Chinese crap. Look at American made like Scherrs or Barker.

If your budget demands, I have a friend who's just borrowed four million dollars and returned from China to negotiate supplies for "Chinese crap" ready-to-assemble cabinets. He will have one of the largest warehouses in the country, accessible online, in October or so.

I have ordered new doors from Barker, but not cabinets. They are great though! I am planning on adding 5 ft of base cabinets and some wall cabinets on one wall sometime soon, and I think that is where I am going to get them from.

BGW (before gardenweb) I too researched the same RTA cabinet companies you mentioned for my budget kitchen remodel. The pictures and prices looked great, but something inside kept warning me...hmm sounds to good to be true.

I decided to order a sample painted white door from cabinetgiant. It arrived ok and looked fairly decent. I was not digging the glaze, but all they offered was a glazed painted white. I was not sold, so I put the sample aside to keep searching.

Well about a month or so later, I pulled out my door sample. Let me tell you my reaction, "OMG! THIS IS TOTAL CRAP!" The paint was cracking in the mitered corners bad and almost peeling. (Now learned mitered cabinets are not good for paint! Do you think they care?) Yes, painted cabinets will make hairline cracks in the joints which I have no problem with, but this was major ugly and can only image just how ugly with time and regular use!

Then, I found this awesome site. Thank you so much everyone here on GW!!! You are so kind and generous to take time out of your own lives to give such great advice. Anyways, I read every single thread on RTA cabs. hollysprings said it like it is. My advice is to Google RTA and gardenweb and read everything. Be the thankful you found this site!

check out Barker cabinets. We used them for our new kitchen and we love our cabinets. For us they were the perfect match of really solid, high quality cabinetry, made in America and right within budget.

Check out Conestoga too.They do framed cabinets and you can get inset if you like them. Scherrs and Barker only do frameless.

Another shout out for Barkers here, but a preliminary one. We still don't have a kitchen, but it's not their fault. We have a hole where we used to have a kitchen, and I just stare at my assembled cabinets, pet them, and dream about the day they will be on my walls instead of in my living room, dining room, and garage. They assembled easily and look great. I also appreciated that I could afford all the customizations and natural cherry. Can't remember why I moved away from Scherrs and Conestoga. Might have been easier website or price for what I wanted. But many sing their praises.

Can someone explain what a "frameless" cabinet is? I assume that's the front of the cabinet - the part that the door attaches to (since that's what I've seen in all of the diagrams). But I'm doubting my guess...because I don't see the point of selling a cabinet without a frame? Is this for customers who want to keep their old door/frames?

Anyway, I'm looking to replace all of my kitchen cabinets. A quote of 10K for cabinets only (another 8K for installation) gave me serious sticker shock! So I'm definitely interested in RTA. I came across this article:
http://cabinetsleuth.com/rta-cabinets/

and it recommends a few RTA vendors. After reading the horror stories here, I'm very hesitant to buy from any of them. I suppose I can research them a little more (better business bureau, yelp, etc). But still...

I'm also considering Costco's vendors (although these are not RTA). I've never had a problem returning anything to Costco (love them!).

I already sent my plans to Scherr's (but didn't realize at the time that they don't provide the frames). I will look into Barkers too.

Frameless cabinet doors attach to the sides of the cabinets, so they are always full-overlay.

Frameless (and full overlay) means that you won't see any of the cabinet box when the door is closed. The cabinet is complete - box and door and all. Its just a style.

However, barker, scherr, and Conestoga all do sell just doors, for folks who want to keep their existing cabinet boxes.

Google gets you lots of explanations of what a frameless cabinet is. Here's a link to one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Framed vs frameless cabinets

I did the desk and built-ins in my den with Scherrs. They're great quality and easy to work with, but can get pricey. You can save some money by staining and installing them yourself if you're up for it.

Thanks to everyone for responding! I'm still researching this (can't believe how much there is to learn).

So now referring back to this article:
http://cabinetsleuth.com/rta-cabinets/
I googled "RTA Cabinets Unlimited" and I *think* this is their website:
http://www.cshardware.com/

Their website touts their "featherlodge sureconnect assembly system" but you can't seem to find any information on it anywhere. So I emailed them and asked what it is. They sent me a pic (attached here) and gave me the following explanation (tell me what you think):

"The assembly system from Feather Lodge is a quick connect metal clip system. Basically an âÂÂLâ shaped metal clip that will screw to the joining panels to secure them together while the glue dries.
There are two kinds of metal brackets as shown in the pictures below. It will be one of these systems."

