Custom Cabinetry

Size grid and freedom. Stock comes in fixed widths, usually three-inch steps, in a short list of doors and finishes, so the layout is fitted to the boxes with filler strips. Semi-custom keeps that grid but lets you change depth, height, finish, door style and interior fittings to order. Custom is drawn for your room: any width, any height, any species, built one job at a time. Cost rises in that order and so does lead time. The honest test is your room rather than your taste — if the walls are reasonably square, the ceiling is a standard height and nothing odd is in the way, a good semi-custom line can look identical for less money.

Lead time is the hidden schedule driver on almost every kitchen. Stock can be days to a few weeks, semi-custom typically runs several weeks, and a custom shop is booked out before it even starts building and finishing your job. The clock does not start when you sign — it starts when the final selections are locked and the order is released, which is how an undecided door colour quietly costs a month. A realistic plan orders cabinetry early and schedules demolition backwards from the delivery date, so you are not living without a kitchen while a shop sprays. Ask for the current quoted lead time in writing at the time of order rather than a general figure.

Sometimes, and it can be good value. Refacing keeps the existing boxes and replaces doors, drawer fronts and the visible skins, so it works when the boxes are sound plywood, still square, and the layout already suits you. It is the wrong choice if you want a different arrangement, deeper drawers or a taller run, because you are paying to keep the very part that limits you. Spraying existing cabinets on site is cheaper again, but a site finish never cures as hard as a shop-applied catalysed one, and old varnish, grease around the cooktop and open grain all need real preparation. Ask what happens to the interiors — a fresh face on a tired box disappoints quickly.

Hairline cracks at door joints are the common complaint, and they are usually wood movement rather than bad paint. A solid timber panel gains and loses moisture as indoor humidity swings between a sealed summer and a damp winter, and the joint line moves with it. Building painted doors with a stable MDF centre panel, or choosing a slab door, removes most of that risk. Yellowing is a separate, finish-driven question: some oil-based whites amber over the years, while modern catalysed and waterborne systems hold colour much better. Ask which finish system is being used by name, ask to see a cured sample, and keep a labelled touch-up kit — matching a white two years later is harder than it sounds.

It matters most where water and weight are, which is not everywhere. Under sinks and dishwashers, and anywhere a slow leak can sit unseen, plywood or a sealed high-density board is worth paying for, because cheap particleboard swells permanently once an edge wicks water. Plywood also anchors screws better where hinges and heavy slides pull. Elsewhere, a well-made furniture-board box with fully sealed edges and a tough interior laminate performs perfectly well, and that is what many good semi-custom lines use. The questions worth asking are about edge sealing, interior surface and hardware anchoring rather than the word on the brochure. If a quote does not state what the boxes are made of, ask before you compare it with anything.

Replacing cabinetry in the same layout, with no change to plumbing, gas or electrical, generally does not need a permit. The moment a sink moves, an island gains circuits, a hood duct is rerouted or a gas line shifts, you are in permitted work, and those parts belong to TDLR-licensed plumbers and electricians. The catch in this region is jurisdiction: your mailing address does not tell you who issues the permit. Some areas are unincorporated and inspected by the county, one large community is governed as a township, and some neighbourhoods answer to an HOA architectural committee as well as, or instead of, a municipal office. Confirm the authority for your specific address before the schedule assumes an inspection date.

Most likely the house moved rather than the cabinets. The clays under much of this region swell when wet and shrink when dry, so slabs and framing shift with the seasons — the same reason interior doors start sticking and drywall corners crack. A run installed dead level can be a fraction out after a full wet-and-dry cycle, and it shows up first as a rubbing door or an uneven reveal between drawer fronts. Quality concealed hinges adjust in six directions and undermount slides adjust for height and tilt, so this is a tuning visit, not a rebuild. Budget one adjustment after the first year, and do not chase perfect reveals in the middle of a drought.

Yes, and skipping it is the most common cause of avoidable rework. Cabinet openings are cut to one model’s width, depth, door swing, handle projection and clearance requirements, not to a category. A hood needs its duct size and the maker’s stated height above the burners; a panel-ready fridge or dishwasher needs the maker’s panel dimensions and hinge details; a built-in oven has its own cut-out spec. Swapping a model after release means new parts, a new lead time, or an ugly filler where a flush line should be. Provide model numbers and the installation manuals rather than showroom photographs, and buy early enough that the units can be measured if anything looks ambiguous.