Voted Best Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeler in Tampa Bay for the Seventh Straight Year

Tampa Bay homeowners have voted CMK Construction the best kitchen and bathroom remodeler in the region again. In the 2026 Tampa Bay Times Best of the Best People’s Choice Awards, CMK earned Gold in both Best Kitchen Remodeler and Best Bathroom Remodeler. It is the seventh consecutive year our neighbors have put CMK at the top of this category, and the sixth consecutive year we have taken Gold in both categories at once.

Quick Answer

CMK Construction won 2026 Tampa Bay Times Best of the Best Gold in two categories, Best Kitchen Remodeler and Best Bathroom Remodeler. That is the sixth consecutive year CMK has taken Gold in both categories, 2021 through 2026, within a seven-year run of recognition that began with Silver in both categories in 2020. Best of the Best is a People’s Choice award, which means the results come from Tampa Bay residents voting on an open ballot rather than from a panel of judges or an entry fee. Winners are tabulated by an independent third party and published each August by the Times.

What the Best of the Best award actually measures

Most homeowners see a badge on a contractor’s website and have no way to judge what stands behind it. Some awards are earned. Others are purchased, or handed out by directories that rank whoever advertises with them. Because that distinction matters more than the badge itself, here is how this program works, taken from the contest’s own published rules.

Best of the Best runs in two phases. The community nominates businesses first, with a window that ran from April 15 to May 6 in 2026, and a category only reaches the ballot if at least three businesses are competing in it, so a win is never uncontested. Voting then runs about three weeks, May 13 through May 31, with each voter allowed one vote per category per 24-hour period. Nominations and votes are totaled by a third party, and the Times does not know the results until tabulation is complete. Only the top three finishers in each category receive an award, ranked Gold, Silver, and Bronze [1].

Two rules matter more than the rest. There is no cost to enter and no cost to win, so no company can buy its way onto the list, and offering goods, services, or discounts in exchange for votes is prohibited, with disqualification as the penalty [1]. What is left is a straightforward measure of how many homeowners will voluntarily return, day after day for three weeks, to name one remodeler as their favorite. The award is published by the Tampa Bay Times, a newsroom owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute and the winner of 14 Pulitzer Prizes [2].

Apply that same standard to licenses, which are easier to verify than any badge. Every Florida contractor license can be checked in about a minute on the state’s public database. CMK holds a Certified General Contractor license (CGC 1516665), a Certified Plumbing Contractor license (CFC 1430533), a Certified Roofing Contractor license (CCC 1336554), and a Registered Electrical Contractor license (ER 13016498), all active and all searchable through the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation [3]. Look up any contractor you are considering, including us, on our awards and licenses page.

What this award should mean when you choose a remodeler

Here is the honest version, from the company that just won it. An award should never replace the work of vetting a contractor. Verify the license is active and matches the scope. Read reviews for patterns rather than averages, watching whether problems get resolved. Confirm the company pulls permits in its own name. Get the warranty in writing. Ask who your point of contact will be and how often you will hear from them. Any remodeler worth hiring will answer all of it without hesitation.

What a community-voted award adds is a different kind of evidence. Licenses tell you a company is legally permitted to do the work, and reviews tell you what individual projects were like. Six consecutive years of first-place finishes tells you something neither can, which is whether satisfaction has held up across many years rather than a handful of recent jobs. It is most meaningful when the other checks confirm the same thing, so treat it as a tiebreaker between qualified finalists rather than a shortcut past the questions above.

Why the best kitchen and bathroom remodeler is rarely the same company

Kitchens and bathrooms look like neighbors on a service list, but they are different disciplines. A kitchen remodel lives or dies on layout, structure, cabinetry precision, and electrical load. Opening up a closed-off kitchen can require structural engineering and a beam sized for the span, cabinet runs have to be set dead level across a room that settled decades ago, and today’s appliance and lighting loads often outrun the circuits an older panel was built to carry.

A bathroom remodel is a waterproofing problem wearing tile. Success is decided almost entirely by layers you will never see again once the job is finished: the membrane behind the tile, how the seams and corners are sealed, and how the drain and every pipe penetration are integrated into that envelope. Get it wrong and problems may remain hidden for months or even years before stains, mold, loose tile, or damaged framing reveal what happened behind the wall.

Plenty of companies are genuinely good at one of these. Taking Gold in both in the same year means homeowners across two very different project types reported the same experience. Doing it six years running points to process rather than luck.

