How to Choose a Cabinet Maker in Riverside, CA

People searching for a cabinet maker in this city frequently search for reviews, and that is a reasonable instinct. This site publishes none, for one reason: it has not accumulated any of its own, and inventing them or borrowing somebody else's would be deceptive.

It is also worth saying plainly that star ratings are the easiest thing on the internet to fabricate, which makes them a weak basis for a five figure decision. Everything on this page is a check you can perform yourself, against a public record or against a document in your hand. Those are harder to fake and more informative.

If you do read reviews elsewhere, read the detail rather than the score. A review that describes a specific situation, what went wrong and how it was handled, is worth more than twenty with no text. Every contractor has problems; the useful signal is what happened next.

Ask for the licence number, then look it up yourself. Do not accept a photograph of a card and do not accept a number read out over the phone without checking it.

California requires a contractor licence for any work over $1,000 in labour and materials combined. The statute that sets that threshold, Business and Professions Code section 7048, expressly voids the exemption where the work is part of a larger operation or split into smaller contracts to get under the line, and removes it from anyone who advertises in a way implying they are licensed.

The classification covering this trade is C-6 Cabinet, Millwork and Finish Carpentry, defined by the Contractors State License Board as making cabinets, cases, sashes, doors, trims, nonbearing partitions and other items of finish carpentry by cutting, surfacing, joining, gluing and fabricating wood or other products to provide a functional surface. A B general building licence also covers it.

A quote becomes comparable to another one when it contains four numbers and a licence. Without them, two prices cannot be set against each other at all, which is the position most homeowners find themselves in when they collect three bids.

The linear footage of every run, measured on site. This converts the whole document into dollars per linear foot, which is the unit every published figure in this trade uses: $75 to $400 and up per linear foot, installed for stock, $150 to $900 and up per linear foot, installed for semi-custom and $500 to $1,400 and up per linear foot, installed for custom, installed.

Box material named location by location, with plywood called out at the sink base, the dishwasher return and any cabinet under a window. A single blanket answer for the whole kitchen is answering the wrong question.

Door style, overlay and the finish system, named specifically. Without them the price can move later without anybody breaking a promise, because what was being supplied was never written down.

Hardware by manufacturer, hinge type with opening angle and overlay, and slide type with extension and weight rating. The phrase soft close on its own specifies nothing, and the weight rating is the item that decides whether a pan drawer still works in year eight.

California sets three rules that apply to every cabinet contract in the state, and each of them is a single sentence you can hold a quote against.

Written contract. A home improvement contract over $500 must be in writing. Every cabinet job exceeds that, so you are entitled to the document before work starts rather than after.

Deposit cap. A downpayment cannot exceed $1,000 or ten percent of the contract amount, whichever is less. On a $40,000 kitchen the lawful deposit is $1,000, not $4,000 and not a third up front. Beyond the downpayment, a contractor cannot request or accept payment exceeding the value of work performed or material delivered.

Cancellation. Section 7159 sets out cancellation rights, with one exception that catches people: the cancellation notice is not required where the contract is negotiated at the contractor's place of business. A contract signed in a showroom therefore carries no three day window, which is a good reason to take paperwork home rather than sign it at the counter.

Read them at section 7159→ and section 7159.5→.

These distinguish a shop that builds cabinets from a middleman who orders them. Neither is necessarily wrong, and a good reseller fitting a good line is a perfectly respectable purchase. But you should know which you are buying, and these questions establish it quickly.

Three more are worth asking, and they are the ones a serious shop enjoys being asked.

Composite wood compliance. Any composite wood in a California kitchen must meet the CARB limits CALGreen prints: 0.05 ppm for hardwood plywood, 0.09 ppm for particleboard and 0.11 ppm for medium density fibreboard, tested to ASTM E1333. Since March 2019 products have had to carry third party certified labelling, so the documentation exists. See the CALGreen composite wood products section→.

Cabinet certification. ANSI and KCMA A161.1 certification means the cabinet passed 14 laboratory tests including a 600 pound load test. KCMA notes that between 40 and 50 percent of cabinets fail at the first attempt, and that certified cabinets exist at every price point from builder grade upward. See the KCMA certification programme→.

Moisture content. On solid timber work, ask what moisture content the stock is at when it is machined and whether it acclimatises in the shop. The USDA Wood Handbook states that lumber for furniture, cabinetry and millwork usually has a final moisture content of six to eight percent, and that the guiding principle is to match it as closely as practical to the conditions in service. A shop that measures has an answer; a shop that does not will change the subject.

Ask which standard the hardware is certified to, not whether it is good. Two bodies publish the answers, and both maintain public directories you can search before signing anything.

For the cabinets themselves, KCMA runs three seals rather than one: A161.1 Quality Certification, the Environmental Stewardship Program and the Severe Use Cabinet Certification. For the quality seal, KCMA states that certified cabinets have passed 14 tests including a 600 pound load test, and that between 40 and 50 percent fail at the first attempt. For a rental, a staff kitchen or anywhere with turnover, the one to ask about is the Severe Use seal, which KCMA says was originally developed by the u.s. department of housing and urban development (hud) for the exceptionally high levels of wear that apartment building kitchens often encounter. KCMA also notes that “KCMA-certified cabinets are available at every price point, from builder-grade units to high-end, custom designs.”, so this is not a premium only question. KCMA publishes the certification detail here→.

For hinges, slides, catches and pulls, the relevant body is the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association, which describes itself as the only organisation accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop and maintain performance standards for builders hardware. It maintains more than forty ANSI and BHMA standards, of which the widely used A156 series covers locks, closers, exit devices, butts, hinges and access control products, and it publishes a Certified Products Directory of items that have passed independent laboratory testing against the relevant standard, covering cycle, operational, strength, security and finish requirements. BHMA publishes its standards list here→.

So the usable version of the question is this: name the hardware manufacturer and model, and say whether it is listed in the Certified Products Directory. A shop that can answer in one sentence is specifying hardware deliberately. “Soft close” with no manufacturer and no model is not a specification, it is a feature, and a feature can be substituted later without anybody breaking a promise.