Custom Made vs FLATPACK cabinets
A question asked so often is "What is the difference between a Flatpack kitchen & a Ready to Assemble Kitchen?
QUALITY
Cabinets are a very important part of of the structure and needs to be both water resistant (HMR) and solid. Flatpack or imported products can be extremely flimsy , not being square or will not hold a screw. Also backs MUST BE SOLID as they keep everything square and supported thoughout the life of the kitchen. 3mm backs are NOT recoomended evern though they were used in the past. They do not keep the boxes square and can come loose and damaged overtime with objects pushing against the backs.
16mm HMR board that complies with Australian Standards is important. Only LOW FORMALDEHYDE-EMITTING pressed wood products should be used, such as those that meet the Australian Standards for formaldehyde emission limits (E0 & E1). Most Imported products and Flatpacks do not conform to AU standards. *READ MORE HERE
Also it is very important to have the right type of HInges and Drawer runners to work and last as they should. There are only a couple of Brands that offer a LIFETIME WARRANTY, 1 being BLUM which is why we choose to use these in all our products.
CUSTOMISATION
Being able to DESIGN to FIT is very important. In some cases, yes, off the shelf cabinets will fit, but as there is no such thing as a standard room, standard cabinets will NOT fit unless you either have mismatching cabinets & door widths that look odd and fillers to 'fill in' areas that dont fit. Having too many small cabinets will waste space (more divisions) than a free flowing design with larger cabinets. Being able to centre appliances and sinks as required .... and more importantly use ANY brand of Appliance the customer wants and have the cabinets tailor made to fit those appliances.
DESIGN
The fact is, a Custom Made kitchen gives the client more options by making cabinets fit as they should. They look better asthesticly, make the most of the storage space, limit the amount of fillers required, allows the cabinets to go higher for taller ceilings or lower as required, higher benchtops for taller people or even shorter. It means that there are 1000's of combinations to ensure a proper look and fit. There is nothing worse than a kitchen that looks 'FLATPACK'.
PRICE
Yes, the price of a Custom Kitchen can be more than a Flatpack product ..... in most circustances. What we have acheived though through buying power is QUALITY, THE ABILITY TO TOTALL Y CUSTOMISE, FREE DESIGN SERVICE in-store & CAN WORK WITH BUDGETS. In most cases, we can actually compete on price with many FLATPACK companies even though we do use better products. Many start looking cheap in price but end up being more expensive, giving you less. Some of the high profile Companies work on a PERCEPTION of CHEAPNESS when in fact, the only thing cheap is the product itself and certainly not the price.
In may cases, we can compete against the FLATPACK mobs, but offer far more. As far as competing with Cabinet Makers who do high end Custom work ..... well that just makes us extremely price competitive.