Cabinet Refacing Contract Checklist for Murfreesboro, TN
A cabinet refacing contract in Murfreesboro, TN is not a free-form document. State law sets out what it has to contain, down to a notice that must appear above the line you sign on. Here is the checklist, and what to do with it before you hand anybody a deposit.
Nothing on this page is legal advice. It is the published requirement, linked to the source, written out in the order you would read a quote.
Nine Tennessee counties have this rule, and Rutherford is one
The Home Improvement Contractor law sits in its own part of the state code, and that part does not apply everywhere. Tennessee has 95 counties. This one applies in nine of them: Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby.
That is why a national remodeling article cannot answer this question for you, and why a page written for Tennessee as a whole is wrong here more often than it is right. The other eighty-six counties sit outside this particular requirement. Yours does not.
Outside it does not mean unregulated, and the distinction matters if you compare notes with someone in another county. The larger state contractor license applies across Tennessee at its own threshold. What the nine counties add is a second, lower tier that catches work most of the state does not license at all, and refacing sits in it.
Two things ride on it. Refacing at $4,500 to $13,000 falls inside the band the license covers, so the license is not optional for the job you are pricing. And the same part of the code sets out what your contract has to say.
Free. No obligation. Every quote written to the list below.
What the law requires your contract to contain
Ten things it must contain, and one it may not, taken from Tennessee Code § 62-6-508, the section governing home improvement contracts. Read your quote with this beside it. Anything missing is a question, not a dealbreaker.
We explain the requirement. We are not the contractor, and we never claim a license number.
- In legible writingThe contract has to be written, readable, and contain the complete agreement between you and the contractor. A verbal addition is not part of it.
- Who is signingFull names and addresses of every party. Not a trading name and a mobile number.
- The license numberThe contractor’s license number appears in the contract itself. This is the single most useful line on the page, because it is checkable.
- The date it was executedThe date the parties signed, on the document.
- The work and the goodsA description of the work to be done and the goods to be used. “Reface kitchen” is not a description of goods.
- No blank spacesCompleted in full, with nothing left to be filled in after you sign. Any document it incorporates has to be clearly described.
- The notice above your signatureThe words “NOTICE TO OWNER: Do not sign this contract if blank. You are entitled to a copy of the contract at the time you sign.” are required above the signature line.
- Start and finish datesThe approximate dates the work will begin and be substantially completed. A start date on its own is the version that cannot be held to a schedule.
- The agreed priceThe consideration the parties agreed to, stated.
- A licensing noticeA notice that home improvement contractors must be licensed by the board, with how to contact the board if you want to check.
- And one thing it may not containA power of attorney to confess judgment. No salesperson, agent or employee of the contractor may change the agreement on your behalf either.
Which license to ask for depends on the size of your job
Tennessee sets contractor licensing by contract value, so the number on your quote decides which license the company needs to be holding. There are three bands and the boundary between the middle one and the top one is the one that catches people out.
Under $3,000, the home improvement definition does not reach the job and there is generally no state licensing requirement. A handful of doors or a single repair usually sits here.
From $3,000 to $24,999 a Home Improvement Contractor license is required in Rutherford County, and holding it requires a $10,000 surety bond. Refacing lands in this band almost every time.
At $25,000 or more a full state contractor license applies instead. The state puts it plainly: that license is required before contracting for projects of $25,000 or more when acting as a prime contractor, and contracting includes bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price. A whole custom kitchen often crosses that line. Refacing almost never does, which is worth knowing if a refacing quote comes back above $25,000.
The local price ranges for every route are set out separately, with the sources behind each figure.
The Murfreesboro permit question, and where the usual answer goes wrong
Search whether cabinet work needs a permit in Murfreesboro and you will be shown the county rules. Murfreesboro runs its own permit center and publishes its own residential permit applications, so the city and the county are two separate sets of paperwork rather than one. Which set applies to your address is worth establishing before you rely on either.
The city’s own list of work that does not require a permit covers normal maintenance repairs, and names exterior and interior painting, papering, glazing of windows or doors, floor finishing, and minor repairs to chimneys, porches, underpinning or roofing.
Painting or refinishing the doors you already have is interior painting, and it is on that list by name. Refacing is not named on it either way. So the honest answer is that the city has not published one for refacing, and the five-minute version of getting it right is to ask Building and Codes rather than to take a contractor’s word for it.
