Advice with upgrading an old house

[NotCranky]

I went to city cabinets recently. The prices are good and they have at least three grades and several options.They can deliver and install,if you want installation, pretty fast These are ready to assemble cabinets RTA but they don’t allow customers to assemble the brands they carry. You can buy RTA cabinets all over the internet and have them shipped to a local freight warehouse,business or residence.

I would have pulled the trigger on the cabinets I need from city but they use plastic clips to assemble them and I don’t mind saving a few bucks assembling them either. Maybe the clips are fine, I don’t know, but I want rabbited (type of joinery), glued and nailed cabinets not cams or clips. One other thing that can vary with the expensive cabinets is the finish. Some of the cheap stuff will wear off fast. This is what I was told by a dedicated kitchen remodeler friend. I am not sure if that applies to city cabinets.

http://onlinecabinetsdirect.com/ for my budget/quality balancing act I am looking at these. 13 cabinets for a small galley kitchen plus a few pieces of trim are $2800 delivered to house. That is about the same as what city cabinets bid for what looked about the same but had the clips.I didn’t verify the finish.These online cabinets also have soft closing drawer slides. City and some of the online stores are definitely better priced than the big box stores.

I wish I could find the style I want in stock somewhere in town.Has anyone seen RTA’s with glue and pin construction? Bought cabinets online? They actually look pretty good for the dough. I will probably go ahead and order them from this online store.

After reading about Waiting Hawks Ikea cabinets I think I’ll stop by there first.

[Clifford]

Russel,

Thanks for replying. I have a few questions:

– Can you please elaborate on the “plastic clips” & glue & pins (I’m not familiar with how cabinets are constructed) ?
– If you bought the 13 cabinets (of similar quality) at Home Depot, how much do you think they would cost ?
– Did you hire someone to install your cabinets ? If so, how much did you pay ?

[Clifford]

Russel,

Thanks for replying. I have a few questions:

– Can you please elaborate on the “plastic clips” & glue & pins (I’m not familiar with how cabinets are constructed) ?
– If you bought the 13 cabinets (of similar quality) at Home Depot, how much do you think they would cost ?
– Did you hire someone to install your cabinets ? If so, how much did you pay ?

[Clifford]

Russel,

Thanks for replying. I have a few questions:

– Can you please elaborate on the “plastic clips” & glue & pins (I’m not familiar with how cabinets are constructed) ?
– If you bought the 13 cabinets (of similar quality) at Home Depot, how much do you think they would cost ?
– Did you hire someone to install your cabinets ? If so, how much did you pay ?

[Clifford]

Russel,

Thanks for replying. I have a few questions:

– Can you please elaborate on the “plastic clips” & glue & pins (I’m not familiar with how cabinets are constructed) ?
– If you bought the 13 cabinets (of similar quality) at Home Depot, how much do you think they would cost ?
– Did you hire someone to install your cabinets ? If so, how much did you pay ?

[Clifford]

Russel,

Thanks for replying. I have a few questions:

– Can you please elaborate on the “plastic clips” & glue & pins (I’m not familiar with how cabinets are constructed) ?
– If you bought the 13 cabinets (of similar quality) at Home Depot, how much do you think they would cost ?
– Did you hire someone to install your cabinets ? If so, how much did you pay ?

[NotCranky]

Clifford, The first two minutes of the video will cover glue and pin construction. Usually you will find ready to assemble cabinets with either cams or clips which only join the pieces in a few places and are more susceptible to breakage IMO. The glue and pin joints will not come apart except by extreme violence.

On this particular kitchen I intend to assemble and install all.

Jade at city cabinets gave me a bid of $700 to deliver and install the cabinets with a 5/8″ plywood sub-counter top, which was very fair.

Home depot doesn’t have this quality over the counter.The OTC cabinets I have bought previously at Lowe’s are not as good either. City Cabinet best cabinet is better quality than what they have and cost less. But City has three grades so know what you are comparing. ( I haven’t checked Lowe’s lately). I think if I bought them special order assembled and boxed it would cost almost twice as much. Disclaimer: They are on the way and I may be disappointed when all is said and done. The might not be as good as Kraftmaid or Diamond(Dixieline), but they are better IMO than anything I can get for the price locally. Might not be worth the trouble to someone else.

