You are comparing a painted solid wood shelf (w/drawers) to melamine panels used for adjustable shelving. Those pieces are sold with rough edges and they need a face panel. You didn't pay that much for cabinetry when you said yes to melamine, that is pretty basic... and totally acceptable for the price.

Bry911, the cabinets were installed before I saw them. They were made and painted in a custom cabinet shop. My builder is having someone come to fill and paint the grooves. (I really shouldn’t even call them seams because they are only on one side of the boards, and calling them seams has caused some confusion here.) I’m just trying to confirm that they don’t serve a purpose and in my guess, are there because somehow this material was cheaper than what should have been used.

Lomo, it’s really a groove, not a seam. I shouldn’t have used that word.

No, its a seam where a particle board piece has been brought together with an MDF face piece. Your builder is going to try to fill them? This cannot be a good idea. He'd use caulk??

Look at your contract. If it says the basic melamine then this is the way it is done. IKEA is melamine. Its a pantry, its ok. If it says maple or birch plywood then that's a whole different story.

But how could it be a seam if it’s only on one side of the board?

But how could it be a seam if it’s only on one side of the board?

It is a wrap... if you wrap a box with wrapping paper, how many sides have seams?

In this case, it is probably made with two seams. They lay a piece of particleboard on a sheet of vinyl. They then lay a piece of vinyl on top of the particleboard. The bottom sheet is folded over the front edge and glued, the top sheet is folded over the back edge and glued and then the board is sawed in half. This will give you a finished edge on front with 1 seam and a finished edge on back with one seam.

My pantry also has custom melamine shelving. To finish off the edge they use edging tape. It's a roll of thin plastic which is glued on and then filed down. There is no wrapping. It's the same way they finish the edge of European Cabinet boxes. Whatever he did looks more time consuming than using edging tape so I'd assume he isn't doing it to cut corners.

My dad built cabinets and I spent many a Saturdays filing down shelf edges. Back then face frames were king so it was only done on shelves.

“Whatever he did looks more time consuming than using edging tape so I'd assume he isn't doing it to cut corners.”

It is wrapped at a factory and is usually, but not always, lower quality than edge banded melamine.

Ask the builder to show you the proposed fix (fill and paint on site) on a sample board first.

Consider leaving the shelving as-is. The seam should not be too visible once the shelves are filled.

I would gently suggest that this is not a hill to die on. I too paid a lot of money for custom carpentry in my reno, and yes, in some places it's visible where two pieces of wood join up. And in no way does it alter my enjoyment or use of the pieces. Obviously YMMV but that looks like a well done pantry system.

Believe me, I know this is an insignificant, minuscule, non-problem. This is literally a sprinkle on the cake of the issues we’ve had with our builder. But even after all his mistakes, I was incredulous that he would look me in the eyes and completely bs me. So I thought I’d try to gather some info. No one is forcing any of you to participate lol. I honestly can’t even tell myself if these grooves really bother me or if I’m just so fed up that I want them fixed out of spite.

Bry911, could this be the case, that they are factory-wrapped, even though they were painted at the shop?

And thank you to everyone here who has been so helpful. Really appreciate those of you who haven’t tried to flex how morally superior you are by shaming me for my concern. News flash, those comments have the opposite effect and reveal what a jerk you are.

Shannon...seriously. Get over it.

Ha! The grooves or the rudeness? I hear you, this three-year and counting Reno has not brought out the best in me, I’m afraid.

Both.

But how could it be a seam if it’s only on one side of the board?

Waiting for that picture of the other side...

How? Could be that this was partially assembled in the shop. That the front 'frame' piece was glued tight to the upright 'gable'. Then the other upright was fitted behind the trim (back to back 'sandwich') when the shelves were assembled on site. If this is the case, then there is a glue joint there that hasn't revealed itself yet.

Demonstrated here: (FF to around the 19 minute mark.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX8TuEdKv1k

Yes will get that pic later today

Looking at this again... I really believe there are two seams there. They don't look like a wrapped panel to me.

