opinion on cabinets
I am currently redoing three rental apartments that I own. I would like to install durable, long lasting cabinets that are affordable. I don’t want to get contractor grade but I am not looking for high end either. Should I get stock cabinets from home depot or go to a local cabinet maker. Any recommendations?
I am currently redoing three rental apartments that I own. I would like to install durable, long lasting cabinets that are affordable. I don’t want to get contractor grade but I am not looking for high end either. Should I get stock cabinets from home depot or go to a local cabinet maker. Any recommendations?
Home Depot (as well as Lowe’s and others) carry several different makers of cabinets and different quality of lines within most of them. To blanketly say don’t buy HD cabinets is just pretty stupid.
I own a 4 family building and installed IKEA kitchen’s in all 4 apartments, price was very reasonable. The only issue with IKEA is you have to put ALL the pieces together, other than that no complaints. A tenant who moved out damaged one cabinet door and I was able to order a new door from IKEA with no problem at all.
Good luck with your reno!
Like Tinarina, the IKEA cabinets in our rental look perfect 9 years in. They are actually wearing better than the cabinets our GC custom built for our own kitchen. Good installation is important. Again, our GC handled and we’ve had no problems. The style is Nexus, birch veneer, very simple design — flat, modern, no moldings.
I’ve had Ikea cabinets in a rental apt for over 8 years and they’re holding up extremely well. A few years back a tenant managed to break a cabinet door. I called Ikea and a replacement was UPS’ed to me in less than a week.
If you go to Ikea with accurate measurements for your space, including where the water and electrical/gas hookups are, they can create drawings for you for free. In the past, it was best to have an appt for this service, but not sure if that’s still the case.
And you can always use a handyman or installer to assemble and hang the cabinets if that’s not your thing.
The Home Depot in Manhattan has a much broader line of cabinets than any of the other locations and has few very high quality lines. Do your kitchen layout and take it to various places. Yes, as others have said, solid wood is going to last much lomger.
If you don’t mind spending the time to haul and put together, Ikea has very high quality cabinets for their price.
The landlords where I live (cheap part of Brooklyn) seem to go to these local cabinet places and they get what appears to be solid wood cabinets or plywood cabinets with what appears to be wood veneers on top. (Not particleboard.) We’ve had a set in our kitchen for a year, and they are holding up pretty well. You have to be careful not to put weight on the doors when you open them, though, because the hinges don’t seem all that solid. I don’t know exactly how much they cost, but I suspect they are very inexpensive, based on what I know of my landlady.
NOT Home depot.
I don’t know what happened with your IKEA; they are normally very durable. Real wood is more expensive; IKEA cabinets offgas low or zero formaldehydes nowadays and the term “flakewood” is not pejorative. Since IKEA is about $100-$150/cab, I’m quite surprised at skcabinet’s prices. Without doors and hinges?
Kraftmaid from Home Depot are good quality
http://www.kraftmaid.com/