Saw a kitchen in a new condo building that made me shake my head

I was checking out a friend's place in that new Riverwalk complex downtown, and the builder-grade cabinets looked good from a distance. Up close, the drawer boxes were stapled together with no glue, and the shelves were just 1/2 inch particle board that was already sagging. How do you even sign off on work like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessalane1mo ago

Builder-grade" is why my own DIY projects look so bad.

kevin_lane1mo ago

Wait, is it the builder-grade stuff or our own skills? I've seen amazing DIY with basic materials. It's more about the small details we skip, like sanding between coats or using painter's tape for clean lines. My first shelf looked rough because I rushed the finish, not because the wood was bad.

parker_hall51mo ago

Hold on, I gotta push back on that. Builder grade stuff is often the problem because it's made to be cheap and fast, not good. That particle board warps if you look at it wrong, and the thin veneer chips so easily. Even with perfect skills, you're starting with materials that fight you every step of the way. A master carpenter could make it look decent, but for most of us, it sets us up to fail before we even pick up a tool.