Brookfield’s kitchen remodel checklist: what it means for your new cabinets
Brookfield lists remodeling a kitchen as permit work, and its kitchen remodel checklist even mentions cabinet replacement. It asks for a signed application, your contract or a homeowner’s scope and waiver, and a scaled floor plan with the new cabinet layout, appliances, fixtures and outlets, plus rules for the sink, dishwasher and countertop outlets.
Why start a Brookfield cabinet order with the village checklist?
Permits in Brookfield come from the village itself, not from Cook County. Its Building and Permitting page (opens in a new tab) lists adding or remodeling a kitchen, along with bathrooms, basements and attics, as work that needs a permit, and says work done without a permit is charged a triple permit fee.
Cabinets aren’t named on that page. The village’s Kitchen Remodel Application Checklist (opens in a new tab) does mention cabinet replacement, though, and it shapes the layout itself. So read it before the cabinet order is final, and confirm your job with the village.
What do you hand in?
- The application: the building permit form, completed and signed.
- Who does the work: with a contractor, a copy of the signed contract and a contractor registered with the village; without one, a detailed scope of work or materials list and a signed homeowner’s waiver.
- The drawing: a scaled floor plan of the kitchen with dimensions, any demolition and the proposed cabinet layout, marking every appliance, fixture and electrical outlet.
Applications go in online through the village’s permit portal. Every contractor and subcontractor working in Brookfield needs a Village of Brookfield contractor license, and plumbers need a State of Illinois or City of Chicago plumbing license.
What does the checklist mean at the sink?
Several of the checklist’s items meet at the sink base cabinet:
| Shutoffs | a separate water shutoff valve for each fixture. |
|---|---|
| Double bowl sink | a 2‑inch drain line with a 2‑inch cleanout. |
| Dishwasher | an electrical disconnect under the kitchen sink, and no draining into the disposal. |
| Disposal | a switch on the wall above the countertop. |
Plan the sink base, the dishwasher spot and the disposal as one piece of the layout, so the valves, the drain and the disconnect all have room under the sink.
What does it mean for the countertops and the island?
The checklist asks that countertop outlets be GFCI-protected 20 amp devices, spaced to the 2023 National Electrical Code. An island counter under 4 feet long needs at least one GFCI outlet; a longer one needs at least two, spaced every 4 feet.
Those outlets have to land somewhere on the island’s cabinets or end panels. Decide where before the cabinets are ordered, because a door or drawer can end up exactly where the outlet needs to go. The same goes for countertops: the outlets along the backsplash wall sit between the top and the wall cabinets.
What if an older Brookfield kitchen’s wiring falls short?
The checklist answers that directly: “electrical upgrades are required for cabinet replacement if the existing system is not in compliance.”
That line matters most in older homes. Half of Brookfield’s homes were built in 1953 or earlier, going by CMAP’s community data snapshot. A kitchen that hasn’t been rewired in decades may not have the countertop outlets the checklist describes, so have an electrician look at it before you commit to a layout.
Can a 3D plan help with the floor plan drawing?
It gives you a head start. HausRack plans kitchens in 3D, and that plan already has the cabinet layout and the appliance spots worked out to your measurements.
Ask the village whether a printout of it can be part of your drawing, and add the outlets and fixtures the checklist wants marked. Settle early, too, who applies for the permit and who the registered contractor is, since the application asks for both.
Redoing the bathroom too?
Brookfield has a separate bathroom checklist, and our guide to a vanity with its top or a base only covers what it asks for around the sink.