More pics as promised. You can see that each board only has a seam on one side.

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…

My gut is telling me that that is some sort of manufactured shelving system. Still not sure why the "grooves" are only on one side but to me the multiple shelf support holes lead me to that conclusion. Only thing I can think of is that the pieces with the "groove" are supposed to be the horizontal shelves and that side is the underside. Maybe the shelf support holes were drilled in the wrong pieces which is why he thought they were the verticals. Do the shelves have these "grooves"?

Thanks for your input millworkmman. No grooves on the shelves. We specifically requested three sets of holes for each shelf, so that part is custom…I think? You agree that these grooves serve no apparent purpose?

Paint grade wood shelf #1 with the drawers was built with a right side return to hide the seam between the next set of melamine shelves... melamine was cut to fit behind the solid wood strip. There was no need to do the same on the right side of the melamine shelf, so edge banding was done there instead instead.

Sorry, don’t follow. This was all painted the same color.

There’s a groove on one side of every vertical piece that you can see both sides of, top to bottom.

54 comments in, all I can think about is how lovely those shelves are, and how excited I would be to start filling them up!

I think the only way you are going to satisfy yourself is to talk face-to-face with the person who actually constructed the shelving. That person can tell you exactly what was done, and why. Then you can decide what you want to do about it. I think that any kind of attempted "fix" (e.g., caulking, repainting etc.) is going to really mess up what are now, in my opinion, beautiful shelves. But it's totally up to you.

AnnKH, good for you. I didn’t pay IKEA prices and I don’t want an IKEA look.

Sometimes the cure is worse than the ailment. Any fix that is done may look like garbage in 5 or 10 years. I understand your frustration with the builder but are you sure you want to die on this hill? You would be better off if you got a reduction in price if you didn’t get what you paid for.

Did you pay for painted grade wood or melamine? What does your contract say? Melamine is not painted... it comes in white. It looks like you have a may have mix of paint grade and melamine.

shannon, you said the guy is coming back to fill the seam and paint? fill it with what and paint it how?? it appears to be a melamine particleboard.

Do you actually know what material was used? you said you paid a lot. Paid a lot for WHAT exactly? Real wood? wood that was painted? real wood that was cut and joined to form shelves?

Or, are these Painted or laminated MDF , or a Melamine coated particle board? (the latter which shouldn't be painted)

melamine

do you have a contract? what does it say?

Did he say how he was going to build these shelves? or with what?

Non issue.Complete non issue. Even Ikea would be 6K for that much shelving. And still hold your tuna fish cans the same.

I will look back at the contract. Based on the fact that our kitchen cabinets are a combination of painted MDF and painted wood (shaker doors with mdf center panel and wood frames), I am guessing these are painted mdf. To builder is a family friend and we trusted him to execute our designs the best way possible. We didn’t know enough to even ask the right questions when we started this project, it’s our first renovation of any kind. And we were never presented with options at different price points.

Inferior Newbie, it would look a lot less like IKEA without the ugly grooves. Or are you taking a swipe at the design?

shannon, I can understand your concerns. The cabs look nice from what I can see. and once they are filled, the seams won't stand out. nice floor too

HU-131248914 said, “Even Ikea would be 6K for that much shelving.”

That is soo far from accurate that it is ridiculous. A 16’ wide by 8’ tall Ikea Pax unit with shelves spaced every 14” would be $1,200.

This is absolutely the most affordable way to have done it. The next step up, (at least to me) is pre-finished maple plywood shelving, but if you wanted stain resistant white shelves with some water resistance then it would be a more expensive TSS or HPL (High Pressure Laminate) with laser sealed edges. I have samples now that I've run through the ringer trying to stain them with (curry, red wine, etc) and even soaking them in water to see how long before the MDF/particle board puffs up.

The product I selected is about $440 for a 4' x 10' double sided sheets on particle board. Maybe 3 or 4x as much as your melamine. Still I agree, these carpenters do not like giving upgrade options. I had to source the material myself.

