Cabinets by DunVille is your experenced on-line cabinet source.

 

Before you buy those cabinets from that on-line store that guarantees to have the cheapest cabinets, here are a few questions you need to ask yourself!

Does quality matter to me?

Many on-line cabinet buyers make quality the lowest priority in their buying criteria, far behind cost and availability.  We make no guarantee that some other online store will sell you cheap cabinets at a lower price than our quality cabinets.  A good looking cabinet which is poorly made is not a bargain.  Our main concern at Cabinets by DunVille is your satisfaction with our quality cabinets and our service.  We have been at this for a long time we won't sell cabinets that suck...    

 

Cabinets by DunVille is dedicated to providing our clients with the highest quality ready to assemble kitchen cabinets.  The quality of our cabinets can be seen in the excelent materials, beautiful finishes and functional designs.  We have both contemporary and traditional styles.  Our cabinets weigh about 30% more than most other on-line cabinets.  This is because we use thicher, stronger hardwood plywood to make the cabinet boxes and shelving.   

 

Why should I be concerned with quality?

To the American family the kitchen is like the heart of their home.  It is where food is prepared plans for the day are discussed over breakfast and the events of the day are shared over an evening meal.  It is the room where family traditions are formed and family values are nurtured. 

 

Because of its traditional value to the American way of life, the kitchen is often the most beautiful room in the house.  No other room will affect the values of your family or the value of your home like a beautiful and comfortable kitchen.  In fact a beautiful kitchen is the most often given reason for purchasing a home.  When you're remodeling your kitchen you should insist on quality cabinets instead of the cabinets guaranteed to be the cheapest?  

 

 

Things to keep in mind about your new kitchen or bath cabinets.

Our family's great grandfather worked on castles in the UK before coming to America in 1837.  He started a family tradition of helping Americans build their dream homes.  For over16 decades our family has carried on that tradition.  In those years we have seen success and failure.  Success is much more fun.  We have noticed over and over again that success only comes to those who carefully plan for it.  Good planning is a tradition with us.

 

Planning

 As you plan your new kitchen or bath keep in mind that every project has three components that must be balanced, cost, quality and scheduling.  The mistake made most often by do-it-yourselfers in purchasing cabinets is putting so much concern into the cost and scheduling that they end up embarrassed by a poor quality cabinet job that fell far short of their needs or goals.  Remember, a good quality kitchen cabinets can last a lifetime.  Many of our projects are do-over jobs by people who compromised to the quick and cheap just a few years earlier and in a few cases just a few months earlier. For more pointers check out our planning guide page.

 

Stress Removal 

Remodeling your kitchen or bath with new cabinets makes very good sense in today’s market.   But the process can also be a very stressful event.  Cabinets by DunVille can help to take the stress out of the job.   We can provide you with quality cabinets and assist you to find a competent local cabinet installing contractor or help you be the contractor. 

 

 

Build Your Kitchen 

 Time is life, wasting your time to install poor quality cabinets or hiring an inept contractor is simply a poor use of your life and money.  Especially is this so if you have to redo the project because of product failure or you just got tired of the cheap cabinets you saved a few bucks on.   If this web site does nothing else but convince you to spend the time and money to get the kitchen that you really want then it will have served a purpose.   Check us out we want to be your cabinet company……

This is why quality pays!   In 1975 we sold and installed the kitchen below.    In the intervening 34 years two successive families have raised their kids from toddlers to college using this kitchen.  That's almost 13,000 days of constant use and it still looks this good.   

While we no longer sell this style of kitchen, you can see from this picture how well a quality kitchen with traditional style can stand the test of time.  These beautiful embossed hickory cabinets are a little darker now than they were in 1975 and we don’t use exposed hinges anymore, but the current owners tell us they love the kitchen as it is.  

This demonstrates well our philosophy that the “greenest” cabinets are high quality cabinets that last a long time.

 

Frequently asked questions….

How are DunVille’s cabinets different than what you can buy at the home improvement chains?                                                              We love real wood, so for over thirty five years we have sold only real wood cabinets.  Today most of our cabinets have European style boxes which are constructed out of ¾” hardwood plywood.  These are faced with full overlay doors and drawer faces.   Each component if stained and finished before assembly, which insures maximum protection from moisture.  Check out all of our features on our “cabinet features” page.

