kitchen cabinets

[Bzcraig]

When I built my house, I was able to get custom made cabinets made for less than Home depot or Lowes. I have 3 friends that have made them for their camps. It is not that difficult. Installation only took a few hours. It goes much easier with 2 people.

I'm a recently retired contractor and this is 100% true. They hire out the work, it's not their own people, they require payment up front and have no control over the schedule or quality of the installer. You can get custom cabinets and professional installation cheaper, not to mention licensing and insurance concerns.

[Battis]

I'm no fan of Lowes. I actually worked there for 3 months (part time, 20 hrs a week) a few years ago. The fact that I got hired to work in the plumbing dept. is kinda funny. "Yep, the cold faucet is on the right, hot on the left...I think." I sent more customers to the local hardware store than I helped.
I'm hoping they screen their contractors better than they screened me. SweatPea posted that they screen pretty well.
Tough one. I've done a lot of work on my house - floors, walls, ceilings, windows, exterior, (even some plumbing) but the thought of pros coming in and getting it done in a day is appealing.

[Battis]

We found a local dealer that sold us higher quality cabinets for less than Lowes. They'll take 6 weeks to make, so I can look around for someone to install them, or plan to do it myself. Thanks for the suggestions and info.

[shooter93]

I have been doing this for a living for over 50 years. If you haven't already bought the cabinets look around for small custom shops.....and I mean true CUSTOM shops not "box shops" I can't tell you how many times customers have told me....I was surprised that you were very little more than the box stores, gave me exactly what I wanted which they couldn't do, and the quality was amazing.

[MyFlatline]

I have been doing this for a living for over 50 years. If you haven't already bought the cabinets look around for small custom shops.....and I mean true CUSTOM shops not "box shops" I can't tell you how many times customers have told me....I was surprised that you were very little more than the box stores, gave me exactly what I wanted which they couldn't do, and the quality was amazing.

Yep, I couldn't agree more..Check out to 75 miles. I know the shop I use will go that far..

[Battis]

I looked for a small custom shop but found nothing. I even signed up on Home Advisor, but...nothing. We even checked a salvage company to see if anything could be refurbished, but found nothing.
The cabinets we bought are made in TN (if I remember correctly). I didn't have a good feeling about Lowes - this place is much better.

[MyFlatline]

Best of luck...Wish I could help, but you are to far away and it's too dang cold up there...

[Battis]

Thanks. It is cold up here, but I have a nice woodstove 10 ft away.
All of the small cabinet places around here are designers, not woodworkers. They'll design your kitchen, then order the cabinets from the factories. The place we went to today was in a warehouse, what I'd have to call a real dump, but they had knowledgeable people and good prices, no real overhead, and hopefully good service.

[MT Gianni]

We moved into a custom home last June. Our contractor used a local cabinet shop that beat HD & Lowes but 25% using a dark hardwood. You will not see Oak in a custom home for quite a few years as it has fallen out of fashion. That may not mean much now but will mean a lot if you ever need replacement doors. The local shops are usually much more favorable on install times. We bought HD flooring and their wait for an installer was 5 weeks. We were done and in the house three weeks later.

[10x]

My wife and I had custom cabinets installed for 2/3 the price of the local lumber store cabinets.
4 bids - 3 used MDF partial board . The bid (installed with counter top) from the custom cabinet shop for all birch (no mdf) was 2/3 the price of the other three bids. Not an inch of wasted space and excellent service and warrantee

[Love Life]

My wife and I had custom cabinets installed for 2/3 the price of the local lumber store cabinets.
4 bids - 3 used MDF partial board . The bid (installed with counter top) from the custom cabinet shop for all birch (no mdf) was 2/3 the price of the other three bids. Not an inch of wasted space and excellent service and warrantee

I had the same experience. Put a free ad in the local classified section looking for cabinet makers, and got nice cabinets for a good price.


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[OS OK]

Buy yourself a book on cabinet making...read some, look at the pictures...remember what you see. Now...
take a serious look at the materials and construction of those Low's Cabinets.

Nuff said.

[frkelly74]

I got these cabinets from Menards and the top also. They are cheap cabinets , no doubt about that, but they seem solid once you get them screwed down and my wife likes the way they look. Total cost for materials was about $3000 and I do all our work myself. It keeps me out of the bars and out of trouble.

[Battis]

An update on installing cabinets...
We're installing them ourselves. With a ledger board on the wall to rest the cabinet on while installing, it's not too hard. But these cabinets are in three pieces - base, top and "way up". The wall hanging cabinets are 30" high with an 18" cabinet on top.
The house was built in 1892. Nothing is plumb, square, or level. One section of the wall apparently had a window at one time, so there's no studs in that square area. If not for the 18" "way up" top cabinets, I would have been done in a day.
It's not that bad. It's a challenge but it'll get done. Behind the base cabinets there's original wainscoting on the walls - it's close to an inch thick. I wish I could save it somehow, but that means ripping it out and replacing it with something.