I don't necessarily agree with taking out the maple tree. For me it depends on the variety. I have a sugar maple that I would never consider removing. It is a beautiful tree with great fall color. It casts quite dense shade, but I do grow hostas and other shade tolerant plants under it. What I've learned from others is to water and fertilize the whole area, not just the hostas. If you start with a large planting hole and a good-sized plant, it will compete successfully with the tree roots if given enough water. On the other hand, if the tree is a silver maple I would not hesitate to take it out, the sooner the better. The roots of silver maples actively seek water and the tree's wood is soft. It has no redeeming value. Mark

First off- nothing but solid MDF will eliminate cracks at the joint, assembled MDF will minimize it but will not necessarily eliminate cracks. Cracks belong there, they are natural and have been on painted wood doors for centuries. In many ways what follows is splitting hairs. Yes poplar moves less. It's also less prone to contain "reaction wood" (which moves even more) than hard maple. It is softer-more easily dented- but there are no other strength issues. Poplar does take paint better and it does glue better. That in part makes up for the denting since there is less of a tendency for the paint to chip. If a client is really concerned about the hairline cracks they should either get MDF, or paint on site so they can touch them up (with all the downside to that), or not get paint. If it were for me I'd likely use poplar or soft maple for paint, it is what I preferred when I built them but also used hard maple. I also like to use Cherry for black painted and used Jatoba for patterns when movement was critical.

Are you painting the cabinets, staining them, or going with a clear finish? What is the final look you are aiming for? It would be quite normal to specify poplar for painted cabinets. Poplar is easy to work, mills and sands well and "holds" paint well. OTOH it doesn't absorb stain evenly and most people don't find it attractive enough for a clear finish, so it's less often used in those applications. It's generally hard enough for cabinets, though it's vulnerable to warping. If you want bombproof painted cabinets you could go with a relatively hard variety of maple (see hardness scale below), but it's a more expensive wood and harder to work. Alder and walnut are more likely to be used with clear or stained finishes -- you wouldn't use them for painted cabinets. They're quite different in appearance... A general suggestion: if you are gong with a stained or clear finish, ask the shop for samples of the woods you are thinking about in the finishes you are thinking about. Even if you have to spend a few dollars to get samples, it's more than worth it. Take them home, look at them in the kitchen under different kinds of light, and try scratching and denting them. This is because even within a particular wood species, there are different varieties, different grades, different batches etc. Here is a link that might be useful: janka hardness scale

Thanks Suzanne. I was just coming back here to answer my own question for anyone who might be considering using Scherr's in the future. We decided to go with the Maple. They say that the painted Maple door should look just like our Poplar sample. If anyone is considering using Scherr's, I would recommend getting a sample door as soon as possible. The sample door takes a while to be delivered if you want to see it finished, because they are made to order. Ours took almost 4 weeks to be delivered after I ordered it, which is why I am in a bit of a rush now making the decision. It would have been faster if we didn't want it painted, but we wanted to make sure they would do a better job of finishing the door than we would do on our own. (The answer is definitely YES!) Also, when I requested the quote, I didn't mention what type of wood I wanted, just gave them the door and drawer style #s. I did not find out until this week that soft maple was an option. I didn't really spend much time thinking about the materials and was just waiting to make sure I liked the door. I should have researched it more earlier in the process.