Manufactured & Modular Homes Blog

What Can You Tell Me About Cabinets?

First, let me go over the standard cabinet options in manufactured homes. This will be a little tricky given each manufacturer offers different series of homes, and each series often offers different cabinet types. However, there are several basic types of cabinets available.

1. A wrapped cabinet door. These cabinets are constructed from a particle board material with a wood look paper or vinyl wrap. This is the base model cabinet offered in less expensive homes. The trade-off is that if these doors get damaged they are not easy to repair. You cannot re-sand and stain them.
2. A solid wood door front. Most factories offer oak as the standard and have the option to upgrade into a stained maple. This upgraded cabinet is offered in upgraded/ more expensive series of homes. The reason to pay more is that they are more durable and if the door does get scratched or damaged you can sand and stain it. The solid wood doors usually come with several optional styles as well:
   1. Flat panel doors, which give you a more contemporary look.
   2. A bead board style which is a thinner bead board panel inserted into a thicker wood frame. This has a shaker look to it.
   3. Raised panel doors. This is the heaviest door when you lift it. It also has a traditional look to it.

The fronts of the cabinets are constructed of stiles. The stiles are the frame that the door attaches to. Typically the stiles will match your doors. For example, wrapped doors will come with a wrap style, and solid wood doors will have solid wood stiles.

Now let me talk about the sides and backs of the cabinets. The sides are usually made of particle board with a vinyl wrap. This is typical in the cabinet industry. The most price conscious homes will sometimes have cabinets installed with no backs to keep the cost down. Although I don’t love this, I cannot argue about the price. Upgraded lines will build a box cabinet with the sides and back constructed for each individual cabinet.
Modular Houses also offer you different cabinet options. They usually offer three basic cabinets:

1. First are factory built cabinets. They are built to the factory specifications without being governed by a third party.
2. The second option is KCMA cabinets that are constructed at the factory but are built to the KCMA standards . This is the same standard that is used by all certified cabinet manufactures.
3. Third is a cabinet constructed by a third party cabinet manufacturer. These pre-built cabinets are shipped to the factory and installed.

The first two cabinet types usually have oak cabinets as their base model with an option to upgrade to a stained maple cabinet. Option number three gives you the greatest number of cabinet choices, but also tends to be the most expensive.

The drawer slides are the hardware you use when you pull out the door. The standard door slide is metal. You can usually upgrade the slides to ¾ extension (meaning the door will pull out farther) or self-closing slides. Drawers are typically offered as “drawer over door”, which has a drawer over the base cabinet doors; or as a bank of drawers, where one section of base cabinet is all drawers, usually three or four.

Finally, there are a variety of options in drawer construction. These include solid wood (best), plywood or particle board sides, dovetail (best) or mortise-and-tenon joints, and varying thicknesses of plywood bottoms. As always, the better the material and construction, the better service your drawers will give.

That’s a lot of information, but as always, you can always contact us with any questions you have. Our friendly and experienced housing consultants can help you sort through all the options to have cabinets you will be happy with for years to come.