Two things point the same way. The city publishes an addition and remodel application covering interior remodeling of an existing residential building, and its inspectors cover building, plumbing, gas, mechanical and electrical systems. So a kitchen job that stays on the cabinet fronts is a different conversation from one that moves an outlet or a sink, and the second one is worth asking about even if the first turns out not to be.
If your job needs a permit, you are told at the estimate.
Four checks worth doing before you sign anything
Each one takes minutes, costs nothing, and is easier to do before a deposit has changed hands than after.
Check the license number against the board, not the certificate
Ask for the number, then verify it with the state board rather than accepting a photographed certificate or a line on a website. Two things are worth confirming: that the number is current, and that it belongs to the company name written on your quote rather than to an individual who has since left. The law already requires the number to be in the contract, so this is checking something you are entitled to have in writing.
Check the band your job actually falls in
The license required at $24,000 is not the license required at $26,000, and quotes move across that line during a project more often than people expect. If your kitchen is being priced near $25,000, ask which license the company holds for work above it before the scope grows, rather than discovering the answer through a change order.
Check that the completion date is a date
The requirement is for approximate dates when the work will begin and be substantially completed, and the second half is the one that gets left out. Cabinet work has an ordering lead time ahead of the days on site, so a contract with no completion date is one where several weeks of waiting can pass without anything having gone wrong on paper.
Check what the deposit is buying
Doors are made to your openings, so a deposit against materials is normal in this trade and a company asking for one is not doing anything unusual. What matters is that the contract says what the deposit covers and when the rest falls due, and that the goods it is paying for are described well enough that you would know if something else arrived.
The price side of the same decision is on the cabinet refacing cost page, and each route has its own page: refacing, painting, refinishing, door replacement, repair and custom cabinets, all on the cabinet services hub.
The spec goes on the quote before you decide anything.
The five things the law does not require, and every quote should say
Everything above is the legal minimum. None of it describes the work. These five decide whether two quotes for the same kitchen can be compared at all.
| On the page | Murfreesboro Cabinet Co. | The typical quote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | One number, with the door and drawer count it was built from | A per-door rate, then a total that does not match it |
| What is replaced | Listed item by item: fronts, box faces, hinges, hardware | "Refinish your cabinets" — which could mean either job |
| The finish | The finish system named, and how hard it cures | "Premium paint" — the entire line |
| Where it is sprayed | Stated: doors off site in a booth, frames masked in place | Not mentioned until the crew arrives with brushes |
| When it is hard | The cure date in writing, not the rehang date | "You're good to go" on the last day |
Take our quote to any other shop and compare it line by line. That is what it is for.
Free. No obligation. Most quotes back the same day.
Working with us, in four steps
Four steps. You can stop after the second one and it has cost you nothing.
Someone counts your doors and drawer fronts
A visit, a count of every front, a look at what the boxes are made of, and a straight answer about which of refacing, painting and replacing your kitchen is a candidate for.
You get the paperwork with the list above already in it
One number, the door and drawer count it was built from, the goods named, the dates, and the terms set out rather than implied. Take it to another shop and compare it line by line.
The work, once you have decided
Fronts off, faces prepped and veneered, new fronts hung and aligned, or sprayed, or repaired, depending which number you picked.
The invoice matches the quote
Site cleaned, hardware fitted, the cure date given rather than the finish date, and the figure you agreed still the figure you are asked for.
Quote in writing before any deposit · nothing signed with blanks in it
Step one costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Contract and licensing questions people ask
What must a cabinet refacing contract include in Rutherford County?
Does Rutherford County require a license for cabinet refacing?
How do I check whether a contractor is licensed in Tennessee?
Does Murfreesboro require a permit for cabinet refacing?
Is a $25,000 kitchen a different license?
What are the red flags in a cabinet refacing contract?
What warranty terms are standard for cabinet refacing?
Is the contract void if it does not meet the requirements?
Tell us what your kitchen has. We'll price it in writing.
Say roughly how many doors and drawers there are and what you want them to look like. Someone comes out, counts them properly, and you get one fixed number in writing — priced both ways where refacing and painting are both real options. Nothing is owed if you don't go ahead.
In-home estimate is free · no obligation · most quotes back the same day.
- Free in-home estimate across Murfreesboro
- Priced from a real door and drawer count
- The finish system named on the quote
- Your kitchen stays usable while it happens