life length of kitchen cabinets

[Some User]

I am going to make a 2nd kitchen in the basement. I looked at cabinets from Lowes and a speciality outlet.

The Lowes' cabinet is solid wood (Oak) facing with particule board inside (American Woodworking), and the speciality store cabinets are solid maple all around.

However the better quality cabinets cost about 50% more than the Lowes' cabinets. Since this kitchen is in the basement, we probably will not heavyly use it, and probably will not recover much of the cost at sale (>>10 years). We can easily afford the better quality ones, but not sure if it is worth it.

So the question is, how long a poor quality cabinet lasts? If they usually lasts more than 20 years, I would probably get the cheap ones.

TIA for any information or pointed references.

Y.

[jtees4]

They can easily last 20 years if not abused.

*-------------------------------* NEVER FORGET!!!

[Chris Perdue]

assuming your basement is not terribly humid there is no reason why a factory box cabinet(available at lowes/homedepot/etc) won't last longer than 20 years....the particle board is strong but not good for very humid areas...if your basement is humid and you don't control the humidity then I would say go for the solid maple...

------------------- Chris Perdue "I'm ever so thankful for the Internet; it has allowed me to keep a finger in the pie and to make some small contribution to those younger who will carry the air-cooled legend forward" Jim Mais Feb. 2004

[ameijers]

No hard information, just personal experience- good 'real' wood cabinets can easily last the life of the house, if not abused. (Breaks my heart to see people rip out perfectly sound mid-50s through mid-70s solid wood cabinets in kitchen redos just because doors are a little scuffed, or they want something Modern, and replace it with chipboard with cheap oak fronts.) Is your basement bone-dry? I wouldn't put chip-core anything where there was any chance of it drawing moisture. As to how long cheap cabinets last- this

11 year old 'luxury' apartment has melamine covered chipboard, and they are already looking real tired. Stains, saggy shelves, bubbles starting in the skin, etc. Management must have got a hell of a deal on spare doors- they routinely change them between tenants. Previous 14-year old apartment was even worse- cheap chipboard with plastic skin, stapled together. Several drawers outright fell apart on me, under light use.Going up the food chain a little, MDF covered with real veneer, and with real wood fronts, would probably last longer. Nothing short of furniture-quality is likely to look appealing to a buyer in 10 years, IMHO.

Is this basement kitchen for a granny and/or boomerang kid flat, or a party kitchen for a rec room? If the latter, I'd consider other options, so it doesn't look so kitcheny, like commercial-style cabinets. But that is just me.

aem sends....