Seven years of recognition, six consecutive years of double Gold

Six straight years of first place in both categories is a long run in a market this crowded, and it is not a run we have seen matched among Tampa Bay remodelers. Voting resets to zero every spring, past wins carry no advantage, and a company is only as strong as the clients whose projects finished in the previous twelve months. Holding two categories at once means the kitchen side and the bathroom side both have to deliver in the same year, every year. A streak like this one is built one happy homeowner at a time.

While CMK may not be the lowest bid you receive, I can assure you they will do the best work.

Kevin Korth, master bathroom remodel

Planning a kitchen or bathroom remodel? Visit one of our Design Studios or schedule an in-home consultation. We will review your space, discuss layout and design options, identify the plumbing, electrical, and permitting considerations specific to your home, and help you understand what the project will realistically require before construction begins. Call (813) 379-2116 or schedule your consultation.

What earns the votes in the first place

Awards are the outcome, not the strategy. What brings homeowners back to vote is what happened in their house over six to twelve weeks, and that comes down to a handful of deliberate choices.

1. One accountable team, from design through final walkthrough. CMK is a design-build company, so the people who plan the project and the people who build it work together, leaving no gap between what was promised and what the crew understands.
2. A named project manager on every job. Not a call center, not a rotating cast. A specific person who visits the house, answers the phone, and tells you which trade is arriving next.
3. Licensed plumbing and electrical work under our own licenses. The company installing the waterproofing is the same company making the plumbing connections that penetrate it, which removes the finger-pointing that follows most leak callbacks.
4. Selections made in person before anything is ordered. Cabinet finishes and stone slabs look different under real light than in a catalog. You choose them at a Design Studio, and nothing ships until you approve it.
5. Permits and inspections handled by us. CMK regularly manages remodeling permits across the counties we serve and coordinates the inspections, so you never visit a permit office.
6. A written warranty. Every CMK project carries a one-year Peace of Mind Warranty covering workmanship and the materials we install.

What holds up in a Gulf Coast climate

Homeowners who had to call someone back do not campaign for that company three years later, so a long streak is really a durability record. Summer dew points sit in the low to mid 70s across the region, which keeps moisture pressure on a bathroom closer to constant than occasional, and durability comes down to a short list of material choices.

Local conditions shape the work in ways a national article will not tell you. Slab-on-grade construction is the regional norm, so moving a shower drain or a kitchen sink often means cutting and repouring concrete, which belongs in the plan and the permit from the start rather than surfacing later as a change order. Coastal salt air attacks fixture finishes and cabinet hardware first. Older housing stock hides galvanized supply lines and undersized panels behind the wall you are about to open. Condominium and HOA projects add approval steps and work-hour restrictions that have to be built into the schedule from the beginning.

Do these projects need permits?

In nearly every case, yes. Remodels involving plumbing, electrical, or structural changes require a permit from the city or county with jurisdiction over the property, and requirements differ between incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The permit is what brings an independent inspector to review the waterproofing, plumbing, electrical, and structural work before it disappears behind finished surfaces, so skipping it removes the only outside check on the parts of the job you cannot evaluate yourself. When CMK is your contractor, we pull the permits, schedule the inspections, and keep the project documented correctly.

Where to start if you are planning a project

The best first step is usually a visit. Both Design Studios, the original in Tampa and the new Sarasota location that opened this year, are set up so you can see and handle real materials before committing to anything.

For related planning, see our kitchen remodeling services, our bathroom remodeling services, and our Design Studio showrooms in Tampa and Sarasota. To see finished work first, browse the project gallery or our customer reviews. Larger scopes start with whole-home remodeling, and anyone comparing bids will find more vetting questions in our frequently asked questions.

Thank you for seven years

CMK Construction has been family owned since 2004, and we have completed more than 7,000 residential remodeling projects across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, and Sarasota counties. Every one of them was someone’s home, and every vote in this award came from a household that decided the experience was worth speaking up about. We are in the happy customer business, and being voted the best kitchen and bathroom remodeler in Tampa Bay for a seventh consecutive year, with Gold in both categories for the sixth year running, is the clearest evidence we have that the standard is holding. Thank you for that.

If your kitchen or bathroom is next, we would like the chance to earn your vote too. Call (813) 379-2116 or schedule a consultation.

FAQ

References

• [1] Official Rules, Tampa Bay Best of the Best — https://tampabaybestofthebest.com/official-rules/
• [2] About Us, Tampa Bay Best of the Best and the Tampa Bay Times — https://tampabaybestofthebest.com/about-us/
• [3] Licensee Search, Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation — https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp