RTA Kitchen Cabinets

[cmartin]

Anyone have experience with ready to assemble kitchen cabinets? One of the options on the table are Conestoga ready to assemble cabinets. For the price of the pressed board low end cabinets I can get plywood boxes, maple doors, nicer widgets... I just have to put them together. Assembly is with glue and nails so not Ikea cams and screws.

I've read a ton on the kitchen forums but dont know anyone personally with first hand experience. Long shot, but anyone here have experience with RTA cabinets?

[Rick K]

We just used cliqstudios.com for our kitchen re-do. Been very happy with the results. They come assembled and ready to hang, nicer quality than the Ikea stuff IMO.

[Cliff Claven]

chris, i briefly looked at this option. ended up rejecting it pretty quickly. i decided it made more sense to cut everything myself rather than buying a kit. i know it will take longer, but gives me a lot more flexibility with materials, sizes and customization, and i’ll end up with much better quality. plus it was a good excuse for picking up some new tools. ;) i am doing a lot of cabinets--kitchen, bathrooms, family room, library, .....

[cmartin]

cliqstudios.com

Thanks

i decided it made more sense to cut everything myself rather than buying a kit. i know it will take longer

Ha. After receiving a recent quote I thought I could buy just about every tool known to man and take a few cabinet building classes and still come out ahead. While DIY sounds great to me, I need it done, correctly, this century.

[Vicegrip]

Making the cases is almost easy once you are set up and know the basic tricks of the trade. Making the case faces, doors and drawers is not quite so. I used to make doors, drawers and faces for a company that made the rest and sold to end users.
3 hp shaper/w $$$ in bits, joiner, planer, table saw, radial arm saw, overarm router, bisket joiner, pocket drill jig, 4,386 clamps, jigs, templates, sanders and more were called into use for inset panel doors. And then there was the finish work which I left to them. Last remod of my kitchen I bought premade. ;)

[N Fotouhi]

What are you looking for and where are you located? I can put you in touch with someone in the trade. He is in vicinity of Tyson corner general area.

[VaSteve]

Kitchen forums?

[cmartin]

Kitchen forums?

No kidding. I bet most of the kitchen geeks dont understand why we talk about cars.

It seems so simple to screw a box together and bolt on a door. Most of my ideas/projects start out that way though... How many are finished?

I would love to DIY this but rather than build, it might be install and assembly. We'll see. I spend a few hours looking at granite saturday, why are there so many options?

[Cliff Claven]

norm sure makes it look easy on youtube:)

i have all the tools but i’m a little short on cabinet-sized clamps. will get enough to do a couple of cabinets at a time, as i’m not going into the business
with biscuit joiner and pocket drill jig, and a dado blade, joints are pretty simple and quick.
good dovetail jig for doing the drawers as i like a nice dovetail joint--i like the leigh jigs
and the key to shaping is definitely the high dollar bits

when i did the cabinets in my arlington place i went to home depot and got their top-of-the-line as i was in a hurry. they are decent all-wood and are nice to use. the high dollar custom work is still nicer, and that’s what i’m going for up north. money i’ll save with DIY should get me a nice new gypsy vanner for my daughter ;)

[cmartin]

I'm sure I dont understand this, as my only real word working skills are on boats where nothing is square. But, I'm looking at shaker doors, no fancy curves, reliefs, bevels... how hard can it be? Too bad the sales guys dont see it that way.

I expect another quote today, this project is starting to get real.

In the back of my head I remember helping my dad a few years ago. We ripped out the old kitchen and installed the mid grade Lowes cabinets in a weekend. Neither of us had any more experience than youtube. Not the best cabinets but ~5+ yrs later they still work and look fine. Sure, I like the idea of solid wood, better boxes... but it's not a requirement for me. I have a habit of over thinking.

[BlackTalon]

Chris, you can get some okay fabrication tools here: http://www.festoolusa.com/

Cabinet carcasses are pretty easy, it's the panel work that takes a lot of time, and use the $$$ wood. Plus planning some 'details' at ends/ corners. etc.

Installation is pretty inexpensive as well (and can be a 1-man job).

[edevinney]

My carpenter friend who did our kitchen and baths builds lovely cabinetry from scratch if you want to pay him for that, but otherwise orders cases, doors, drawers etc from a supplier. He's an excellent finisher so orders unfinished and does his work there, but they're available finished. 17 years in we've only had a hinge fail, otherwise they've been super solid. PM me if you'd like me to dig up the supplier.

[cmartin]

Thanks, I'm weighing the options now.

Installation is pretty inexpensive as well (and can be a 1-man job).

Funny, I guy last night told me to expect installation cost to = cabinet cost. Huh? Using gold screws again I assume.

[BlackTalon]

Funny, I guy last night told me to expect installation cost to = cabinet cost. Huh? Using gold screws again I assume.Chris, for reference it was $4500-$5000 for the cabinet install in my place -- much, much less then the cost of all the cabinets. the guy who did the installation spent ~6 very long days on it.

[Cliff Claven]

installation cost is probably close to the same regardless of the cost of the cabinets. though guy that installed mine said he hates ikea cabinets because they are so hard to install correctly.

[cmartin]

$4500-$5000 for the cabinet install in my place

Makes sense, you have ~3x more cabinets than I'm planning on :)

installation cost is probably close to the same regardless of the cost of the cabinets.

Unless the cabinets need white glove treatment or are junk and not square I dont see how it matters. It's just added profit, especially considering the guy giving me the price isnt installing himself.

It reminds me of the guy that quoted me window installation price was 3x the window cost. Yeah, ok, thanks, have a nice day.

[Vicegrip]

Good caibnets wall and base are less issue to deal with then some cheap ones. Better backing and fastner areas and less likely to go out of true.

50/50 just to install cost is nuts unless you like paying something north of $3500.00 per day. This to a guy that needs only a six on a 1 to 10 scale level skill pool, chalk line, screw gun, some hole saws, and a small portable table saw to cut the filler strips and kicks with. There has to be more in a 50/50 cost than hanging and shimming.

A standard 8X8 L kitchen can have $10K in cabs and still be upper mid grade stock stuff. Working alone with sign it when done grade care you can go from box to broom clean in two 8 hour days.

[D.C.]

I recently purchased and installed 16 RTA cabinets for my new kitchen. I initially had the same plan as you, build my own, in fact I built my own cabinets for my last house. I have all the woodworking tools, and I have a few hundred feet of Virginia cherry hardwood that I milled 10 years ago that is ready for my next project. In the end I decided I did not want to spend the massive amount of time building that many cabinets. Boxes are simple, but the cost of cabinet plywood is expensive. Face frames are fairly easy, doors are not terrible, but drawers are a pain in the arse.
I debated for years how to proceed and was looking at RTA as an option. I happened to look at the RTA website in November and they were having a 30% off sale. This tipped the scale for me and I ordered what I needed.
The RTA cabinets are plywood boxes, with solid wood face frames and doors. They are pretty simple to assemble and use some fancy clips and screws. When I opened the first box and inspected the contents I thought that this was going to be a disaster, but once assembled they are very sturdy. The influencing factors for me were time and money.

A few thoughts.
Easy to assemble but be careful not to over tighten the screws.
I used a hand screwdriver to not strip the screws.
The brackets used for assembly are easy and clever.
Some of the plywood panels were slightly warped, but assembly corrected this.
The veneer seems to be a bit thin.
Very nice hardwood face frames and doors. They look great!
Drawer hardware (sliders) were much better than expected. Very good quality.
I think I spent about 3 (8 hour) days assembling and installing the cabinets.
Overall, for the money, and time spent, I am extremely happy.

You are welcome to come take a look if you like.

[cmartin]

Great info, thanks!

A little more digging found a little more info. There seem to be 2 types of RTA cabinets, make in US and made in China. A buddies folks went the China route and are happy. In their case it was screws for assembly. The US version I'm looking at is glue and brads, not sure if there really is a difference but I like the later a little better.

So far, RTA seems to a nicer cabinet for ~33% off what I've been quoted.

[Dr K]

Keep in mind that the glues used for some Chinese furniture (and flooring) has excessive amounts of formaldehyde. Not sure how you can check for this...

[Cliff Claven]

peter, you might be thinking of recent reports regarding chinese made laminated and manufactured wood flooring sold by lumber liquidators. apparently they exceed emission standards for formaldehyde established by CARB, based on CARB’s deconstructive testing model.

[cmartin]

No kidding. I wonder if they use lead paint and sharp nails in the construction.

[Vicegrip]

I installed some cheap paneling in a vacuum cleaner store and it gassed formaldehyde so bad they had to leave a window open year round. When you came into the store in the am if the window was shut your eyes would water and you could taste the stuff in the air.

[Dr K]

The latest news report was flooring, but it has been furniture too (ask me how I know...).

[BlackTalon]

I installed some cheap paneling in a vacuum cleaner store and it gassed formaldehyde so bad they had to leave a window open year round. When you came into the store in the am if the window was shut your eyes would water and you could taste the stuff in the air.No wonder you look so well preserved for your age :cool: