I'm putting new quartz counters on 17 year old mapley cabinets. They're sturdy, and while maybe the colour isn't exactly 'in' right now, they are in great shape, durable, and we're happy with them. Both kitchen guys said they're sturdy and new ones are not necessary.

Are the drawers & slides holding up OK? Do all the self closing hinges self close? Once the cabinets are installed there isn't much besides this to wear out, other than the look.
Consider FX180 laminate from Formica for a granite look at laminate pricing. It's pretty nice stuff.

Wow, sorry to hijack, but Jumpilotdm, those look awesome. My cabinets are in good shape, but I'm sure in 10-15 years down the road I'd like to redo them. And they can do an undermount sink, which is what I want. Thanks for this, will have to look at them in person.

Perhaps if the cabinets are very cheap? Seventeen years seems a short cabinet lifetime to me. Can't comment on your particular cabinets, but my old ones were 27 years old at least when we replaced.

Depends on water damage and warping, or not. How hard they were used. I would make that decision based on the condition of the cabinets, not the age.

I might even put new counters on really old cabinets if they were in an older home and very interesting and unique.

We had very good quality, dark oak, cabinets in our old house. They weren't my favorite, but I did think they were fairly attractive and suited our house. Our layout was really good and didn't need to change, but our formica countertops definitely did.

Although, I would have loved to replace the cabinets, it didn't make financial sense, since we knew we'd be moving in less than 5 years. So, we replaced the countertops with black granite, replaced the backsplash, and upgraded our range to gas with an attractive hood. I was very happy with how it turned out. And, last year, when we decided to list the house, it sold in four days.

Perhaps "builder grade" has changed drastically over the years. Our oak cabinets are from 1984. The only particle board type stuff I see in them are the shelves in the cabinets. The frames, doors, etc are wood. I just restained them and put new counters on them. So, again, doesn't matter the AGE, but the condition. Once I get other things in the house updated, I'd like to go back to the kitchen and get new doors/drawers that are more in line with our contemporary tastes. But, for now, I'm willing to have a more contemporary kitchen with cathedral cabinet doors.
Also, your post comes across as a "Why on earth would people do this??" If your layout works, your cabinets are in good shape, then why spend the money for new cabinets? By restaining mine and spending a few hundred on supplies and my time, I saved SO much money. Some do not have a budget to be spending $10K+ on new cabinets. I for one didn't. My budget for my reno was $9K--for the WHOLE kitchen-I got new counters(which I had tile as well, so felt your pain), back splash, sink, cook top, hood, barstools for new breakfast bar. I kept all of my old appliances except those listed.

Since you didn't like the layout of your kitchen, you did the right thing. For me keeping my 1968 builder grade cabinets was easy, I like the layout. I painted the boxes, changed the new doors because I hated their style. Had some carpentry done, nothing major. The inside of my cabinets are beautiful, the shelves are solid oak. If I didn't use my old boxes I wouldn't have been able to update my kitchen, would have had to wait several years. I did buy new appliances since 2 were already broken, another worked but was horrible, because of the new appliances initially I was going to put new countertops,BS, and floor and leave cabinets alone. I'm so happy I painted and changed my doors.

I almost put new quartz on 12 year old, builder-grade oak cabinets.

I didn't almost do this, I did it. And my cabinets are 21 years old.

Despite their humble origins, they are actually made of wood and hadn't been completely thrashed to death. They were simply frumpy and forlorn-looking. Solution? New doors! Paint!! The white tile counters came out. To give you an idea of the lack of abuse this kitchen went through, the wide grout wasn't stained. A testament to the use of cutting boards.

So yes, new, $4K worth of granite was placed on top of these old, but prettified, cabinets. If I hadn't kept the exact same layout, I wouldn't know it was the same kitchen.

I'm not saying this approach is always the best, but for me, with a limited budget and no DIY skills (except for painting the walls), it was my only option.

As my late DH used to say, "Poor folk have poor ways." Tongue in cheek, of course.

I would see this all the time from people watching too much HGTV. They'd come in wanting to put shiny new granite on top of crappy builder's grade cabinets that were lucky if they would hold the weight. "Upgrading for resale" by putting something new on top of old crap is a big mistake. It takes the kitchen from, "OK, we can revamp this to suit us" to "If we bought this, we'd have to throw out that expensive rock that they think we want to pay for. Let's keep looking.".

Wow ilene - great job! What a beautiful new space!

I am putting granite on 28 yo cabinets & it was the cheapest thing I could get! My cabinets suit me & we moved some around to get better flow, added an island & I am a happy camper! We spent the money on beautiful hardwood floors in all the main living area & taking down part of a wall. Changing the layout anymore would be impossible. I do reserve the right to get new doors someday, but I will not die if I don't. My redo suits us & our house & that's all that matters.

Um, builders' grade oak cabinets are not actually all made of oak.

Oh yeah, putting shiny and new on top of old and worn always makes the old and worn look that much better....

Just imagine this real estate listing...."pied a terre kitchen with new granite counters!"

To each his own. I'm going to be 6 foot under when my RE listing goes up, so I could give a rip. If your lives are better for spending $$ on your kitchen & keeping up with the trends, go for it.

Well, that is the point. Do it to make yourself happy, not to increase the value of your home or make it sell faster, because there's no guarantee of that. But people have heard (from where?) that everyone wants granite, so they think they need to go out and get it. If I had kept my old cabinets, I would have looked at whatever worked with the style and age of my cabinets, as long as it did not require grout! My neighbor just put in a Corian look-alike and it looks great.

I didn't remodel to be on trend. I needed a functioning kitchen. I cook most meals from scratch, so it's more than a kitchen, it's my workspace. Most people would say my kitchen is past trend--it's natural cherry with ORB hardware, which I think was popular about 10 years ago. The only thing we did to save it from a cliche was put on light-colored quartz countertops instead of black granite. But wood suits our house and furniture and the Pacific Northwest where we live.