Cracks in wooden kitchen cabinets

Those look like some crappy cabinets, quality-wise. Has it been a year, is there a warranty still in effect ?

I agree with you the pictures sure look like the joints are coming apart. The picture of the doors with the space in the middle would have turned me off from the git go. You need a competant local person to find the root cause. There might be more than what you see as a problem.

Could very well be moisture/dry condition... but the cabinets are not high quality with all due respect friend. If the joints are loose, you can remove the doors, dismantle them (frame from panels) clean the mitres and re-assemble and re glue. Or you can get a contractor (Cabinet Maker) to do this for you. Though from the look of the doors they are not worth the money to pay someone to fix them.

If you do this yourself you will need Clamps to hold the assemblies tight over night while the glue sets.

Or.. you can order new doors

Cheers

Post this in rec.woodworking and let the wood-dorkers have a look at it. It looks like several things went on. The cabinets look like they were made by a local, I was going to say cabinetmaker, but I changed my mind. The profile of the door frame is blocky, and frankly looks kind of amateurish. That could be by design, but coupled with the other problems they probably were done by someone without a lot of cabinetmaking experience and little knowledge of wood movement. Normally a cabinetmaker would have used a profiled edge and connected the frame pieces with a more appropriate joint.

Picture framing joints - that is, simple, miters - are doomed from the start. Wood moves with swings in the seasons from temperature and humidity. The wider the wood frame pieces, the more of a problem those seasonal movements become. A better joint would have been a half-lap miter. I'm not 100% that your cabinets are simple miters, but that's what it looks like from here.

As someone else pointed out, the gap between the cabinet doors is horrendous. There's no need for such a large gap.

Custom made cabinets can be construed by some to be "top-notch and of high quality", but for my money, I want something that will last and look good for a long time. I'm not sure of your recourse, but you probably should have a cabinetmaker take a look at the cabinets and make a diagnosis. Most likely the problem is only with the doors. You could replace just the doors - there are places that you can find on the web that will make doors to your specifications for a pretty reasonable price. Who's going to pay for the doors and installation if you do decide to go that way is another question.

The seller probably had no reason to suspect that the cabinets were iffy, so there's not much likelihood that he concealed something from you. And I'm not sure what legal obligation the original carpenter has to you.

So, have it diagnosed by someone local, get an estimate to repair/replace the doors, and talk to your real estate agent and a lawyer.

I agree with R:

1. Post on rec.woodworking and ask honest opinions;
2. The cabinet doors look odd. Not only the space in between the doors, but the placement of the handles.
3. Mitered joints were the wrong choice; coped joints were the right choice.

-Zz

OK, thanks everyone for responding. I'm really worried since all these cabinets were custom made and the price tag was rather high. It may not look good on my pictures, though. Here is a better perspective (photo taken a year ago):

I'll have to check if the warranty still covers it.

Lukasz

...

I think "supposedly" is the key word there. I also don't think the person who made them was qualified if those are coming apart the way I think they are. And is that doo gap typical? If so, wow, that's a real dealbreaker to me, and also shows the inexperience of whoever built them. I think I'd be wondering how they were attached to the wall, too. Do any of them get filled heavy with cans etc.? I guess if those "gaps" are movable, can be sprung open/closed by hand, I'd be pretty quick to respond, but ... if they're tight and not moving, I might be easier to get along with. I'd have to hands-on to get a real feel for the situation.

JMO

Pop

Interior changes in humidity can cause the joints to loosen, as can drips that get into the joint. Have children? They might hang on the doors a bit too heavy and cause the joints to move. If you can find the previous owner's warranty, you could have the installer check them out.

Yes, this happened because of seasonal humidity changes. In dry winter humidity, wood shinks and a mitre joint like that will open up on the inside edge. If the cabinets had been built while the wood was unusually dry, then the joints would have opened up on the outside edge during humid weather. That's just what a mitre joint does regardless of who built it.

I would say its not the skill of the craftsman who built the doors that is the problem, the real problem is the person who designed it to have a mitre joint in the first place. I can see how the mitre detail was part of the design that was carried through to the drawer fronts. This is a case where design incorrectly won out over functionality, IMO. Kind of like some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, they are considered masterpieces of design, however a number of them are caving in due to poor structural design.

The better way to make a door frame is a cope joint, as described here for example:

Ken

OK, thanks everyone for responding. I really appreciate your comments and suggestions.I will try to approach the seller for a warranty since he had renovated the kitchen before I bought the appartment.

Apart from joints coming apart, the doors don't shut properly (as if the wood was bended somehow) - there is a gap in the lower part, while the upper part seems to be aligned correctly. Here is a picture which shows that:

Lukasz

I agree with you ken, it's definitely a wood movement problem. that is a classic mitre joint that has opened up because of shrinkage. A stick of wood will shrink in width and not in length--so a 45 degree angle will no longer be 45. You might get away with a mitre with quarter sawn oak or fir or something else stable, but flat sawn maple is going to move.

You don't necessarily need a cope joint. A butt joint with a mortise and tenon or biscuit would work fine. Yeah, it's a design problem! Don't blame the cabinetmaker, unless he designed 'em!

I agree with you that the cabinet doors were essentially designed to fail. Who is responsible for the method of construction is unknown.

The OP also posted this topic in rec.woodworking. Over there I pointed out that since he knew the gaps were there when he bought the place, and neither the OP nor his inspector objected, there might not be any recourse. To anyone with any knowledge of cabinetry and woodworking the unsuitability of a miter joint in that application is obvious.

The OP needs to blame someone, otherwise it's his, and his agents', faults for not picking up on it. That's not always easy to face.

Look at the corners, they are not cut at 90, this is poor workmanship, not humidity, not abuse.

What makes you think the corners weren't originally cut at 90 degrees? The pictures show exactly what happens when a mitered corner is made with wood that isn't fully dried. The gap opens up at the inside corner when that happens, not equally.

Why would it shrink the most at the shortest-inside dimension, the grain is lenghtwise it should shrink equaly. If the lenght of the wood made a difference the outside corner would shrink most. Maybe all were cut on a poorly set saw, just under 45, there is just to much a gap to not be human error in the saws set up. All corners look off by the same exact measurement, a 44 9/10 cut not 45

the length of the stile doesn't shrink (much), but the width does. basic triangle geometry says that you wind up with an angle greater than 45, thus spreading at the heel of the miter. seen it many times in mitred trim.

If the wood shrinks equally (there is a difference for radial and tangential shrinkage for every wood species), then the outside edge of the stile/rail would shrink towards the inner edge - if it wasn't restrained/blocked by the connecting stile/rail at the miter. The bottom rail can't shrink upwards because the side rail lengths don't change and the tips of the miters stay in place. That only leaves the inside edge free to move with shrinkage - so the inside edge of the bottom rail shrinks downwards. The stiles do the same thing, so the inside meeting corner of the miter shows the greatest amount of separation due to shrinkage. So, it's like Marson said, and the angle effectively becomes more acute with shrinkage.

Yes, and I pointed out that joints *weren't* falling apart at that time, and also cabinet doors closed correctly. So whoever made these cabinets is to blame. When you buy a new car which breakes a year later who do you blame for? Perhaps yourself, that you didn't inspect it? Not everyone knows woodworking and not every home inspection covers every detail, and not every home inspector knows woodworking.