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Wellborn Home Additions & ADU: The San Antonio Owner’s Guide
Wellborn home additions and ADUs in San Antonio typically run $45,000 to $130,000 for a complete project, with attached secondary units and garage conversions falling in the $30,000 to $80,000 range depending on square footage and finish level. Most owners reach out to us after realizing their existing addition or ADU has a structural or systems failure: a roofline that sags over the new space, a mini-split that can’t hold temperature in August, or a door frame that shifted so badly the door no longer latches. We inspect the failed component, write down exactly what needs replacing and what it costs, and then do the work with named materials you can verify yourself.
Which Wellborn Models This Applies To
Wellborn builds cabinet lines, not structural additions or ADUs, so when a San Antonio homeowner says they have a “Wellborn addition,” they’re usually describing an addition or accessory dwelling unit finished with Wellborn cabinetry in the kitchenette, bathroom vanity, or built-in storage. The cabinet series matters when matching a failed door front, drawer box, or hinge plate. Wellborn’s Premier, Estate, and Select series use different door profiles and interior depths, and a drawer front from a Premier line won’t sit flush on an Estate cabinet box. The way to identify what you have: open the cabinet door and look for a small white or silver label on the inside of the hinge-side stile. It lists the series, door style code, and sometimes the finish. If that label is gone, measure the door thickness and the overlay (the amount the door overlaps the face frame, usually 1/2 inch or 1-1/4 inch). That measurement narrows it down fast.
For the failed part itself, whether it’s a cabinet box that swelled from a roof leak before the addition was properly flashed, or a drawer glide that gave out after years of San Antonio humidity, we always check if the Wellborn OEM part is still available before recommending an aftermarket equivalent. Wellborn’s warranty covers cabinet defects for a limited time after install, and we’d rather use the factory part when the warranty applies. When it doesn’t, or when the cabinet line is discontinued, we source an aftermarket part that matches the overlay and finish as closely as the existing wear allows. Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio is an independent remodeling contractor, not a Wellborn dealer or affiliate, which means we’ll tell you the honest condition of the cabinet and whether a repair or a replacement is the better use of your money.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Wellborn Home Additions & ADU Is Failing
- The cabinet doors no longer close square. This is almost always a box that has absorbed moisture and swelled, or a floor that has settled under the addition’s slab or pier-and-beam base. In San Antonio’s clay-heavy soil, the latter happens more than people expect, especially after a long dry spell followed by heavy rain.
- Drawers bind or scrape mid-travel. The drawer glide has worn, or the cabinet side has shifted enough that the glide tracks are no longer parallel. Wellborn glides are side-mount or under-mount depending on the series; we see under-mount glides fail more often when a drawer has been regularly overloaded.
- The finish is cloudy or lifting along the bottom edge. Water has been sitting against the door or drawer front. This is common in ADU kitchenettes where a small sink splash goes unnoticed, and in San Antonio’s humid months the damage accelerates if the unit isn’t conditioned around the clock.
- The countertop over the cabinets has a hairline crack near the front edge. This usually means the cabinet run below has settled unevenly, and the countertop is now carrying load it was never meant to. We check the front-to-back level across every cabinet before we touch the surface.
- You can smell must or find soft spots at the cabinet toe kick. The addition’s waterproofing or flashing has failed, and water is wicking into the cabinet bases. We trace it back to the source: roof flashing, a window pan, or a plumbing fitting inside the wall.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a Wellborn-specific cabinet repair or replacement inside an existing addition or ADU in San Antonio, expect $4,000 to $13,000 for full cabinet installation when the damage is contained to the kitchenette or bath area. If the failure is structural, the work falls under the home addition range of $45,000 to $130,000, and a full ADU reconstruction typically lands between $90,000 and $220,000. The range is wide because San Antonio sits on moving soil: a pier-and-beam addition that needs re-leveling before cabinets go back in costs more than a slab addition where the cabinet boxes alone are the problem.
Every price we give is written down before any work starts. It includes the parts, the labor, the haul-away of the failed components, and the cleanup. Shoe covers and drop cloths go down on every visit, and we send a photo of the clean-up before the crew leaves. The 365-Day Done Right Promise applies to every repair and install we complete; if it isn’t done right, we make it right.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check a few things yourself: read the label inside the cabinet door to find the series code, measure the door overlay, and check whether the floor in front of the cabinet run has any visible dip using a straight edge. Those notes help us price the repair faster when you call. What you shouldn’t do is pull a cabinet box off a wall that has settled, or try to force a swollen door back into square by sanding it down. Warped and swollen boxes usually mean there’s a moisture source still active behind or under the cabinet, and prying them loose without addressing that source is a good way to damage the drywall, the plumbing, or yourself. If you’re in San Antonio and the cabinet run is moving or the room smells like wet wood, call us at (432) 233-0976. We’ll tell you what we think over the phone, and if it warrants a visit, we’ll write the price down before the first tool comes off the truck.
FAQs
Wellborn cabinets in a properly conditioned San Antonio space will last 20 to 30 years with normal use. The two things that shorten that lifespan here are uncorrected moisture from bad flashing or plumbing leaks, and uninsulated ADU spaces that bake in the sun and then pull in humid air at night. Both accelerate delamination and hardware wear.
If your cabinets are under 10 years old and the Wellborn warranty still applies to the part, call us at (432) 233-0976 and we’ll walk you through the claim. If it’s beyond warranty, we’ll give you an honest repair or replacement price either way.
Yes, in many cases. A single door front with clouding or a broken hinge plate can be reordered or matched, and drawer glides are routinely swapped without replacing the box. The repair-versus-replace decision comes down to whether the box itself is square and dry. If it is, we repair. If it’s swollen, soft, or pulling away from the wall, replacement is the better long-term call.
A single door or drawer front swap usually takes one visit. A full kitchenette or bath vanity replacement inside an existing ADU takes one to three days, depending on whether the countertop and plumbing need to come out first. Structural work that requires re-leveling the addition adds time, and we’ll write that schedule into your quote before we start.
We keep the most common hinge plates, drawer glides, and matching fasteners on the truck for the Wellborn, KraftMaid, and comparable cabinet lines we service. Door fronts, drawer boxes, and finish-matched panels are ordered to spec because the series and finish codes are too varied to stock reliably. We’ll tell you the lead time in writing with the price, and the estimate is free.
Graham Stein has a habit of writing everything down before a single tool leaves the truck. It comes from years of framing and finishing work that started at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and continued across San Antonio, including the older homes near King William where patience and an eye for original detail are the only way to do the job right. His rule on every Wellborn repair or ADU project is the same: Write it down, price it once, do it right.
If your Wellborn addition or ADU cabinets are failing and you want a written price from a crew that leaves drop cloths down, shoe covers on, and a photo of the clean-up before they drive away, call Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio at (432) 233-0976. Estimates are free, and a live person answers the phone.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio at Elmstead Remodeling San Antonio, serving San Antonio and nearby areas.
