Most cabinet buying advice tells you to check reviews and get three quotes. Useful, but it will not tell you whether the company you are talking to actually builds cabinets. Here is what does.
Start with the licence, because it takes two minutes
In California, cabinetry and finish carpentry work of any meaningful size requires a contractor licence, typically a C-6 Cabinet, Millwork and Finish Carpentry classification or a B General Building licence.
You can verify any licence yourself at the California Contractors State License Board (cslb.ca.gov) using the company name or licence number. The check takes two minutes and shows you whether the licence is active, what classification it holds, whether the bond is in place, and whether there is disciplinary history.
California law also caps deposits. For home improvement contracts, a contractor may not ask for a down payment exceeding $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less, excluding finance charges. A shop asking for 50 percent up front on a $20,000 kitchen is asking for something the law does not permit. This is one of the most useful things a homeowner can know and one of the least known.
Twelve questions that separate shops
On construction
- Are your carcasses plywood or particleboard? There is a right answer in this climate, and it is plywood. A shop that hedges is telling you something
- Are drawer boxes dovetailed solid wood, or stapled?
- Are soft close hinges and full extension undermount glides standard, or an upcharge?
- On painted doors, are the centre panels MDF or solid wood, and if solid, do they float? This is the question that identifies a shop that understands the local climate
- Do you finish all six sides of every door, including the top and bottom edges?
On process
- Do you field measure after demolition, or quote from the consultation measurement? Quoting from a pre-demolition tape pull is where change orders come from
- Where are doors sprayed? A controlled shop, not a garage. At 100 degree ambient temperatures solvent flashes out of the film too fast and leaves it brittle
- Will I get a written lead time before I pay a deposit?
- What happens if you open the soffit and find ducting? A good answer describes inspecting during design rather than discovering it during demolition
On the company
- Do you build these yourself, or order them in? Both can be legitimate. You just need to know which, because it changes who is accountable when something is wrong
- Is my home pre-1978? If yes, work disturbing painted surfaces is governed by the federal Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. A shop that knows this without prompting knows its regulatory ground
- Are your composite wood materials CARB Phase 2 compliant? This is a legal requirement for composite wood sold in California, enforced federally under TSCA Title VI. Every legitimate supplier can answer instantly
Red flags
- A deposit above the legal cap. Covered above, and the clearest signal available
- A quote given without measuring. A number produced from photographs is a guess with a decimal point in it
- No written lead time, or a lead time that only appears after the deposit clears
- Pressure to decide today, or a discount that expires at the end of the visit. Cabinetry is a six to ten week build. Nothing about it is urgent
- Vagueness about box construction. Every real shop knows exactly what its carcasses are made of
- No physical address, or an address that turns out to be a mailbox
Comparing quotes properly
The most common mistake is comparing totals. Quotes are frequently for different scopes, so make each bidder state:
- Cabinetry only, or cabinetry plus installation
- Whether removal and haul away of the old kitchen is included
- Whether countertops are in or out
- Price stated per linear foot, so different cabinet counts become comparable
- What happens to the price if walls are out of square
A $9,000 quote and a $19,000 quote are frequently the same kitchen described differently. Our Clovis cost guide covers what the numbers should look like.
Why local matters here specifically
Two reasons beyond convenience. First, a shop that works in this valley every week knows what 100 degree summers and fog season do to cabinetry, and specifies accordingly. A national supplier shipping to a distribution centre does not adjust for that.
Second, older Clovis housing near Old Town is genuinely difficult to fit. Plaster over lath, walls out of plumb, ceiling heights varying across a single run. That is scribing work, and it is learned locally.
Our custom kitchen cabinets page answers most of the twelve questions above in writing, and the about page covers how we scope and what we decline to do.
What the written contract should contain
Verbal agreements on a $15,000 purchase are how disputes start. Before you pay anything, the document should state:
- Full scope, listing what is included and, just as importantly, what is not. Removal and haul away, countertops, and plumbing reconnection are the usual ambiguities
- Construction specification: carcass material and thickness, drawer box construction, hinge and glide type, finish product
- A written lead time, and what happens if it slips
- Payment schedule, within the legal deposit cap
- Change order process, including how a price is agreed if something is found behind a wall
- Warranty terms, covering what is included and for how long
- Who is responsible if measurements are wrong
That last one causes more trouble than any other clause, particularly where measuring and building are done by different companies.
Reading reviews usefully
Star ratings tell you little. What is worth reading is how a company behaves when something went wrong, because on a six to ten week project involving demolition in an older house, something occasionally does.
Look for reviews that mention a specific problem and describe the response. A shop that returned to adjust doors after a season, or that absorbed a mistake rather than arguing about it, is telling you more than fifty five star reviews with no detail.
Be appropriately sceptical of a brand new company with a large number of uniformly enthusiastic reviews and no detail in any of them, and equally sceptical of a business with no reviews claiming decades of history. Both patterns are worth a second look.
Ask instead for something verifiable: the licence number, which you can check yourself at the CSLB, and whether they can point you to work in your area.
Clovis Custom Cabinets builds custom cabinetry to order in Clovis, California, for homes and businesses across the greater Fresno area. For a free measure and a written quote, call (559) 314-3498.