Thank you Beth. The floor is sandstone. I just don’t want to be reminded of how many times I was “played” during this renovation whenever I see those damn lines.

melissa, people die much worse deaths all over the world, every. single. day. Why are you chiding shannon on what she chooses to post about? Should everyone on this site cease to exist because of a tragedy? Should we all stop complaining about everything? I was given the wrong tires for my car. Should I just 'suck it up' and quit whining because it's 'insignificant' ?

I am not sure you were played at all. I honestly don’t know what they used but it doesn’t look like a low quality product.

It is possible that what you have is wood edged MDF commercial melamine. That would be a high quality shelf used for retail displays and would be many times more durable and expensive than other options. They basically add a thick wood edge (instead of edge banding) and then wrap the whole thing in HPL, melamine, or thermofoil.

I would love to know what was used.

Just asked our builder, it’s painted MDF. And he is sticking to his story that the size of the unit somehow required these grooves. He is also confident that his specialty painter can get rid of them, so I’m very happy about that. Again, I’ve had to be very vigilant during this entire process and have uncovered many outright lies on his part that were his attempts to avoid fixing his blatant mistakes, so I’m primed to be suspicious. I’m admittedly quite particular and he is aware of this, so the fact that I wasn’t informed that our designer’s concept would (supposedly) necessitate these grooves is also an issue. Anyway, thanks everyone for your time and help. Now I can go back to worrying about the state of the world with Melissa.

To builder is a family friend and we trusted him to execute our designs the best way possible....

but

After catching him in many lies throughout this process, I’m skeptical

and

Again, I’ve had to be very vigilant during this entire process and have uncovered many outright lies on his part that were his attempts to avoid fixing his blatant mistakes, so I’m primed to be suspicious.

It is really unfortunate when a trusted family friend turns out not to be the best choice for a job. What other many lies and blatant mistakes have there been during the building of this pantry?

Beesneeds, I couldn’t agree more. Not the best choice. This pantry is part of a whole-house renovation and addition that has been going on for over three years since we closed on the property. I’m very grateful and happy with the (almost) end result, but the process has been insanely frustrating and aggravating, Murphy’s Law personified. Just to give you one small example, the great room ceiling was designed with six matching beams, and recessed lighting planned to be centered between some of them. One day, after the dry wall was up, the builder called and asked me to meet him onsite. He had mocked up what the beams would look like if the two end beams were twice as wide as the center four, and he explained that this was the only way the cans would be centered as intended. I pushed back, saying I didn’t like the look of the two fat end beams, at all, and asking what would be involved in moving the junction boxes so the lights could be centered between matching beams, as drawn. He got angry at me and told me the whole ceiling would have to be ripped apart and that it could NOT have been done right initially because of “existing conditions” since this is a renovation rather than a new build. I was flustered in the moment, surprised by his defensiveness and so it didn’t occur to me until later that night that the ENTIRE ceiling and roof in that particular room was brand new. I called our architect who tactfully provided confirmation that I was being bullshitted. So the builder had messed up, not framed the ceiling properly for the design, and was trying to convince me it was unavoidable rather than fix his mistake at his expense. That was the last time I trusted anything he said but unfortunately only the beginning of his pattern.

oh come on, Paul.

What do you mean? It's a study published in 2009... not an opinion. Read it.

Shannon, I LOVE the herringbone floor in your panty. Would you mind sharing what that is?? Thank you! Hope all is resolved with your remodel and you're happily enjoying your new space.

@Shannon Did they ever fix the seams? How do they look?

It looks like they used factory 3/4" board finished with a 1-1/2" "face frame" or edging that, by itself, makes extra rigid shelves, or for gluing to a flat 3/4" board for vertical members that look like solid 1.5" thick board from the front and the factory finished side, but with the expected seam on the field-glued side.

I think it's a genius product TBH. It beats the pants off of thin 3/4" sides, or two joined 3/4" sides with a very obvious seam down the middle… right in the front of every single vertical member!