I have to say, looking at the pic, it does not strike me as "good quality". Regardless, I have another question (and forgive me because I'm sure this one is a little out there): Would it be really unwise to purchase cabinets of good quality with thermofoil doors - with the intention of replacing the doors (real wood) later? The cabinet description on this site seems to indicate the quality of the cabinet is good (but the white Shaker style only comes with a thermofoil door). If I'm not mistaken on price, a new finished door would be less than $100. But the front drawer panel...I'm thinking you can't replace those (seems it would be very hard, if not completely ignorant, to disassemble a dovetail joint).

Thanks for all of the helpful advice. Hopefully I'm contributing something here another novice can use!

Just another follow up. I got a ballpark quote from Scherr's for 13K for RTA cabinets. They said I could bring that down to 11K if I go with melamine for my cabinet boxes. Isn't melamine pretty much the same as particleboard? 11K for RTA particle board cabinets is not a competitive quote at all (quote from TWO local cabinet installers using plywood boxes and real wood doors was 10K preassembled!). This includes soft close drawers/doors, dovetail drawers).

Also got a quote from www.thecabinetjoint.com for $8500 (RTA). This seems steep for RTA but I might not beat the quality (Conestoga wood doors, all plywood construction, dovetail construction on drawers AND cabinets, Blum hardware with lifetime warranty).

Amanda,
I was in your shoes not long ago, and our demo starts tomorrow! Such an exciting process!

I got multiple quotes from a local guy and some conestoga dealers. I then decided to go frameless. I ended up working with a KD who works via online planning and he was able to beat all the other quotes. I got exactly what I'd been hoping for all along-- all wood, good quality, US made cabinets with dovetailed drawers and soft close hinges, already assembled -- and they are absolutely gorgeous (although they're just sitting and waiting to be put up at the moment :) ). Anyway, if you're interested I can get you his contact info and you could send him your plan for a quote. I also appreciated it because he caught some issues the other dealers had missed with my plan and saved me a boatload of trouble!

Hey, someone named Louise emailed me to find out the name of my kitchen designer, but her email settings won't allow me to email her back. I don't know her user name. If it's you, I'm happy to help you out with the info, just email me back with your email address.

Hello! I have been doing online research on RTA cabinets and came across this post. I am interested in the contact info for the KD that threepinktrees referred to above. Can you e-mail that to me? Thanks!

we did barker's like many other posters here. very happy with the quality.

threepinktrees - is there a way to email you through the new Houzz interface for Gardenweb? I can't seem to figure it out but would love the contact info for you KD

threepinktrees i'd like the contact of this person as well. Thank you!

I used Scherr's. It's been two years. I'm still delighted. I want to do another kitchen. That's kind of sick, I know.

I did want to comment about the assembly process. Each manufacturer uses a different assembly technique. While I can only speak to the Scherr's process, I have to say it is one stout cabinet. They don't use clips as illustrated above. I think they are much more solid that some of the standard custom cabinets I have used in the past.

The bottom line is each company stands on their own merits. I like Scherr's because of the quality of the product, they are manufactured in North Dakota and the outstanding customer service. If you have a problem, you get a real person to help solve it. I have read numerous posts that indicated Barker's produces a good product. Their customer service is involves a lot of email. I like the telephone method myself. Conestoga is another domestic manufacturer of RTA frameless cabinets. With these companies, you can be assured the materials meet acceptable health standards, too.

@edkm123 care to share where you get those cabinets? sounds like I owe you a finders fee if you share...

Hi All, This thread has be useful to read, and wondering what has changed since many of the comments 5 years ago.

The Spruce has a list of RTA from Jan 2020 - https://www.thespruce.com/rta-kitchen-cabinet-company-directory-1822063. Does anything have experience with any of these?

I also stumbled onto Walcraft (JSI Cabinetry) https://walcraftcabinetry.com/cabinet-assembly/. Looking at their assembly video, it looks pretty well made, the metal brackets are not the only supports (with additional diagonal wood brackets). Appreciate any insight you might have. Thanks in advance!

@threepinktrees i'd like the info also :)

@threepinktrees hi, I would his well 🙂

@threepinktrees I'd love your contractor's info too!