I was looking at the RTA cabinets for my kitchen. I went for the higher end cabinets because when I actually saw them in person the cheaper ones felt really cheap.

Anyway, I pulled up an old quote from HD for cabinets that I had picked out but never bought. The HD were the semi custom and were a mid-range price. When I compared an 18in 3 drawer base cabinet the RTAs was only about 20-50 dollars less (one company was even more expensive by quite a bit.

I thought I would save a good amount of money with RTA but now I'm wondering if that's true. I did pick out the best RTA but I thought it would be much less expensive. Has anyone compared mid-range HD cabinets vs RTA? BTW, the Ikea were much less money but I can't get myself to buy particle board.

Any thoughts? Thanks

 

Here is a whole page of sites you can look up;
https://www.google.com/search?q=rta+...firefox-b-1-ab

 

Cabinet prices vary greatly. Some RTA cabinets are expensive because the sides are 3/4", which I think is nice but unnecessary.
1/2" plywood or MDF/Melamine (particle board) is good enough IMO. 1/2" real plywood is definitely good enough. You always want 3/4" shelves.

You also have to consider that some options are expensive. Costly items that most people want are raised panel doors, 3/4" real wood drawer boxes and self closing/full extension slides.

 

I just realized the cabinets for RTA were raised panel while the HD cabinets were shaker. I see there's quite a difference in pricing there.

I really like the raised for my particular kitchen so I'll have to do more homework. Thanks for the links on more sites to look through.

 

... and don't count out custom built cabinets, they aren't always as expensive as you might think. Wouldn't hurt to have a shop or two price them for you.