life length of kitchen cabinets
 

I am going to make a 2nd kitchen in the basement. I looked at
cabinets from Lowes and a speciality outlet.

The Lowes' cabinet is solid wood (Oak) facing with particule board
inside (American Woodworking), and the speciality store cabinets are
solid maple all around.

However the better quality cabinets cost about 50% more than the
Lowes' cabinets. Since this kitchen is in the basement, we probably
will not heavyly use it, and probably will not recover much of the cost
at sale (10 years). We can easily afford the better quality ones,
but not sure if it is worth it.

So the question is, how long a poor quality cabinet lasts? If they usually
lasts more than 20 years, I would probably get the cheap ones.

TIA for any information or pointed references.

Y.

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 22:18:08 GMT, "Some User"
wrote:

I am going to make a 2nd kitchen in the basement. I looked at
cabinets from Lowes and a speciality outlet.

The Lowes' cabinet is solid wood (Oak) facing with particule board
inside (American Woodworking), and the speciality store cabinets are
solid maple all around.

However the better quality cabinets cost about 50% more than the
Lowes' cabinets. Since this kitchen is in the basement, we probably
will not heavyly use it, and probably will not recover much of the cost
at sale (10 years). We can easily afford the better quality ones,
but not sure if it is worth it.

So the question is, how long a poor quality cabinet lasts? If they usually
lasts more than 20 years, I would probably get the cheap ones.

TIA for any information or pointed references.

Y.

They can easily last 20 years if not abused.


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From: "Some User"

So the question is, how long a poor quality cabinet lasts? If they usually
lasts more than 20 years, I would probably get the cheap ones.


assuming your basement is not terribly humid there is no reason why a factory
box cabinet(available at lowes/homedepot/etc) won't last longer than 20
years....the particle board is strong but not good for very humid areas...if
your basement is humid and you don't control the humidity then I would say go
for the solid maple...
-------------------
Chris Perdue
"I'm ever so thankful for the Internet; it has allowed me to keep a finger in
the pie and to make some small contribution to those younger who will carry the
air-cooled legend forward"
Jim Mais
Feb. 2004

"Some User" wrote in message
news:Awdhd.3007$pY6.642@trnddc04...
I am going to make a 2nd kitchen in the basement. I looked at
cabinets from Lowes and a speciality outlet.

The Lowes' cabinet is solid wood (Oak) facing with particule board
inside (American Woodworking), and the speciality store cabinets are
solid maple all around.

However the better quality cabinets cost about 50% more than the
Lowes' cabinets. Since this kitchen is in the basement, we probably
will not heavyly use it, and probably will not recover much of the cost
at sale (10 years). We can easily afford the better quality ones,
but not sure if it is worth it.

So the question is, how long a poor quality cabinet lasts? If they usually
lasts more than 20 years, I would probably get the cheap ones.

TIA for any information or pointed references.
No hard information, just personal experience- good 'real' wood cabinets can
easily last the life of the house, if not abused. (Breaks my heart to see
people rip out perfectly sound mid-50s through mid-70s solid wood cabinets
in kitchen redos just because doors are a little scuffed, or they want
something Modern, and replace it with chipboard with cheap oak fronts.) Is
your basement bone-dry? I wouldn't put chip-core anything where there was
any chance of it drawing moisture. As to how long cheap cabinets last- this
11 year old 'luxury' apartment has melamine covered chipboard, and they are
already looking real tired. Stains, saggy shelves, bubbles starting in the
skin, etc. Management must have got a hell of a deal on spare doors- they
routinely change them between tenants. Previous 14-year old apartment was
even worse- cheap chipboard with plastic skin, stapled together. Several
drawers outright fell apart on me, under light use.Going up the food chain a
little, MDF covered with real veneer, and with real wood fronts, would
probably last longer. Nothing short of furniture-quality is likely to look
appealing to a buyer in 10 years, IMHO.

Is this basement kitchen for a granny and/or boomerang kid flat, or a party
kitchen for a rec room? If the latter, I'd consider other options, so it
doesn't look so kitcheny, like commercial-style cabinets. But that is just
me.

aem sends....