Cracks in wooden kitchen cabinets

[lukasz74nj]

Hello,

When I bought this condo a year ago it had a brand new kitchen cabinets. However, some time ago I noticed small cracks between joints. Also, cabinet doors seem not to be aligned properly (as if the wood was bended a little). This was not happening a year ago. These cabinets are top-notch and (supposedly) of high quality. Here are some pictures:

this happen because of dry/hot air? Is there anything that I can do to prevent any further damage or fix existing conditions?

These pics were taken a year ago (you won't see much details):

[Josh]

[e-mail] wrote: ...

I hate to rain on your parade, but these look like pretty shoddy work. Mitered rails and stiles? On a quality scale of 1 to 10, they look like about a 2. And that's what I would have said if there WEREN'T gaping cracks.

Judging by the workmanship, the door panels are probably glued into the frames. As the humidity changes throughout the year the panel can expand and, unless it floats within the frame, can force the joints apart. You can check if the panels are floating by simply sliding them with your hand. If they are done correctly, you should be able to slide the panels up/down/left/right a little bit inside the frame.

If the panels ARE floating, you can probably fix this. Depending if you have any talent or experience with woodworking, you could drill a hole in the side of the door perpendicular to the mitered joint and using a screw to pull the pieces back together. There are ways to do this such that you can disguise the screw hole when you're done.

Sorry. I hope you didn't pay a lot for them.

[Jerzy]

Well, I paid a lot for the whole apartment and the custom kitchen was factored into the cost. I guess, I don't have to replace everything, just cabinet doors in the worst case, correct? Do you know how much would it cost to order a custom (good/high quality) doors a piece? I hope that they could be made to match the existing texture/color of the shelves.

[Jerzy]

ago):

[Tim W]

When the wood shrinks a mitered joint will open on the inside. That is exactly what you have got. The fault (if there is any) might lie far back up the chain with the timber merchants, or with the designer who doesn't understand joinery, or with the architect who has made the atmosphere unecessarily dry, or with the Building control officer.... but for sure it will be the manufacturer who gets the grief and the blame, and indeed he might have known better.

I see nothing in the photos to suggest shoddy work, although the style of door is normally done with the cheapest foil-wrapped mouldings, and you have solid maple which is a bit strange. It is nothing to do with loose or glued panels - that is a total red herring. You stand no chance of closing the joint with screws, that will only make a mess. The best thing you can do is to obtain some special wood finishers filling wax colour matched to your wood and rub it into the crack. It will make it invisible... but won't prevent further movement (which you cannot do).

Tim W

[Phisherman]

[Mike Marlow]

If these cabinets are only a year or two old, why not approach the manufacturer? Or the company you bought the unit from? If you bought an upgrade that was supposed to be "high end" (whatever that means - no particular insult pointed at your cabinets), then there should be a warranty behind them. Hell, even the basic stuff probably has some sort of warranty behind it. Joinery coming apart would certainly fall into a defect in materials and workmanship in my opinion. You never know until you try...

[Swingman]

Wanna bet? The doors are certainly not.

Therefore you will also want to suspect the cabinets themselves before you go spending money replacing doors.

Best bet is to find someone who knows what they are doing to check things out for you.

Unless you can find an honest/respected local cabinet maker (most have a tendency to bad mouth everyone's work but theirs), consider paying a licensed, third party building inspector for an honest appraisal of the cabinet's structural situation before paying good money for new doors.

Just a year? ... any homeowner warranty under your state's laws?

[RicodJour]

You're right about that - it can't hurt to ask, but it is as I expect, a local carpenter, can't say cabinetmaker, built those as per the previous owner's instructions with mitered corners, who is at fault? The owner probably didn't know any better and there wasn't anything concealed from the buyer.

The thing that I just noticed is that the OP mentioned in an earlier post that he bought the unit a year ago and also included some pictures from a year ago. Those pictures show the gaps in the miters. Hmmm. These things don't happen over night, so I wonder exactly how old those cabinets are and when the gaps became objectionable.

R

[Mike Marlow]

My bet - standard construction quality "upgrade". Came from some production shop hidden somewhere in... well, who knows.

I'm also wondering if he bought it new or purchased it from an existing owner. That would about kill any warranty claims... likely.

[dadiOH]

Same idea but just judging from the unusual design - the reverse bevel frames - I kinda suspect that they were designed by a designer (or architect) who was enamoured with the effect of mitered frames and that some poor, hapless shop built them according to specs.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Josh]

The work looks a nicer when you see the whole kitchen, not just the close-ups of the corners.

I know you can order custom maple doors from

The price is pretty reasonable, especially for flat panel doors like yours, but you'll have to find someone who can match the finish for you.

Good luck.

Jerzy wrote:

[Josh]

So what's the underlying mechanism for the joint opening up only on the inside? Is it that the width of the rails and stiles shrinks more than the length and, therefore, the miter angle changes from a perfect 45 to, say, 46 degrees?

Josh

[Stephen M]

Yes. Wood does not shrink in length only in width (not really none, but the ratios of movement is something like 100:50:1 for parallel to the growth rings:across the growth rings:along the grain).

[Scorp]

For some reason the wood has dried, cold dry winter maybe? Wood not dry when constructed? These may close back up in the summer. I'd say this is pretty normal for mitre joints.

You could also try to raise the relative humidity in your apartment. If the joints close, douse them with wax, maybe a hot melted carnuba/paint thinner mixture. Wax is supposed to be the best barrier againt moisture changes. (From FWW article)

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[John Grossbohlin]

Judging by the names of the files I believe he posted the same photos for the before shots as he did for the after shots...

John

[RicodJour]

I was going by what he wrote, not the file names. Read it again and you'll see what I mean.

R

[John Grossbohlin]

I understood your message was based on what was written but because the year earlier photos weren't--they were the current ones again--it gave you bad information to work with. I see that the OP noted the link error in another message

John

[RicodJour]

Here's his later post where he corrected the links:

ago):

you read his original post he says he _bought_ the place a year ago. Well, if the corrected links are from a year ago, and he bought the place a year ago, and the gaps in the miters are visible back them, well, something is odd here, and only the OP can straighten it out.

R

[John Grossbohlin]

We're saying basically the same thing...

I pulled the corrected link photos into Photoshop and the open miters don't appear to be there but the left and middle upper cabinet doors aren't aligned across the bottom. On that count there doesn't appear to be a change over time.

John