FAQs

This page lists some of the Frequently Asked Questions about Cabinet Doors in general, and CabinetDoorFactory.Com doors in particular. Please email your questions to sales@cabinetdoorfactory.com.


Q. What is the return policy?

A. Because every door is made-to-order, we do not accept returns except for manufacturing error or shipping damage.

Q. In your Oak doors, do you use White Oak or Red Oak?

A. We do offer both White and Red Oak but there is a lot of confusion relating to these woods. The specie White Oak is different from the specie, Red Oak, and the color of White Oak is very different from the color of our Red Oak. White oak is gray in color, very dense, and is mainly used to make whisky barrels. White Oak is not usually desired in Cabinet Doors because it is a darker gray color, it's heavy, and it has a smell that most people don't feel is especially pleasant. Red Oak ranges in color from deep-red at the Southern end of the growing range through a light "wheat color" in the Northern end of the growing range. Our Red Oak comes from a subsection of the Northern range. We buy this from mills in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Wisconsin. Red Oak from this region has tight growth rings due to the cold northern climate, and a very-light wheat color due to the local soil conditions. Our Red Oak is much lighter in color than White Oak and it is considered to be the best quality Red Oak in the world. It's the best and that's why we use it in all our Select Oak doors and drawer fronts.

Q. I've found the style of doors on your site, cabinetdoorfactory.com, that match my existing doors and I know my doors are Oak, but how can I be sure the Oak you use will match the oak in my existing doors?

A. There are three factors involved in having new doors exactly match existing doors. The first is finding a door style that matches your existing doors, which you have done. The second is determining the wood type you need. The third factor is finding the correct stain and finish. This is more art than science and it's usually better to try your stains on pieces of scrap wood until you are satisfied with the result, then apply the finish to your new doors. When ordering if you request some sample pieces of your wood type, we will be happy to include them with your shipment at no additional charge.

Q. What do you recommend for hinges on your doors?

A. There are hundreds of hinges on the market and the quality level of hinges ranges from very good to very poor. The price range is almost as wide. To help our door users avoid the disappointment of installing a superior quality cabinet door on a poor hinge, we decided to offer a top-quality, American-made hinge. These Blum hinges are not usually carried by the Big-Box Stores because they simply can't get the same profit margin as with cheap imports. These Hinges are top quality, self closing, American made, Blum Inserta Clip-Top, 120 degree, All-metal, nickel plated Hinges. When you order our Blum Hinges they will ship with the Mounting Plate included. The Blum Hinge part number is 71T5590B. The hinges do not require screws and are simply placed in the hinge pockets bored into the doors, and they lock into place when the locking clip is closed. These hinges are now used by most high-end cabinet makers across the country. The face-frame mounting plate is Blum part number 175L6030.21, zinc die-cast, nickel plated, and does require two #7 wood screws...length is usually between 1/2 and 3/4, depending upon your face-frame thickness (screws are not supplied).

Click here for Blum Hinge spec.

The Mounting plate is for Face-frame cabinets with 1/2" overlay.

Click here for Mounting-plate spec.

If you order Hinge Boring, your doors will have 35mm holes bored 3 inches from the bottom and top of the door. Doors under 14 inches will have the pockets bored 1 1/2 inches from the top and bottom of the door. If you wish, doors over 40" tall may have three hinge cups bored, with the third hinge in the door center point (3 hinges are recommended for doors over 40" in height).The Blum Inserta Hinges are priced at $11.00 each ($21.00 per pair) with the boring priced at $3.50 per cup ($7.00 per door).

Q. How do I order the Hinge Boring and the Hinges?

A. The "Order Page" for each door has Drop-Down Menus for "Drill for Blum Hinges" and "Purchase Blum Hinges". Simply open the Drop-Down Menu and select the "YES". The Pocket Drilling or Hinge Purchase, or both will be added to the door cost. If you select Purchase Hinges the hinges will be included in your shipment. The Hinge Purchase and Hinge Pocket Boring drop-down menus are not displayed on Slab and 5-piece Drawer Fronts.

Q. Do you sell to the public?

A. Yes, We do now. For our first 30 years in business we only manufactured cabinet doors for high-end cabinet shops, custom home builders, and furniture manufacturers. With this website we are now offering our product direct to the public. Not only will you receive the same top-quality Cabinet Doors we manufacture for high-end custom cabinet shops and home builders, but you can buy these doors factory-direct and save the normal middleman markup.

