Went to a custom cabinet shop in Portland and saw something that bugged me

I have a rental unit that needed new kitchen cabinets, so I stopped by a well known shop in the Pearl District last Tuesday. The owner walked me through the build area and every single cabinet was being assembled with pocket screws and glue. Nothing wrong with that for basic stuff, but these were $12,000 custom units with dovetail drawers. I asked why they were skipping the dado or rabbet joints for the face frames and the guy just shrugged and said "fast is fine." I get that production speed matters, but if you are charging custom prices, the joinery should match the price tag. I grabbed a scrap piece from their bin and the pocket screw holes were already splitting the plywood edge. Has anyone else seen this shift in higher end shops, or am I just old fashioned about cabinet construction?

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aarons366d ago

Ugh, that reminds me of a buddy who paid for "custom" built-ins and found out later the guy used pocket screws on everything. The drawers started sagging within a year, like noticeably, and the guy who installed them just ghosted him. He ended up having to pay someone else to rebuild the whole thing, which cost more than the original job.