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guigs19

Yorktowne Cabinets

guigs19
15 years ago

Does anyone have any info on Yorktowne cabinets? I have looked at KraftMaid, Dynasty and Kabinart. I think the yorktowne have the best bang for the buck, they are running a special right now getting the platium drawers in the gold box construction. 3/4" plywood drawer with full extension and soft close with 1/2" furniture board cabinet box with full full wood face frame with full overlay door. The Yorktowne price was about 1K less than KraftMaid, 2K less than Dynasty and 1500 more then Kabinart. Yorktowne does not paint then glaze they use a off white stain then the glaze. The cabinet guy said this might be better than paint and glaze because the stain on the Yorktowne won't chip like paint. My head is spinning with all the different companies. Any suggestions?

Comments (11)

  • nkkp
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have them and love them, and I am VERY particular. My drawer glides are Blum and work wonderfully. I have them in both finished cherry and painted maple with the furniture board sides and solid doors/fronts. The price was cheaper than Kraftmaid and the quailty, in my opinion, is better.

  • guigs19
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the reply. I don't know if Yorktown is regional or not that popular but it's hard to find info on this cabinet on the web. I don't want to spend the money only to find out in five years they need to be replaced again.

  • eastcoastmom
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I know at least one very high end builders around here (was considering using him for our kitchen project) who has used it on his spec house and some of his high end custom homes( homes in the millions) because he feels they are a good value. I went to a local showroom and was really quite impressed with the specs, the value and construction of the cabinets, especially the Platinum series. Tradeoff for price was the door selection and range of stain colors - I found them to be more limited in selection and did not offer inset etc. I was also looking at painted cabinets. Yorktowne has an option for an upcharge to do the paint and glaze as opposed to a white-stained and glaze (which shows a lot more of the wood grain through). They also seemed to show a heavier, wet glazed look as opposed to the ligher glaze effect I'm after. I'm ultimately going to go to a local custom place to get the look I'm after (unfortunately it's considerably more expensive) , but I think if you are happy with the options they give you , you won't go wrong.

    They did just close the main Yorktowne showroom that was closest to my house. I don't know if that is significant - they told me it's not. Several good quality KD places around here rep the line.

  • nkkp
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My understanding is that Yorktowne is only sold to dealers east of the Mississippi river. I think that's why they aren't well known everywhere.

  • guigs19
    Original Author
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    We just orderd the Yorktowne cabinets this past weekend. We did the maple in the antique white stain with the mocha glaze with the belmonte door. We got the gold construction with the upgraded platinum draws for free. Thanks for all you help.

    Next question is what grantie color, we have a medium oak floor which will be staying. My wife wants a dark almost black and I want a browish to pull eveything together(glaze, floor and grantie)

  • ronsgal
    14 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have had Yorktowne for almost 10 years now and am now finding the cabinets are falling off the wall. If I were you I would not purchase them. I have been in contact with Yorktowne and all they will say is that they are out of warranty and they can't find anyone in my area to come and look at them and even if they did they would just recommend we hire someone to fix them. In order to fix the problem we have to pull the entire cabinet from the wall and rebuild them as the backer board in only held on with staples and when this is attached to the wall over time it fails and starts to fall off the wall and there is nothing you can do about it. I could just see someone walking around my kitchen and all of a sudden the wall cabinet falls on them. this is not something I want to happen and hopefully you don't want either.

  • mbaldari
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I just had a contractor install Yorktowne Cabinets. The dovetail drawers have a screw at each end and it looks as though this is what hold the drawer togehter. Can anyone tell me who has the Yorketown Cabinets if this is how they contstruct their dovetail drawers.

