Kitchen Cabinet Quality Checklist: 14 Things to Check in the Showroom Before You Pay a Deposit

Before you start: ask for the sample

Showrooms have a display kitchen at the front and a wall of door samples. Neither is the cabinet you are buying. Ask to see a complete base cabinet, with a drawer, from the exact line and grade on your quote. Good shops have one on a cart for this purpose. If the answer is that they do not have one, that is the first thing you have learned.

The box

1. What is the box made of, and how thick? Open a door and look at the inside of the side panel. Plywood shows layers on an unfinished edge; particleboard and MDF are uniform. 5/8 in. is the norm for a decent box; 3/4 in. is better; 1/2 in. is builder grade. The material question is its own page: plywood vs. MDF vs. particleboard. Any of them can be a good box at the right thickness; a 1/2 in. particleboard box is not.
2. The back panel. Reach in and push on it. A full 3/8 or 1/2 in. back, let into a groove or glued and stapled to the sides, holds the box square and takes the screws into the studs. A 1/8 in. hardboard back stapled on, with hanging rails, is what a budget box has. It works when installed well and racks when it is not.
3. How the box is held together. Look at an inside corner. Dadoes and glue, or dowels and glue, or cam locks (the round metal fittings, flat-pack style). All three work in a well-made cabinet. Staples alone, no glue, with a gap you can see light through, is a box that will loosen.
4. The interior finish. Run a hand over the inside. Melamine or a factory finish, smooth, no rough edges. Raw particleboard inside a cabinet swells the first time something leaks under the sink.
5. Edge banding. Look at the front edge of the side panel and the shelf. The banding should be the same thickness all along, tight, no glue line you can catch a fingernail in. Peel it with a thumbnail; it should not lift. Thin PVC that lifts at the corner is the first thing to fail on a cheap box.
6. Shelves. Pull one out. 3/4 in. is right; 5/8 in. on a wide cabinet will sag under dinner plates in two years. Adjustable on metal pins, banded on the front edge at least.

The drawer

1. Pull the drawer all the way out and turn it over. This is the single most useful thing you can do in a showroom. A dovetailed solid wood or plywood box, 5/8 in. sides, a bottom panel let into a groove on all four sides: that is the standard a mid-grade kitchen should meet. A stapled particleboard box with the bottom stapled on from underneath is a drawer that will drop its bottom when it is full of pots.
2. The runners. Undermount, full extension, soft close, and ask the brand. Blum, Grass, Hettich, Salice and King Slide are all fine. A brand nobody will name is the one to worry about. Side-mount epoxy runners with the roller wheel are builder grade; they work, they do not extend fully, and they are the first thing a buyer notices in a resale kitchen. The drawers page goes into the runner question in detail.
3. Load it. Ask if you can put something heavy in it. Most showrooms have a bag of something. A good runner carries 75 lb and closes the same way loaded as empty.

The doors and hinges

1. The hinge. Open a door and look. Concealed, six-way adjustable, soft close, with a brand stamped on it. The same brands as the runners. Clip-on (the door lifts off without a screwdriver) is the mark of a better hinge. A hinge that is not adjustable in all three directions means a door that cannot be lined up after the house moves.
2. The door itself. What it is made of and how it is finished is a whole page (painted vs. thermofoil vs. laminate). In the showroom: hold the sample to the light at an angle and look for orange peel, dust nibs, a sanding scratch under the finish. Look at the back; it should be finished the same as the front, or close. Check the edges of a painted MDF door for a smooth profile with no fuzz under the paint. On a five-piece door, press on the centre panel; it should be solid, not rattle.
3. The gap. On the display kitchen, look along a run of doors. A consistent 1/8 in. gap, doors flat to each other, no door standing proud. That is adjustment and installation, and if the showroom cannot get it right on their own display, ask who installs.

The paperwork

1. The KCMA seal, or the equivalent. The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association certification (kcma.org) means the line passed a set of structural and finish tests: loaded shelves, slammed doors, 25,000 drawer cycles, finish resistance to vinegar, mustard, coffee and a hot cup. Many Canadian lines carry it; many good custom shops do not bother, because they are not a line. If there is no seal, ask what they test and how long they have been building.
2. The warranty, in writing. Limited lifetime on the box and hardware is common on mid-grade and up; 5 years on the finish; 1 year on a budget line. Read what it excludes. “Not covered: moisture damage” on a kitchen cabinet is worth a laugh and a question. Ask who honours it if the shop closes: the manufacturer, or nobody.

What a passing grade looks like

The questions that take 30 seconds and change the answer

• Who makes the box? Here, or imported, or a different factory from the doors?
• What brand are the runners and hinges? (If the answer is a pause, that is the answer.)
• Can I see the inside of a drawer from my line, not the display?
• What does the warranty exclude?
• If a door is damaged in three years, can I get the same colour, and how long does it take?
• Who installs, and are they your employees or a sub?

The last one matters more than most people expect. The installation is where a good box turns into a good kitchen, or does not.