Can someone lend some cabinet lead time perspective?

15 years ago

I have a question that is driving me nuts and I have no prior home building experience to answer it, so if you could all please help me, it would be greatly appreciated.

We are currently sitting waiting on our cabinetry. I didn't place the cabinet order until the sheetrock was hung because I wanted to get exact measurements. However, after the sheetrock went up, things moved very quickly though taping, mud and site finished hardwood installation. My GC's normal SOP is to call in the trim carpenters next who install all the interior doors, trim, closets, stairs and cabinets. They are just finishing up and ready for cabinets, but they aren't complete and on site yet! Hence the issue.

Now my questions.

1. Is this the order you did things in?

2. Did your cabinets come much quicker than ours or is this a normal "lag"?

3. I hate "wasting" this time. Can I push anything ahead of the cabinet installation?

4. How much lead time did you have on your cabinets?

Thanks so much in advance for your input. I feel like I've made a rookie mistake here somehow, but I just can't figure out how you could measure after the drywall installation and get cabinets within a 2-3 weeks for the finish carpenters.

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Comments (5)

sue36
15 years ago
Our cabinets took about 12 weeks. At the time we ordered them (height of the building boom) 15 weeks was no unheard of. I ordered my cabinets when they were working on the rought electrical and plumbing. You don't need the drywall in place to do cabinet measurements. Drywall is a uniform thickness, you just figure it in when you measure.

Since your trim is in, have the painters start while you wait for cabinets. Or have the closet systems built. Have the finish electrical started. There is plenty for people to do!
jaymielo
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you for the insight sue. I sounds like some of this stress was brought on by myself since I waited until the rock was hung to finalize the measurements. In retrospect, I'm not sorry I did though, even if we suffer a delay, because I got to "sketch" all the cabinetry on the walls and actually made a few adjustments based on what I saw. We are at 5 weeks right now on our cabinet order with a target of the cabinets being done next Friday, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that slipped a bit.

I guess I need to go push a little on our GC to do things in a different order than he usually does. I believe he usually doesn't schedule the painters until all the trim and cabinetry is in. Tile comes after that because he doesn't want stain on the grout. The trades come back after that for light and plumbing fixtures. I'm sure he will work with me. This pause is just killing me. To be so close to the end, yet so far away! ;-) Thanks again for sharing your experience.
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ajpl
15 years ago
We waited until we had moved in but that was the plan. The cabinet guy who is building mine is expecting it to take 4 weeks but he didn't even come look at the house until we'd been in the house for 2 months. Now that he's been here he's getting things done.
acountryfarm
15 years ago
Hi Jaymielo -- Our cabinets were started in Oct. and we started installing in Feb. That was only half of them. Cab maker brought them over in installments as he needed to clear out his shop in order to have room to make more.
That being said, I had extensive cabinetry. I would think it would have been about 8 weeks had it been an average order.

One thing I will say for sure is you can definitely start tile. We started tile when we started all other finish work. We had tile guys, finish guys, cab hangers, paint prep all going on at same time.

I totally understand your frustration as you know I have had my share. I would say to you, let your GC know that even though you are waiting for cabs you still expect to be moving forward on other things.

Good luck, this is a hard process. I am learning so much and unfortunately it has nothing to do with building.
jaymielo
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for all the information aipl and acountryfarm. It is frustrating to stall, but I want things done correctly and I don't regret my cabinet decision. Just really needed some confirmation that the cabinet lead time wasn't out in left field. DH is really aggravated, which is always challenging.

acountryfarm, Hang in there. I hope that things are going a little better for you. I will touch base with my GC on Monday to give him an update on when we expect cabinets and hopefully he will be responsive to shuffling the subs around a little bit.

Thanks guys! j.

Can someone lend some cabinet lead time perspective?

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sue36

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Can someone lend some cabinet lead time perspective?

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sue36

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