This is a rental of mine, and a small order, so I think it is a good place to try online. I have always beefed up the construction before I put down granite so I am not worried about it too much if I have to make up for some shortcoming.

In no way am I knocking city cabinets.They come recomended by someone I trust who has done plenty of business with them plus you have AN’s experience. They were very honest and reasonable on my visit.

[NotCranky]

Clifford, The first two minutes of the video will cover glue and pin construction. Usually you will find ready to assemble cabinets with either cams or clips which only join the pieces in a few places and are more susceptible to breakage IMO. The glue and pin joints will not come apart except by extreme violence.

On this particular kitchen I intend to assemble and install all.

Jade at city cabinets gave me a bid of $700 to deliver and install the cabinets with a 5/8″ plywood sub-counter top, which was very fair.

Home depot doesn’t have this quality over the counter.The OTC cabinets I have bought previously at Lowe’s are not as good either. City Cabinet best cabinet is better quality than what they have and cost less. But City has three grades so know what you are comparing. ( I haven’t checked Lowe’s lately). I think if I bought them special order assembled and boxed it would cost almost twice as much. Disclaimer: They are on the way and I may be disappointed when all is said and done. The might not be as good as Kraftmaid or Diamond(Dixieline), but they are better IMO than anything I can get for the price locally. Might not be worth the trouble to someone else.

This is a rental of mine, and a small order, so I think it is a good place to try online. I have always beefed up the construction before I put down granite so I am not worried about it too much if I have to make up for some shortcoming.

In no way am I knocking city cabinets.They come recomended by someone I trust who has done plenty of business with them plus you have AN’s experience. They were very honest and reasonable on my visit.

[NotCranky]

Clifford, The first two minutes of the video will cover glue and pin construction. Usually you will find ready to assemble cabinets with either cams or clips which only join the pieces in a few places and are more susceptible to breakage IMO. The glue and pin joints will not come apart except by extreme violence.

On this particular kitchen I intend to assemble and install all.

Jade at city cabinets gave me a bid of $700 to deliver and install the cabinets with a 5/8″ plywood sub-counter top, which was very fair.

Home depot doesn’t have this quality over the counter.The OTC cabinets I have bought previously at Lowe’s are not as good either. City Cabinet best cabinet is better quality than what they have and cost less. But City has three grades so know what you are comparing. ( I haven’t checked Lowe’s lately). I think if I bought them special order assembled and boxed it would cost almost twice as much. Disclaimer: They are on the way and I may be disappointed when all is said and done. The might not be as good as Kraftmaid or Diamond(Dixieline), but they are better IMO than anything I can get for the price locally. Might not be worth the trouble to someone else.

This is a rental of mine, and a small order, so I think it is a good place to try online. I have always beefed up the construction before I put down granite so I am not worried about it too much if I have to make up for some shortcoming.

In no way am I knocking city cabinets.They come recomended by someone I trust who has done plenty of business with them plus you have AN’s experience. They were very honest and reasonable on my visit.

[NotCranky]

Clifford, The first two minutes of the video will cover glue and pin construction. Usually you will find ready to assemble cabinets with either cams or clips which only join the pieces in a few places and are more susceptible to breakage IMO. The glue and pin joints will not come apart except by extreme violence.

On this particular kitchen I intend to assemble and install all.

Jade at city cabinets gave me a bid of $700 to deliver and install the cabinets with a 5/8″ plywood sub-counter top, which was very fair.

Home depot doesn’t have this quality over the counter.The OTC cabinets I have bought previously at Lowe’s are not as good either. City Cabinet best cabinet is better quality than what they have and cost less. But City has three grades so know what you are comparing. ( I haven’t checked Lowe’s lately). I think if I bought them special order assembled and boxed it would cost almost twice as much. Disclaimer: They are on the way and I may be disappointed when all is said and done. The might not be as good as Kraftmaid or Diamond(Dixieline), but they are better IMO than anything I can get for the price locally. Might not be worth the trouble to someone else.

This is a rental of mine, and a small order, so I think it is a good place to try online. I have always beefed up the construction before I put down granite so I am not worried about it too much if I have to make up for some shortcoming.

In no way am I knocking city cabinets.They come recomended by someone I trust who has done plenty of business with them plus you have AN’s experience. They were very honest and reasonable on my visit.

