Buying New Kitchen Cabinets – From your Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Buying New Kitchen Cabinets – From your Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Buying new kitchen cabinets for your Vancouver home is a popular home renovation project. It is also a potentially pricey venture, but you can take it from your Vancouver mortgage broker that a renovated kitchen is also considered to have an excellent return on your investment.

Although everyone wants to save money, spending a little extra on quality made kitchen cabinets can make all the difference. You’ve seen those cheap kitchen cabinets before. The drawers jam or fall out. The doors come loose or don’t close well, and those made from cheap veneer look both cheap and are simply not appealing.

Buyers notice these things, so when you’re considering new kitchen cabinets, get the best ones you can afford.

The 3 basic things to look for in kitchen cabinets include;

• Lots of solid wood used in their construction
• Quality joinery so they are solid, durable and will last
• Quality slides and hinges

The Cabinet Face

This is obviously the first thing you see and essentially means the front of the cabinets. These should appear consistent and not be marred by the appearance of knots, irregularities in the grain or pitch pockets. This should also apply to side panels which are exposed to public viewing.

Good quality cabinets have doors which are constructed with solid pieces of wood. The same should apply to the drawers. The sides which make up the drawer should not be less than 5/8 inches thick.

You want solid wood for these areas because the grain and colour are consistent. Your side and floor panels should also be a minimal of ½ inch thick.

You also want what is known as ‘floating panels’. This means they aren’t glued or stapled. They rest in deeply cut grooves which allow them to contract and expand. This prevents cracking or cause damage to the frame.

The Frame

Although you won’t see how the frame was constructed, you need to know how it is joined. The best constructed cabinets have what is known as ‘mortise and tenon joinery and often uses dovetailed joints.

The internal sides of the drawers should be routed with a grove to support the base of the drawer. The internal shelves of the cabinets should be at least ¾ inches thick.

The Little Details

Door hinges can be either hidden or visible. They need to not only be strong but they also need to be adjustable

The best drawers have a two sided mounted slide which is much stronger than a single slide which is found on the underneath portion. Good quality drawers should be able to open all the way and support up to 75 pounds.

When you open and close them, they should feel solid and secure. If they wobble, then you can be fairly certain that the cabinet was cheaply constructed. The really quiet ones use bearings made of nylon.

The shelves need to be adjustable and should be made from metal brackets and not the more flimsy plastic ones.

Choices

You can choose kitchen cabinets which are either stock or custom made cabinets. Stock cabinets are cheaper, but it might require some filler strips to fit in your kitchen. Custom cabinets are more expensive but they are made to fit your kitchen like a glove fits your hand.

You can also elect for a combo model provided by some manufacturers known as a semi-custom model. They can give you the best of both worlds and a greater degree of flexibility than stock kitchen cabinets.

Choosing kitchen cabinets should be approached carefully as there are a range of options, but you can take it from your Vancouver mortgage broker that you can never go wrong with quality designed kitchen cabinets.