Q. What do you use in Paint Grade cabinet doors and Drawer Fronts?

A. Our Paint-Grade cabinet doors and drawer fronts are made with MDF center panels, and paintable Hardwood Frames. 

Q. Some of your doors come with a square outside edge. Can I order a square edge on other doors?

A. Yes you can. Send us an email at cabinetdoorfactory.com requesting a list of our available edges and we will send you a PDF file showing all of our edges.

Q. Do you ship or do I need to arrange to pickup my order?

A. Yes, we ship to all 50 states. We use FedEx Ground for most orders and ship palletized large orders by Common Carrier.

Q. I've looked at several websites offering cabinet doors. Could you tell me more about the quality of the woods you use?

A. Our customer base of high-end builders and custom cabinet shops demand superior quality and that includes the highest quality woods available. We use the same top-quality woods in your doors that we supply to the builders of million dollar homes. We buy only the best quality materials from the part of the country that produces the best quality and color in each wood type we stock. No wood products manufacturer can offer a higher quality wood than we offer, because there are no higher quality woods available. We buy the highest quality woods and if any lumber mills ever offer any higher quality, we buy it.

Q. How accurate are your door sizes?

A. Our cutting and sizing is far more accurate than the old tape-measure method used a few years ago. Our cutting and sizing accuracy is measured in thousandths of an inch. Thickness is measured with dial-indicators with a tolerance of 5-thousandths of an inch. Door components are cut with computerized saws with accuracy of a few thousandths as well. The reason we guarantee door sizes to be within 1/16 inch is simply because all woods slightly change dimensions with changes in relative humidity. When humidity increases wood products will expand slightly and when humidity decreases slight shrinkage will occur. A 4 foot piece of Oak, Ash, Alder, Cherry, Maple, or Hickory can be expected to expand or shrink up to 1/16" (in length) with a relative humidity change of 50%.

Q. Are your doors sanded?

A. Yes, we use very large Timesavers Wide Belt Sanders to finish sand our cabinet doors. We will finish sand to 180-grit and then remove any cross-grain scratched left by the Wide Belts in the rails. 180-grit is the sanding finish most custom cabinet shops prefer and allows the widest variety of stains and finishes without the need to either "rough up" the surface of additional finer sanding. Some harder woods like Maple or Hickory need to be rougher than 180-grit to take stain. So if those woods are intended to be stained you may need to slightly rough-up the finish. The vast majority of the finishing options will find our finish sanding perfect and won't require any additional sanding at all.

Q. Are there any problems associated with doors built in one part of the country being shipped to another part of the country?

A. Yes, there can be some serious problems. The relationship of wood to humidity-changes is the root of the problem. Normally a wood cabinet door in your kitchen sees humidity changes all year long, but these humidity changes occur gradually so you don't see any damaging effects. When a cabinet door packaged and shipped however, these humidity changes aren't gradual; they are almost immediate and the result can be damage to the door. Humidity changes will result in moisture gain or loss from any cabinet door and that moisture change will be most rapid from the end grain...Like the end-grain on the panel cuts of raised panels and the ends of the stiles (the side pieces of the doors). If the doors are opened in a climate similar to where they were built and packaged, there will be no problems. But if the doors are opened in a climate far different from where they were packaged the problems can be severe and almost immediate. Shipping from a wet/humid climate into a dry climate will cause the end-grain of the raised panels and stiles to lose moisture at a rate faster than it can migrate from the center of the door. This can and does cause splitting in the raised panel and-cuts and the stile ends. Shipping from a dry climate into a wet climate simply causes the raised panel cuts and stile ends to absorb additional moisture which is not damaging to the doors. Our manufacturing facility is located in the dry climate of Arizona so we are able to ship into all 50 states year around without the danger of climate-difference failure.

Q. I've been told that painting cabinet doors can cause some problems. Is that true?

A. The answer is yes and no. Painting a cabinet door won't cause any problems to the door but the painted finished product may not be exactly what you wanted. Because some woods paint better than others we offer paint-grade doors in several wood types. We usually recommend Soft Maple or Alder for the frames and MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) for the panels. Woods with an open grain, like Oak, don't paint well because the open grain tends to paint with an Orange-peel look. One point to consider with painted cabinet doors is that the wood will expand and contract slightly with changes in humidity. This is normal and will occur even after the door is painted. The problem is that when the door swells and shrinks the paint doesn't. This will cause cracks in the paint at the wood joints. It doesn't mean the door has failed, it simply means that the paint has dried and is no longer as elastic as the wood in the door. So with painted cabinet doors expect to see cracks in the paint appear at all joints a few months to a few years after the paint dries.

