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Need advice for buying kitchen cabinets

slipgate
I am redoing my kitchen and am ready to buy the cabinets. Can anyone recommend someplace that I can purchase direct and ship direct to my house? I am looking for a decent mid-range cabinet with solid wood or plywood carcass. Fully boxed, dovetail drawers.

I was looking at Kraft Maid but was told the company recently changed hands and their quality has gone down hill.
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Comments

17 comments

Date Votes
  • bobski
    whats wrong with the old ones?
    cant you reface the old ones?
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  • slipgate
    The old ones are total crap - Ikea type cabinets with white laminate over particle board - they are literally falling apart.
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  • select-fire
    You might try the big stores .. like lowes or home depot. Just a little advice.. cabinets are a PIA to install. Let the professionals do it and complain to them if they don't look nice. Let your wife inspect them cause it will be more difficult to please her since it is her work zone. Good Luck.
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  • slipgate
    quote:Originally posted by select-fire
    You might try the big stores .. like lowes or home depot. Just a little advice.. cabinets are a PIA to install. Let the professionals do it and complain to them if they don't look nice. Let your wife inspect them cause it will be more difficult to please her since it is her work zone. Good Luck.


    NOT A CHANCE! I can get the cabinets for $4500 or so and install them myself for free, or pay someone to do it and end up spending $25,000 on the same thing. I checked Lowes/Home Depot - they sell at pretty much full retail. $9000 instead of $4500.

    I do ALL my own work. The only part of this job that will be outsourced is the counter tops since we are getting silestone and installation comes with purchase.
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  • allen griggs
    We bought our cabinets at Home Depot, they were shipped from the factory directly to my house, and I installed them. It came out well, but it is tricky.
    They are good quality, the doors are solid hickory. They have held up well over ten years.
    If there is somewhere you can buy direct for half the price, I wish I would have known about it.
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  • select-fire
    quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
    We bought our cabinets at Home Depot, they were shipped from the factory directly to my house, and I installed them. It came out well, but it is tricky.
    They are good quality, the doors are solid hickory. They have held up well over ten years.
    If there is somewhere you can buy direct for half the price, I wish I would have known about it.


    Tricky is putting it lightly. Just wait till an expensive cabinet is split out screwing them together.. Not a pretty sight.
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  • Tailgunner1954
    quote:Originally posted by select-fire

    Tricky is putting it lightly. Just wait till an expensive cabinet is split out screwing them together.. Not a pretty sight.


    They make drills that make the pilot hole, shank clearance hole and head counterbore all in one pass, combine that with the correct size screw and your splitting problems will go away (it's all about using the correct tools for the job).

    Slipgate
    Have you checked out Direct Buy? http://www.directbuy.com/
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  • He Dog
    Ours are really top notch (installed by a local company, but made in SE Missouri). I will see if I can find a link, don't quite rememver the name.

    Got it.

    http://www.shilohcabinetry.com/
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  • bhale187
    Check around your area for a cabinet factory. Factories usually have a display room for overstocked/left over cainets. My last 3 remodels I spent under $2500 on Schrock cabinets taht would have cost at least $7000 at store cost. The trick to buying them this way is to have EXACT measurements of the kitchen, and be open to any configuration you can make of the matching cabinets in stock. It takes more time and effort to go through the warehouse and find enough matching cabinets to do your kitchen, but it is definately worth the thousands you'll save.

    PS buy a DIY book or video if you have not done it before. Draw a line around the room using a level and mount the bottom of the cabinets to that line. Start in an inside corner and work your way out. Also make sure you pre-drill your holes to attach one cabinet to the next.
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  • Boomerang
    Be advised that if the cabinet maker uses the words "engineered wood" to describe their product, it is code for particle board. Do not buy as it will fall apart over time in kitchen where moisture and water are always present.
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  • Mercury
    directbuy.com is a JOKE. Don't get suckered into that scam.


    Putting in your own cabinets is NOT hard, if you go slow and do it right. Like was said, the proper tools are a must. Make SURE they are level too! 1/8" out of level at one side of the room is 6" at the other! A rotating laser level is a great help to get stuff laid out.


    Merc
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  • buschmaster
    yup, just like tailguner said (all we needed was a basic countersink bit), and use a flat bar to pry up and some shims to keep it level, and someone or 2 to help, they're easy.

    plus sometimes we put in raw countertops and did the formica ourselves, I wouldn't let that option scare you off either, it was easy too. just gotta know what to do. tools: J-roller to smooth out lumps, tin snips for rough cutting, router, countertop router bit, file, paint brush and a bucket o' glue.
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  • slipgate
    quote:Originally posted by buschmaster
    yup, just like tailguner said (all we needed was a basic countersink bit), and use a flat bar to pry up and some shims to keep it level, and someone or 2 to help, they're easy.

    plus sometimes we put in raw countertops and did the formica ourselves, I wouldn't let that option scare you off either, it was easy too. just gotta know what to do. tools: J-roller to smooth out lumps, tin snips for rough cutting, router, countertop router bit, file, paint brush and a bucket o' glue.


    I'm am totally not concerned about any of the installation. I will check out the links above and hopefully get a "deal".

    Thanks for the countertop tip but our big splurge on the kitchen will be the silestone countertops and marble back splash (@$5k).
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  • Mk 19
    If you have the time you could just build them yourself, it is real easy work. Basically your just building a box. but atliest you can have the box your way. I made cabinets for a couple of years, we would buy our doors from Corona Millworks, they do nice work for a decent price.

    http://www.urcswebpreview.com/Corona-Millworks/
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  • He Dog
    You will not be sorry you got the Silestone.
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  • jpwolf
    My brother went to some "habitat for humanity" leftovers store of some kind and found beautiful cabinets really really cheap. They weren't junk, he's a carpenter of some 25 years and as anal as they get so if they weren't good, he wouldn't have bought them.
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  • hslaterpryce
    You are right about KRAFTMAID! STAY AWAY from them! I bought Kraftmaid and it was over 12 months before my kitchen was complete. I wrote 3 letters to the CEO of Kraftmaid and he did NOTHING. The quality and service was reprehensible. Stay away from Kraftmaid. I will do what ever I can to try and convince anyone NOT TO buy Kraftmaid. [:(!][xx(][:(!][xx(]
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