Installation issues is what you have to be concerned with more....usually only a one year labor warranty with installers. Material issues will be covered by the manufacturers warranty.

You could also post pictures here....both closeup and farther back pics.

To answer your question, yes, you could pay an independant contractor or cabinet maker to inspect your cabinets. It might not be high on their list of jobs, so you might have to wait a while. But, I do think it might put your mind at ease so you are not constantly worrying when the next thing will go wrong.

The poorly alligned cabinets, do you mean the doors or drawers were just slightly off after installation? That is normal and simple to adjust. Sounds like they did that, so are they ok now? They actually might get out of whack again and it would be the same fix. I need a few of mine adjusted now that I am looking closely at them!

I am confused when you say “unevenly cut” drawer pulls. Do you have those cut outs at the top of the drawers for your hand to reach in and pull it out?

But then you say a drawer handle fall off? If you have normal metal handles, wouldn’t you notice they were loose before falling off?

And wood also fell off? Where?

Please elaborate and explain for us folks who don’t understand what you mean. 🤪

As The Kitchen Place said, show photos of the kitchen if possible.

Brand name of cabinets? Or were they custom made by a local carpenter? And please answer the questions that @rebunky asked.

Thank you for the replies. We know some things- like minor alignment adjustments - are typical, but the other issues seem to reflect poor installation or craftsmanship? On their own, none of these are huge issues. But when taken as a whole, so many little things going wrong… starting to wonder if we spent a ton of money on a poor quality product. It’s the worst feeling.

• Cabinets were semi-custom, built in LA area where we live.
• The drawers all have metal ‘pulls’. One of them just fell off in my hand the other day. I was able to see that they were only attached with two very tiny nails. Makes me think the rest of them are probably going to fall off at some point as well.
• The wood piece under the dishwasher that fell off… No clue. Appears that it wasn’t ever properly attached.
• There is a wood board underneath our stainless steel countertop (which we love, done by a different contractor). However, the board is visible under the island countertop. There is jagged wood right where your legs touch when you sit at the island.
• Some of the drawer pulls are cut unevenly- the caps that cover the ends don’t seem to fit very well.

Aside from the visible things- the cabinets just don’t feel study. The drawers feel wobbly. The cabinets almost feel loose? Not sure how to describe it really, it just doesn’t feel like a sturdy kitchen. Appreciate all honest feedback!

Adding a few more pictures. One of them is taken from inside of a drawer. You can see where the drawer seems to be pulling apart. This is the kind of stuff that we see everywhere.

Thanks for the extra info and the close up photos. Can we see one more photo from further back showing a full view of the entire kitchen for perspective. Show the back wall of cabinets with the large island in the front. Thx!

That’s exactly what my thought was - have a completely independent third party come and inspect the kitchen. It would be a one-time project, so the consultant would really have no dog in the fight. How does one find someone to do this kind of thing? Start calling kitchen remodel places in our area?

I agree that having an independent expert do a final tour would be extremely helpful.

My designer who is very knowledgeable about construction did this for me. It was helpful because she alleviated my concerns about things that weren't an issue and spotted things that I wouldn't have that needed to be addressed.

From what you guys can see of the pics I posted… is this what one can/should expect less than 2 months after spending 6 figures on a kitchen?

Caveat to say: I know nothing will ever be perfect. We are pretty low maintenance people, but this has rattled us.

I'd be unhappy with the fit & finish in the photos.

Define "expensive" or at least tell us how much you paid for the cabinets?

I did a full kitchen remodel in LA in 2018 using Wood-mode cabinets and had no issues. Built last year in FL using a local company for custom cabinets and again, no issues. Also had great contractors for both projects.

Looks like you picked the wrong cabinet company and contractor ...

We had built-in, closets, and cabinets done in our bedrooms with a different company. All custom built. And they have been absolutely perfect. Not a single issue, not even with alignment. So comparing the two with our kitchen… It’s really frustrating. The contractor did come over yesterday and looked at everything and promised to fix everything. But this will be about the 4th or 5th time we’ve had to have them come back. I honestly don’t know exactly how much the cabinets were because it was all rolled up into the cost of our kitchen. But the kitchen itself - not including appliances- was over 100k. I’m sure many people pay a ton more than that even, but for us, this was huge.