[NotCranky]

Clifford, The first two minutes of the video will cover glue and pin construction. Usually you will find ready to assemble cabinets with either cams or clips which only join the pieces in a few places and are more susceptible to breakage IMO. The glue and pin joints will not come apart except by extreme violence.

On this particular kitchen I intend to assemble and install all.

Jade at city cabinets gave me a bid of $700 to deliver and install the cabinets with a 5/8″ plywood sub-counter top, which was very fair.

Home depot doesn’t have this quality over the counter.The OTC cabinets I have bought previously at Lowe’s are not as good either. City Cabinet best cabinet is better quality than what they have and cost less. But City has three grades so know what you are comparing. ( I haven’t checked Lowe’s lately). I think if I bought them special order assembled and boxed it would cost almost twice as much. Disclaimer: They are on the way and I may be disappointed when all is said and done. The might not be as good as Kraftmaid or Diamond(Dixieline), but they are better IMO than anything I can get for the price locally. Might not be worth the trouble to someone else.

This is a rental of mine, and a small order, so I think it is a good place to try online. I have always beefed up the construction before I put down granite so I am not worried about it too much if I have to make up for some shortcoming.

In no way am I knocking city cabinets.They come recomended by someone I trust who has done plenty of business with them plus you have AN’s experience. They were very honest and reasonable on my visit.

[LuckyInOC]

[quote=Clifford]LuckyInOC,

Thanks for replying. I have a question for you:

– You suggested installing the cabinets before putting in tiles. What’s wrong with putting tiles in first & installing the cabinets on top of the tiles ?[/quote]

The main question is do you plan on changing the cabinets or the tiles first next time?

If you put the cabinets on the tile and you want to replace the tile afterwards, you must then cut the tile next to the cabinets, under the toe-kick. Good Luck!!! Your tile installer will charge you extra to do this. Your cabinet installer will not charge you extra to install the cabinets on tile or rough.

If you put the tile in after the cabinets you can always replace you cabinets if they are in same footprint. If you think not, save some tile for later. When we did our tile, before we did our cabinets, we purchase the whole remaining lot at a discount ($0.99/sf) if we take it all. We had about 150 sf left after our initial install. This came in handy we we redid our kitchen and changed the footprint very slightly. The contractor remove the necessary tile, installed the cabinets, and replaced the removed tile. Look like the kitchen was always there…

We also use tile for the baseboard under cabinets and in bathrooms. Standard wood baseboards get ugly due to frequent wet mopping. And yes, tile under the dishwasher, even if it is not the same tile. Do you know how hard it is to lift the dishwasher over the edge of tile in that little space, if you can even lower the adjustment legs. If not, you may have to cut the legs off to get the dishwasher out. Also, put those easy-gliders on the legs. Dishwasher slides right out with no effort. Works for some ranges too.

Since we have the same tile through out the house (approx. 1200 sf.). Very few Downstairs rooms (Bathroom & Bedroom) could I even think of changing the flooring. There is no easy transition locations for two types of flooring without it looking terrible. If something happens (slab leak, wife changes her mind), I would need to replace most of the downstairs tile.

In general, you have more options when you put the cabinets in first.

Luck In OC

[LuckyInOC]

[quote=Clifford]LuckyInOC,

Thanks for replying. I have a question for you:

– You suggested installing the cabinets before putting in tiles. What’s wrong with putting tiles in first & installing the cabinets on top of the tiles ?[/quote]

The main question is do you plan on changing the cabinets or the tiles first next time?

If you put the cabinets on the tile and you want to replace the tile afterwards, you must then cut the tile next to the cabinets, under the toe-kick. Good Luck!!! Your tile installer will charge you extra to do this. Your cabinet installer will not charge you extra to install the cabinets on tile or rough.

If you put the tile in after the cabinets you can always replace you cabinets if they are in same footprint. If you think not, save some tile for later. When we did our tile, before we did our cabinets, we purchase the whole remaining lot at a discount ($0.99/sf) if we take it all. We had about 150 sf left after our initial install. This came in handy we we redid our kitchen and changed the footprint very slightly. The contractor remove the necessary tile, installed the cabinets, and replaced the removed tile. Look like the kitchen was always there…

We also use tile for the baseboard under cabinets and in bathrooms. Standard wood baseboards get ugly due to frequent wet mopping. And yes, tile under the dishwasher, even if it is not the same tile. Do you know how hard it is to lift the dishwasher over the edge of tile in that little space, if you can even lower the adjustment legs. If not, you may have to cut the legs off to get the dishwasher out. Also, put those easy-gliders on the legs. Dishwasher slides right out with no effort. Works for some ranges too.

