Residential cabinetry is expensive, so you need to know exactly what you’re getting before plunking down your hard-earned cash.
Pierre Dromaguet from Potvin Construction, a local, award-winning family business specializing in the design, construction and installation of custom cabinetry, brings us up to speed on questions for cabinet suppliers that will help ensure good value for your investment.
The following transcription is the first of a three-part video series with Potvin Construction on buying cabinetry. The other two are titled Insider insights: Timeless kitchen cabinetry features and trends and Insider insights: Three must-have kitchen cabinetry accessories. All articles have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What are three questions a homeowner should ask the cabinet suppliers they are considering?
A: There might be more than three.
I think the first one is that you want to make sure that you’re choosing a reputable company that has a long history of serving your community. You also want to find out how they back their products. So, that would be just getting to know the company.
The second is really knowing what you’re buying. When buying a new kitchen, there’s a lot of components. A main one would be the carcass of your cabinets. You may choose to buy a carcass made of particle board or plywood. These are very different products, so it depends on your preference (particle board is typically less expensive but also less durable than wood).
After that, the doors. There are a lot of doors on the market. It’s knowing what you need based on the way that you live — you’ll find some products are better suited for you, maybe wood or MDF, polyester or thermoplastics. Ask the company what they would suggest for you and the way you live.
The hardware is really, to me, what kind of makes the kitchen and it’s what gets the most wear. So, this is something where you really need to get into specifics with whoever you’re going to be buying from. You want to know the brand, you want to get the models so that you’re able to do some research and make sure that you are getting what you want.
When talking to different companies, ask about their capacity and lead time. Lead time used to be x weeks before COVID, and now everything is just longer. As you’re preparing your project and talking to contractors and looking at dates, you want to make sure you have a company that’s able to meet those dates and not be extending it three or four or five weeks, which can really affect your project.
I think that’s it.