Most of the cabinets sold at the home improvement store come from large cabinet manufactures.  These companies use particle board to make most of their kitchen and bath cabinets.  This material is covered with thin plastic film printed with fake wood grain so they don’t have to finish the boxes.  They simply cut and assemble the boxes leaving the cut edge of the particle board exposed.  You may also find some medium density fiberboard (MDF) in some components of these cabinets like drawer boxes or face frames.  Often the only real wood in these cabinets is the door and if the door is plastic covered then it too is either particle board or MDF.

·        What’s so great about “real” wood?                             Real wood is a remarkable material.  It is light and strong and will last for hundreds of years even in harsh environments if maintained.

 Some species of wood have the tensile strength of cast iron and compressive strength close to some types of stone.  The wood posts and beams in railway trestles can hold up engines weighing hundreds of tons.  Tens of thousands of these wood structures have been in service for well over a century.  Also the entire stone city of Venice, Italy is set on thousand year old wood piles sunk deep into tidal mud. 

Real wood has a remarkable structure at the microscopic level.  Wood is composed of thousands of extremely long microscopic tubes bound tightly together with long hydrocarbon molecules.  They are very waterproof everywhere except at their ends.  Which is why wood and plywood are quite resistant to water infiltration.

Our hardwood plywood cabinet boxes are finished on all surfaces.   This protects the structural components from moisture infiltration.  But plywood is already quite moisture resistant compared to particle board.  Here's why! 

 A living tree makes two uses of cellulose fibers.  The growth layer or cambium layer of a tree is alive and has the ability to pump hundreds of gallons of water per day to the leaves.  At the end of each season that layer shrinks and is added to the tree's structure.  Wood fiber or cellulous is designed to absorb water through the ends of its fibers. 

 In a sheet of particleboard over 50% of the surface is composed of water absorbing fiber ends.  In plywood less than one percent of the surface is fiber ends.   In all of our cabinets all surfaces of the plywood are finished before assembly.  In virtually all particleboard cabinets the ends and edges are cut and left unfinished to soak up the water.  Which is why they often have a short life. 

  ·        Do you consider particleboard and MDF inferior materials?                                                                                No, in fact particle board clearly is the best material to use in many construction applications.  An example is commercial storage and book shelving such as those used in schools, libraries and offices.  In these applications particle board covered with high pressure laminate has proven to perform very well.   

 Generally these wood fiber products perform well when used in static structural applications where they are not exposed to fluctuations in temperature, moisture, or load.   Because particle board is virtually non compressive, heavy and very flat it is the best material for subflooring.  When use under vinyl or carpet it makes both of these materials look and perform better.   

 MDF is the perfect material for paint grade trim.  It can be extruded or molded into many profiles; it holds paint well and does not split or crack when nailed like some hardwoods do.   MDF fancy crown moldings, corbels and pilasters are much less expensive than those carved from wood.  In fact in our custom jobs we often use MDF moldings.   In these applications, as long as these materials are not subjected to high heat, moisture or high loads they will last indefinitely.    

 ·        So if particle board is good replacement for wood in these applications why not in cabinets?                                     Cabinet doors, shelving and boxes do not constitute a static application.  You open and close cabinet doors, loads come on and off cabinet shelves, unlike a subfloor, or painted trim, cabinets are out there exposed to high and low humidity and fluctuating temperatures.  Your kitchen cabinets will be pressed against a hot oven, suspended over a glowing toaster, a hot grill or pans of boiling water.  They will be drenched with the steam coming from tea kettles and dishwashers.   Water from moping, spills, a hidden plumbing leak or simply condensation or moisture infiltration on outside walls may frequently wet cabinet floors and bases.  So in our opinion while these products do have their uses in construction we don’t think they belong in top quality cabinets. 

·        In your experience do these conditions lead to failure? Yes, simply because there is a very big difference in the structural performance and real wood and particleboard.  An example is the strength of the cabinet box. 

Two years ago we were called by a lady who had just moved into a new prefab home.  As the new particle board cabinets were being loaded with can goods and dishes the bottom of a wall cabinet simply fractured and fell off.   The nails had fractured the bottom edge of the cabinet’s side panels which simply came apart when loaded.  Every cabinet  in the home, even though they were brand new, went to the landfill and were replaced with our all wood cabinets.

Particle board and MDF are made from waste sawdust or wood chips.  Their slightly different manufacturing processes results in products composed of very short absorbent fibers, glued together, often with water soluble glue or the natural resins of the wood.  The strength of particle board is a small fraction of real wood, and it does not hold screws or nails as tightly as real wood.   When nailed on the edge it often will produce a V shaped fracture along the lines of stress.  To overcome this problem manufactures use lots of glue in the joints.  

