kitchen starts?
The estimate names a start window that begins after the permit, not a calendar date. In front of it sit Solon’s turnaround, typically 7–10 business days once every listed subcontractor is registered, cabinet lead time, and stone templating, which happens only after the boxes are set. If the plan is still moving, the estimate waits.
My Solon subdivision has a board. Does the city permit cover it?
No. In Solon the association and the city are two clerks with two clocks, and the city stamp does not cover the association. The reverse holds too: a board approval does not let demolition start before the permit issues. Grantwood and similar streets have turned back material that was already bought.
Kitchen remodeling nearby
Other work in Solon
Kitchen Remodeling: the full scope and Solon: the permit path.
Request an estimate in Solon
Four minutes. Rooms, budget range, and when you want to start. We reply with a site-visit time, not a number.
The number reaches Roman Ivakhnenko, who writes every estimate. Texts get a reply with a site-visit time.