Since we have the same tile through out the house (approx. 1200 sf.). Very few Downstairs rooms (Bathroom & Bedroom) could I even think of changing the flooring. There is no easy transition locations for two types of flooring without it looking terrible. If something happens (slab leak, wife changes her mind), I would need to replace most of the downstairs tile.

In general, you have more options when you put the cabinets in first.

Luck In OC

[LuckyInOC]

[quote=Clifford]LuckyInOC,

Thanks for replying. I have a question for you:

– You suggested installing the cabinets before putting in tiles. What’s wrong with putting tiles in first & installing the cabinets on top of the tiles ?[/quote]

The main question is do you plan on changing the cabinets or the tiles first next time?

If you put the cabinets on the tile and you want to replace the tile afterwards, you must then cut the tile next to the cabinets, under the toe-kick. Good Luck!!! Your tile installer will charge you extra to do this. Your cabinet installer will not charge you extra to install the cabinets on tile or rough.

If you put the tile in after the cabinets you can always replace you cabinets if they are in same footprint. If you think not, save some tile for later. When we did our tile, before we did our cabinets, we purchase the whole remaining lot at a discount ($0.99/sf) if we take it all. We had about 150 sf left after our initial install. This came in handy we we redid our kitchen and changed the footprint very slightly. The contractor remove the necessary tile, installed the cabinets, and replaced the removed tile. Look like the kitchen was always there…

We also use tile for the baseboard under cabinets and in bathrooms. Standard wood baseboards get ugly due to frequent wet mopping. And yes, tile under the dishwasher, even if it is not the same tile. Do you know how hard it is to lift the dishwasher over the edge of tile in that little space, if you can even lower the adjustment legs. If not, you may have to cut the legs off to get the dishwasher out. Also, put those easy-gliders on the legs. Dishwasher slides right out with no effort. Works for some ranges too.

Since we have the same tile through out the house (approx. 1200 sf.). Very few Downstairs rooms (Bathroom & Bedroom) could I even think of changing the flooring. There is no easy transition locations for two types of flooring without it looking terrible. If something happens (slab leak, wife changes her mind), I would need to replace most of the downstairs tile.

In general, you have more options when you put the cabinets in first.

Luck In OC

[LuckyInOC]

[quote=Clifford]LuckyInOC,

Thanks for replying. I have a question for you:

– You suggested installing the cabinets before putting in tiles. What’s wrong with putting tiles in first & installing the cabinets on top of the tiles ?[/quote]

The main question is do you plan on changing the cabinets or the tiles first next time?

If you put the cabinets on the tile and you want to replace the tile afterwards, you must then cut the tile next to the cabinets, under the toe-kick. Good Luck!!! Your tile installer will charge you extra to do this. Your cabinet installer will not charge you extra to install the cabinets on tile or rough.

If you put the tile in after the cabinets you can always replace you cabinets if they are in same footprint. If you think not, save some tile for later. When we did our tile, before we did our cabinets, we purchase the whole remaining lot at a discount ($0.99/sf) if we take it all. We had about 150 sf left after our initial install. This came in handy we we redid our kitchen and changed the footprint very slightly. The contractor remove the necessary tile, installed the cabinets, and replaced the removed tile. Look like the kitchen was always there…

We also use tile for the baseboard under cabinets and in bathrooms. Standard wood baseboards get ugly due to frequent wet mopping. And yes, tile under the dishwasher, even if it is not the same tile. Do you know how hard it is to lift the dishwasher over the edge of tile in that little space, if you can even lower the adjustment legs. If not, you may have to cut the legs off to get the dishwasher out. Also, put those easy-gliders on the legs. Dishwasher slides right out with no effort. Works for some ranges too.

Since we have the same tile through out the house (approx. 1200 sf.). Very few Downstairs rooms (Bathroom & Bedroom) could I even think of changing the flooring. There is no easy transition locations for two types of flooring without it looking terrible. If something happens (slab leak, wife changes her mind), I would need to replace most of the downstairs tile.

In general, you have more options when you put the cabinets in first.

Luck In OC

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