 The wood fibers in particleboard are non aligned their ends are exposed on every surface of a piece of particle board.  That’s why particle board sucks up water like a sponge.   When particle board gets wet it swells up, its density goes down as does and its grip on any fasteners embedded in it.  

 Cabinets made with these inexpensive materials may appear to be as good as real wood cabinets, but they simply don’t hold up like real wood cabinets.   

Experience has shown that particle board cabinets may last for decades in a show room but have a very short lifespan in a real world kitchen.

 

·        But isn’t particle board and these other materials more “green” because they are made of waste sawdust?                                               This argument has  often been made regarding particle board cabinets.   While we do support the use of waste or recycled materials as a great idea for packaging or other throw-away items, we must question the merits of “throw-away” cabinets. 

The greenest thing you can do as a consumer is to use quality products that last for several decades.  The materials, labor and fuel saved in not redoing your kitchen every few years is far more “green” than recycling a few hundred pounds of sawdust.   Our cabinets are both greener and in most cases far less expensive than the particleboard cabinets sold at those big home improvement stores.   

 

If particle board cabinets are so bad why do large manufactures make them? In all fairness to these large cabinet manufactures there have been many government and market forces that have led to the wide spread use of particle board in the making of cabinets.  These are the main three…. Environmental concerns  Because particle board is made from what would otherwise be wasted sawdust its use has been touted as being more “green” than the use of real wood.  Also federal and state governments have been forcing companies to lower the use of volatile hydrocarbons, or paint and varnish fumes.   If the cabinet manufacture makes their boxes out of particleboard covered with wood grained plastic then they don’t have to finish the boxes, only the doors and the small face frame.  This cuts their use of stains and varnish by over 75%.  Cost concerns The large cabinet manufactures also use particle board because it is considerably less expensive than hardwood plywood and the photo-finished plastic wood grain, as mentioned above saves the cost of staining or varnishing.   The manufacturing method of simply cutting and butt nailing the boxes together saves several steps and is also far less costly than the traditional use of dowels or rabbet joints.  (Which you will find on our cabinets.) It fits the corporate model of many companies.      Particle board  fits well into the mass production systems of many manufactures.  They use computer controlled saws, complex jigs and robotic nailing machines to assemble their products.  The fewer operations you can perform in manufacturing any item the less it costs.  Simply butt gluing and power nailing all the joints makes for easy mass production.    It also fits well into big business’s “planned obsolescent” business model.   Put another way, particle board cabinets are cheap to make and their short life insures future product sales.   This is the same philosophy made famous by General Motors, Ford and Chryslers.  This is a great idea for the manufacturer,  (At least until the public catches on.) it is not great for the home owner.  Also, as mentioned above it really is not very green to re-do your kitchen every few years when with quality products they could last a lifetime. The down side                                                Because particle board is composed of densely compressed short fibers it is heavier than plywood and has considerably less strength.   It tends to break rather than bend when subjected to stress or blunt force.  Particle board shelving also tends to slowly bend under load especially in conditions of high humidity such as in a kitchen or bath.  This is caused by a weakening of the adhesive bond between the short wood fibers and the binding resins.   In a similar manner masonite drawer bottoms tend to pan with age.  These products all have a much shorter useful life than real wood when used in cabinets.  A little more about particle board cabinets.

These nice looking particle board cabinets may appear to be as good as real wood cabinets, but they don’t hold up like real wood cabinets.    Their short life span makes them a poor choice for the "green" consumer.

Particle board pictured here is composed of saw dust or very short wood fibers.  It has very high compressive strength but very low tensil strength.  Its short non aligned fibers are like a sponge they suck up water which degrades the binding glue.  Not what you want in a cabinet structure in your kitchen or bath.

High volume cabinet makers use particle board which is covered with plastic film or foil this lessons the moisture infiltration.  Some of these coverings are hard plastic or “high-pressure laminate” with printed wood grain to make it look like real wood.  These materials make great shelving where moisture is not a problem.

This seven year old laminate covered particle board cabinet looked good until its cultured marble top started to slope down on one side. This debris stayed on the floor when the cabinet was removed. Virtually all particle board cabinets will have this happen to them if they are allowed to soak up water.  This cheap cabinet proved to be very expensive in the long run.

Read more about our cabinets on the Cabinet Features page.

  When it comes to quality products and service, no one is ever sorry that they got the very best!