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Just like the contractor choice, you’re going about the cabinet purchase in the same fashion. You will end up losing again.
You must figure out what YOU want, not the other way around. You can ask 10 people what they think, but in the end it’s up to what you want.
All cabinets have different qualities. You can purchase off the shelf brands, and custom types and have the same look and result, the only difference would be how they end up going in, and how much more you need to worry about handling them due to the cost.
Just about everyone would agree, Its more about how they end up looking once they are installed.
The lower cost cabinets will look just as good as the high end one, only thing being you will spend a whole lot more time installing the cheaper ones as their tolerance in size and being square is not the same as their higher cost brothers.
If you’re inexperienced in this type of project, the more you spend the better the end result would be. But regardless of what you’re spending you better know how to properly install them. as you can mess up a cheep cabinet just as fast as an expensive one.
We install a cabinet line that is imported. They are cheap, out of square, and come with NO warranty. We end up spending about an extra day or two correcting the way there assembled, but once they are in, look, feel and the customer is real happy with result. No fancy auto draw closures, or any other bells and horns. The amount we spend on them, even if a door needs to be replaced because of a crack or a hinge does not properly work right or we spend more time putting them in everyone comes out winning.
Look at warranty on cabinet. What exactly does it cover? Hmmm. Wear on front? How rough are you on them? Wear on hinge or hardware? So what if one hinge fails, A new one is a whole lot less then the more extended warranty brand? A drawer comes apart? Really when was the last time that ever happened? Almost never, glue the drawers and re-nail and your back in business.
Personally I would never purchase cabinets from the Home Depot, Not that their cabinets are bad, but they take forever to come in, AND if there is an issue, you need to wait again several days or weeks for them to send a replacement. As a contractor, I have lost lots of money on their deliveries. Waiting only to find out they forgot something. I recently did a job for a client, who insisted that they use their cabinet line for their kitchen. Fine, Went to pick up cabinets after six weeks, only to find out that the pallets were mixed up and someone else ended up with some of my delivery. They showed that they came in on their inventory list. Factory said their paperwork showed delivered and shipped from them. But somewhere along the line someone else ended up with them. Fine, things happen right? Did not stop there I asked them to "rush" the components back to store and their reply is that the manufacture only ships every six weeks and that they will not pick up the tab on a rush order. So I have to wait on their mistake.
Never again will I purchase any special order from them again. I will walk away from the job.
Stick with local cabinet guy. Look for those who import if your really looking to save money. Be prepared to spend more time installing them as they will be out of square and will require some additional tuning up before they are put in. But if you take your time, and install them properly you will end up with a nice looking kitchen.
Put the extra money you end up with into fancy moldings, better tops, sink and accessories and your kitchen will end up looking better then the higher priced ones.
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