How do they sell such junk.

[dbhost]

I am kinda rejuvenating an old thread, but I just finished building the the 5th drawer for the cabinets in my friends house. Everyone failed at the rabbit on the pull end of the drawer. The particle board just flies apart. It looks like it exploded at the joint.It is incredible that someone could sell this trash. I know I am venting here, but this type of craftsmanship is really unbelievable. Maybe I expect too much from today's quick money generation, but cabinets falling apart in less than 10 years is unacceptable.

Not to play Devil's advocate here too much. But obviously it isn't unacceptable to some people...

I would think there would be a minimum level of quality expected when buying a new home. I am not sure if your friend has any legal recourse against the builder, but it might be worth investigating.

On the flip side of the coin, LOML and I went to Old Town Spring today (a shopping area in an old small town north of Houston, lots of hand crafts, antiques that sort of thing...) and went to the Amish Barn. It's nice to see quality stuff on display at a store that sells new stuff. No you don't want to know the prices. But it is without a doubt, high quality stuff...

[drillman88]

I understand your point Dave, I grew up around construction, My family built houses from the ground up. My feeling is that you can give the buyer a much better option without spending considerbly more money. I have seen cabinets that would cost $500 more that would hold up much better. The contractors reputation should be worth that much. Todays way of buisiness is not what I am used to.

[twistsol]

Part of the trouble is that consumers don't know quality from crap. When we were looking at houses about 10 years ago we had a builder rep show us the dovetailed drawers in the cabinets they use. They were dovetailed particle board and some in the model home kitchen were already cracked. I can hardly believe they'd have stood up to even make it through the 1 year warranty in actual use.

From the builder's point of view, you save $500 on cabinets, a couple hundred each on the furnace and water heater, some more on insulation, cheap carpet, chinese drywall, thin vinyl siding ... and it doesn't take long before you can sell the "same" house as your competitor for $20k less.

Quality costs money.

[dbhost]

When I was looking to buy a home, 10 years ago now, I looked at a LOT of houses, and this particle board crap has been around a LONG time.

I was SPECIFICALLY looking for an older home as I have seen the junk that was being built at the time I was looking (and knew some of the builders and they would tell you what they were putting up was crap).

I looked at a cosmetically beautiful, just remodeled 2200 sq ft 4br 3ba in Seabrook Texas. It had brand spanking new cabinets, and they were the kind that used particleboard EVERYWHERE.

The house I ended up with is on higher ground, has 1/2 less bathroom, and is 200 sq ft smaller. But I have solid wood, and ply cabinets. They have held up to the abuse of everyday use. I am planning on redoing them, again in solid wood / ply, only out of a need for reconfiguration. I need more storage space!

[Charlie]

Deleted by me.

[natausch]

This isn't a concept that is brand new by any means.

Our house was done by a well known builder (Bigelow) over 20 years ago and while there are many innovative features in the heating and cooling of the house there are number of improvements, mostly cosmetic, we are working on to correct.

I put it down as "people wanted oak, but didn't want to pay for oak." So we had "oak" baseboards, "oak" doors, "oak" stairs, and thankfully real oak cabinets.

The day I pull out the last finger-jointed pine with faux oak styling window casing I think I'm going to cry.

[Mr__Bill]

Excuse me, I thought this was a Harbor Freight thread.

Laughing

I really think that if some of the kitchen cabinets that I have seen were from Harbor Freight they would have been better made!

Bill

[sscherin]

I get the feeling that those soft close drawer slides are not to save little kids fingers.. They are there to keep the homeowner from bashing the faces off if they slam a drawer to hard.

We had one of those 36" drawers in the kitchen back in Colorado (2004 home)
a big drawer like that gets really heavy. One day I shut it to hard and the whole face came off.

The drawers had ply sides but the front board that the real maple face screwed onto was just 1/2" veneered chip board stapled in from the side..

[jackellis]

All cabinets in the new house have plywood carcases, solid wood doors, and wood drawers. Made in a factory, but they did a credible job. My wife understands the difference between plywood and MDF.

However...I just took another look and to my absolute horror, some of the end panels (decorative, not structural) are 1/4" with paper facing. The fellow who sold us the cabinets will be here tomorrow and I will have a chat with him about those panels. The ones in the bathroom are likely to need replacing.

[just started]

Quality can still be had. I picked up matching vanities for the new master bath over the weekend. The vanities have 3 drawers on each side of the doors for under the sink. Everything is real wood. The drawers are real wood and the joints are actually dovetailed, and fairly well done too.

And they were what, $4500. each?

[twistsol]

Quality is why I'm building my own cabinets. I spent close to $2K on the Sommerfeld site a couple of years ago and have been practicing on shop furniture and basement stuff. When I start the new kitchen this spring I'll have the quality I want and still be thousands of dollars ahead.

I still need to "practice" on a new table saw stand and a sanding station before I can begin the kitchen cabinets though