  • touro123
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm remodeling my kitchen. I am looking at cabinets. The salesman at the showroom is really pushing Yorktowne on me. I like the dealer (I have seen other kitchens he has done for friends although they are not Yorktowne) but as I have educated myself I have developed real reservations about the cabinet company. I have seen a couple of displays and samples. The quality doesn't seem to be that good. Especially the finish. The wood doesn�t seem that great either, lots of little pieces glued together that are different colors. The price seems to be really high for flake board construction with vinyl paper interiors and exposed sides (he said it was more than 14% for plywood). The salesperson gets real dodgey and evasive when I ask about other cabinet companies they sell in the showroom. Today I decided to visit another dealer. This dealer told me that Yorktowne is bad, has lots of finish problems, labor and union problems, and factory closings and on and on. No surprise there, I had already heard about this and Yorktownes reputation for poor quality online and here at garden web. So why the big push for this brand?? He told me the salesperson in the other showroom was pressuring me to buy Yorktowne because Yorktowne pays the salesperson "spiff" money under the table. He said that Yorktowne routinely paid sales people money for every cabinet they sold. He said my salesperson could not possibly be fair-minded or objective so long as he was taking money from the manufacturer. He called it "kitchen cabinet kick backs" and reassured me that neither he or his sales people were taking kick backs from the cabinet companies they sold. That would explain the salesperson at the first dealership pushing Yorktowne and not showing me better quality/value cabinets. This is a once in a lifetime purchase. I need to get fair objective unbiased advice from people who have my best interests at heart and not be steered into a company because the salesperson is getting paid a per box kick back from the manufacturer to steer people into a higher priced inferior product. If it's true then I feel like a fool for wasting my time and misplacing my trust. I want to confront the salesperson and owner and tell them why I am not buying from them. Does anyone know about this? Does Yorktowne pay kitchen designers/sales people a per cabinet box "spiff" kick back to sell their cabinets??

  • KitchenExpert
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    These are the absolute worst cabinets made in America today. Elkay has run this company into the ground.
    The finish is terrible. Spoke to a dealer today in NY who had to have his last 5 Yorktowne kitchens field repaired by a furniture refinisher. He said it was like watching new cars be refinished in a underground garage..ie the finish is never the same!! He said there should be a lemon law for companies like Elkay/Yorktowne.

    They make their own doors. They use a grade of wood known as #2 common random...the pink slime of the cabinet business. To maximize yield in their dimension mill use tiny scraps of wood, glue and piece them together such that the finished product looks like a crazy quilt of patched together wood. No matter what you do to it it looks like crap and they know it!

    Yorktowne is grossly OVER PRICED. Most dealers try to shove cheap flake board construction on you because they charge %16 more for plywood. Many other companies offer plywood standard and blow Yorktowne away in price and quality.

    The construction is a tale of two shitties. Substandard materials cobbled together in an inferior construction made by the Elkay corp an even shadier cabinet company. Don't take my word for it google "Yorktowne cabinet factory closing". You can view first hand Elkay's abysmal record of poor quality, union busting and mis-management.

    Look and feel inside the cabinet. It is held together by dozens of triangle shaped fasteners. If you are unafraid of ripping your finger open, then open a door and run your finger along the back of the face frame, where it meets the side panel. You will find dozens of sharp pointy nails sticking out for you and your children to rip your finger tips open with. These little finger slicers are clearly evident with double faced glass door cabinets. As if the abysmal Yorktowne finish were not enough. They announce to your friends, family and indeed to the world that you made the bone headed decision to purchase the higest priced lowest quality cabinet made in America.

    Alas, the poor decision to buy Yorktowne (or the equally high priced low quality Elkay sister company Medallion) was not yours alone.

    How were you to know that your cabinet sales person was being bribed by the Elkay/Yorktowne/Medallion corp to foist an overpriced low quality cabinet upon you. See CORRUPT SALES PRACTICES http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg102205095786.html

    Yorktowe/Elkay is so desperate that they pay dealer sales people kick backs of up to 30$ per cabinet to your cabinet sales person to steer you into a low quality high priced product where as most often is the case a lower cost higher quality alternative is availible. With a 30$ per cabinet kick back the average 20 cabinet kitchen with a 65% mark up means you are overpaying $990

    Bribery, payola, kickbacks, and graft are the only way Elkay can sell this overpriced junk to you the unsuspecting consumer.

    I have seen countless "dream kitchens" ruined by this company. If a sales person tries to steer and manipulate you into this brand for his "kickback" than don't walk out of the showroom run..before it's too late.

  • helenlong49
    5 years ago

    I've had my Yorktowne white thermofoil cabinets for 21 years and I have absolutely no problem with them. One of my drawers next to my stove, side seam is beginning to warp (heat) otherwise they look fine. You get what u pay for, but you also have to maintain them..