Q. How long will it take to get my doors?

A. All of our cabinet doors are custom made to order. Production on your order will be started within 48 after the order is received and it will be completed in 16-18 Calendar days.  Your order will be packaged and picked-up by UPS or Via Freight.  Shipping typically takes 1-to-6 business days, depending upon your distance from our Arizona factory. When your order is picked-up by the shipper you will be sent an email with your delivery date and a tracking number.

Q. I'm ordering doors and fronts for a large home, over 100 pieces. Is there a lower priced shipping choice available?

A. Yes there is. The main reason for the freight saving is weight. We are limited by FedEx to keep weight lower per box so that the driver can lift the box. There is no weight limit for truck shipments. So instead of packing a dozen boxes, we build and pack one pallet Large orders, over 25 doors can usually be packed on a pallet and shipped by truck. The larger the order the greater the saving. For large orders we always check Truck Shipping rates against FedEx, and if we can save you money on shipping we will refund the difference.

Q. Can I get Slab Drawer Fronts with a different edge than the one shown on cabinetdoorfactory.com?

A. Yes you can. If you order Slab Drawer Fronts along with Cabinet Doors, we will machine the same edge on your Slab Drawer Fronts that is machined on your doors. But, if you are ordering only Slab Drawer Fronts and you want one of our other edges simply state in the "Additional Instructions" area of the order form that you want a different edge. We will be happy to email a PDF showing all of our edge choices. Just email us at sales@cabinetdoorfactory.com and request the PDF or our edge details or click here.

Q. Why does your website require me to register?

A. You can explore our website and even get prices for your order without registering. Registration is only necessary when you want to place your order. The information needed during registration are things like your shipping address and your email address. A shipping address is needed to calculate the shipping costs and, of course, where you want your order delivered. We use your email address to confirm your order and to notify you when your order ships.

Q. Some of my cabinet doors will be over 50-inches tall. At what height do you recommend a center rail?

A. On Mitered cabinet doors center rails are not used but on Cope & Stick (traditional) doors a center rail is placed in all doors over 48-inches.

Q. What payment options do you offer?

A. We accept Visa, MasterCard, and Discover on our website. Our Credit connection is encrypted for your safety, and to safeguard your privacy, your credit card information is not retained by CabinetDoorFactory.Com.

Q. Are there any suggestions or limits on door sizes?

A. Yes, there are some accepted limits on door sizes. The limits are imposed by weight and the expansion/contraction properties of wood. When a cabinet door is too heavy the stress on the Hinges and the Hinge-side Door Stile will damage the hinge, the door, or both. Large doors naturally weigh more than smaller doors so the industry has accepted some standards on door sizes. The maximum accepted width is 24-inches and the maximum accepted height is 60-inches. If your design requires doors above these maximums we strongly suggest that you redesign to reduce the door sizes you will be using. Doors over these maximums cannot be guaranteed and in most cases will require significant increases in shipping costs.

Q. Your website doesn't offer glued-up slab doors. Do you make them??

A. No we don't offer Glued-up Slab cabinet doors. Here's why. Glued-up Slab doors have declined in popularity mostly because the design is unstable and almost guaranteed to warp. Glued-up Slab doors, when shipped across climate zones, have a warpage rate of several hundred times that of any other design of cabinet door. Other cabinet door designs have a frame which offers support that keeps the panel from warping when the humidity changes. Slab doors don't have the support of the frame, so there is nothing to keep them from reacting to humidity changes. Even after the Slab doors are finished and installed, warpage will occur because rapid humidity changes create a situation where the moisture levels are not equal between the inside and outside of the cabinet. We simply value our reputation--of manufacturing top-quality, dependable and reliable cabinet doors--too much, to damage it by offering a door style we know to be an unreliable design.

Q. I want to frame some posters. Can I use your Glass Frames for large picture frames?

A. Yes you can. Cabinet Doors that are open-for-glass (no panel, just the frame) make excellent frames for pictures, posters, and paintings. If fact, the savings when using a cabinet door frame can be substantial, especially as the frames get larger. Glass Frames can be ordered with frame widths anywhere from 1 3/4-inches up to 3-inches, and in any wood. The style can be Mitered or traditional Cope & Stick. Frames can be from as small as 4 x 6 inches up to several feet on a side and they can be made to almost any dimensions as a rectangle.