home tips for more helpfull home improvement

designer_girl_76 December 27th, 2009 at 10:32

When you purchase cabinetry through Home Depot, Home Depot becomes responsible for the product no matter who the manufacturer is. The place that sells you the cabinets is responsible to you and the manufacturer is responsible to the retailer.

Every major manufacturer has different product lines of varying qualities, so it is very possible that the cabinets available from one manufacturer at one place are better or worse than those from the same manufacturer at another place. The same is true in the appliance industry and other areas too.

The biggest problem with cabinetry from Home Depot, or any other place offering “shelf-item” cabinetry is that only certain sizes are available so you will likely have to have fillers to compensate for the lack of custom sizes.

What to look for in quality is the finishing, especially of the doors. Inspect corners, joints, panels, and the finish (lacquer) itself. The next most important thing to check is the quality of the hardware: Do the doors and drawers operate smoothly? What is the weight capacity for the drawers? Are the extra features you want available and of good quality (such as pull-outs, built-in spice racks, etc. . . )? Good luck!

T C December 27th, 2009 at 10:58

I like designer’s answer. Home depot does offer an inexpensive line of cabinets. They use a lot of man made material for shelves backs and bottoms. A lot of custom cabinet makers can give you what you want for about the same money when you up grade to KRAFTMAID, etc. I installed “store bought” ( cheap cheap) cabinets in my mothers house when I was seventeen. That was forty five years ago. They went through five kids and twenty two grand kids. The cabinets and mother are still doing great.

Michele T December 27th, 2009 at 11:54

My husband and I have bought HD kitchen cabinets for two homes. We’re really happy with them (he LOVES them).

They’re the Mills Pride brand, which I think is the HD brand. Maybe that’s what people are thinking of when they tell you they’re not made as well. We’ve had them for 5 years, and they still work and look great.

The one thing I would change about the cabinets in our present home though is, there was some kind of option of whether to have some additional facing inside the cabinet (where the cabinets close together). We didn’t do that (to save money) and there’s visible space into the cabinet. I’m unhappy with it, but I’ve never complained about it to my husband because he is so proud of those cabinets. So, if that’s an option for you, go with the extra facing.

We installed them ourselves too. We’re amateurs and made some mistakes accordingly. But very livable mistakes, nontheless.