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Problems With Store Bought Cabinets

I’ve installed many bathrooms and kitchen cabinet sets that where purchased from home centers. If you are planning on buying cabinetry from Home Depot or Lowes there are a few things you should know about store bought cupboards.

Potential Problems:

Many of the cabinets that you purchase off the shelves will not have scribe pieces included with the set (please note, I said off of the shelves. I am not talking about cabinets that you order).In any case, you should ask the sales person if they have scribe-fillers for the cabinets.

What is a scribe piece you ask? Well this is particular strip of wood that is also referred to as a filler. Oftentimes where cupboards get installed tight to a wall, on the left or right, the drywall or siding is not perfectly straight. This presents a problem because the kitchen and bathroom cupboards are manufactured perfectly straight. So, this being the case you must have a “scribe” piece of wood to fit to the wall. These are not included with the cupboards.

In such cases what should you do? If you are purchasing real wood cupboards perhaps you can match a stain color to the type of cabinet design you are buying. You would then just have to get a piece of wood that would accept the stain so that the end result would match your vanity bathroom or kitchen cabinets.

One thing that many people complain about is that a lot of the store bought cabinets are fabricated using particle board. Eventually you will always have problems with this type of material. Because the toe base areas are always susceptible to getting water on them when the floor is being mopped, it’s extremely important to seal the gaps between the floor and the toe base once the cabinets have been installed.

In fact, you should seal every area around the cupboards with caulking. Just make sure that you wipe off all of the excess caulking really well. IF you don’t your cabinet installation will not look professionally done.

Good rule of thumb to follow when purchasing store bought cabinetry is “you get what you pay for.” It has been my experience that the more expensive cupboards for bathroom vanities or kitchens are made with better materials than the cheaper cabinets. Most of the lower cost products have Thermofoil doors on them; some may only be vinyl.

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