Cheaper to Build or Buy Kitchen Cabinets?!

today we're going to solve the A- old question is it cheaper to build your own cabinets or buy them at your local hardware store we'll find [Music] out welcome back guys to another episode on the remodel here electrical is all done Plumbing is all done now we need to start working on building the base cabinets here cuz they're going to take a whole lot of time for me and your boy's taking a well-deserved vacation so we need to make up our time so to do this experiment properly I went down to Home Depot and I checked out their cabinets that they have there they're nothing crazy they're your traditional oak cabinets that still need to be stained or painted whatever you want to do an average cabinet these are a few that I took pictures of they are 30 in wide so they're nice and big uh the top ones that hang on the ceiling are 130 bucks and the base ones are $184 I believe and then the smaller ones that are like 12 in wide they drop down to like 130 or something like that we're going to calculate up at the end of this video how many cabinets I built and how many cabinets uh it would cost to actually get those cabinets and then we'll kind of compare them side by side and uh we'll find out so the cabinets that we're buying are 35 in tall and uh the range is 34 and 1/4 wide opening they're I think they're like 30 3 and 3/4 on average but you need that little Gap but that's a rough opening that they recommend I'm going to have my trim right here so we got a 4-in trim first cabin is going to but up to the range is 23 in wide range opening next cabin is going to be 15 inch wide that's and you have like a bunch of pullout drawers spatulas All That Jazz we have a 24x 24 in call it a lazy Susan uh then we're going to have a 25in cabinet here and then we're going to have a 30-in cabinet for our sink now I'm going to create a little Gap from the sink to the dishwasher by the way the dishwasher will go here mostly because I want to hide this and if you've seen the last video this can't go in the wall because I have concrete footings right there so we have to make do of what we got here and then we're going to have a big wraparound peninsula big open bar area here let's start building our base cabinets starting from here getting ready to start got my maple plywood here we're going to need to build our first 23in cabinet that's going to start from the range they're all going to be the same height so 35 in not a big deal but uh 23 coming right [Music] up got our side pieces bottom piece stretchers stretchers need pocket holes and the side piece need a DAT cut and uh what else does it need toekick we need toe kicks from experience I'll tell you this this is the part you want to slow down why is because so many times I built cabinets and I put Doos on the same exact side so they don't line up so make sure you have a mirror image so they're go in the right place man cuz uh we'll be buying more sheets of plywood and they're 85 bucks a piece this Maple stuff so it's basically gold D's in let's assemble where's my brush oh that's disgusting I got epoxy that's spilled in my little catch all thing I got wood glue I got glue holder and look at all that epoxy on the little epoxy d That's sucks now my gloves are dirty that means the wood's going to get stained [Applause] all right guys listen up uh it's incredibly important to me to make sure I have the right tools for the right job that's why we're building these cabinets for the kitchen and speaking of kitchen the tools that I need in the kitchen are very important to me and my family and that's where I'm very excited to talk again about the sponsors of today's video we worked with them in the past and they're fantastic kamikoto Japanese steel knives I'm not kidding you I love them they are the only knives that are my kitchen my wife loves them they're such high quality Japanese steel they feel like swords high quality I've never owned knives that are this nice before and it's so much fun using them 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there's a lot of imperfections when I'm buying it where I'm buying it from versus select Pine is like picture perfect so that'll make like a finishing product when it comes to painting a whole lot easier pocket holes glue and screw on this part it's important to keep these super flat or else you're going to be spending eternity sanding these flush almost forgot the word that's what they call dead nuts right [Music] there that was annoying maybe next time I'll think ahead and pre-drill my pocket holes on my big jig but you know that's neither here nor there let's throw the sucker on let's get some wood glue that's be a better idea [Music] now the fun [Music] part finally becoming real like this is going to be a kitchen and man it's going to be freaking awesome all right next up uh we got to build our 24 in cabinet I guess let's see here boom boom boom well this is actually going to be a dead space now that I realized okay no not a big deal let's build our 25-in cabinet huh no reason to stand around and cry about it [Music] put some Scoops in your mouth scario they don't teach you that in school huh hey cabinet I have some friends for you let's go so I'm going to need to do a blank box well I don't really have to do a blank box I could just kind of extend the other cabinet so there's just an empty space here and countertops can just kind of sit over it it'll work so up next 25 in a didn't I say 25 on the last one no I had to make a 15 this is a 15 in the next one's 25 21 25's coming up jigs right here they are a lifesaver when it comes to getting everything nice and flush cuz if you just hold your pocket screw in just like that or pocket hole just like that you're going to like the way you build I guarantee [Music] it when you're doing drawers I used to always just kind of eyeball and be like well if it's off by an eighth uh or a quarter I could always just make a overlapped drawer face and it'll conceal it all but that's young man's game so the best way to do it is take your overall length that you're working with subtract all the dividing pieces that are going to be here for the drawer right so subtract all of this and then divide this length by how many sections there'll be so in our situation five so I created a little jig my little spacer so when this comes in here there's no guesswork you just literally line them all up and you'll have perfect spacing all [Music] around you know what I was actually dreading building all new cabinets just how long it would take and how much to go through the process but surprisingly enough it's been kind of kind of therapeutic uh and it really only works with a setup and I know my setup is unique there's not a lot of people who have an an entire big shop space to themselves but the way I kind of have it set up is my materials here I cut it all rough here here I do all my little details like My toe kicks right and then I walk and this is the big one I come over here and I use my pocket hole form in here so I could do a bunch of them really quickly so I have to clamp anything down and then this is like my assembly table so by having a system like this it allows for me to actually bust them out really quickly so on average I think each carcass with the face frame is coming out to be about 20 to 25 minutes which I think is pretty damn fast [Music] how cool does this look they look incredible I I don't want to to my own horn but they came out as good as I could ever make them I'm really proud of how this looks really really and they're 3/4 in Maple ply most cabinets are/ in particle board so man they're sweet now the setup here well it's a little tricky so dishwashers on average are about 24 in uh opening rough opening that's what you know the old Google is saying then we have our sink here now the thing with the sink is it's a unique situation because the aav valve cannot be hidden in cabinets you have to be able to access it so we either make one giant cabinet option b is we cut off our av valve put it closer here and then conceal this and then run our lines underneath it there's really no crazy win the best option here because uh I'm going to give up cabinet space because this is going to be inside of it meaning like if this is going to be a blank so I think really just to keep it all honest and straightforward I think I'm just going to build one giant long cabinet which would be 48 in wide one more big cabinet and then we can start working on our [Music] ERS stay no problems okay let's go nice and smooth we need anything to go wrong we've been here before we got our reps in I think so far so good that's awkward can't roll it over it's ceiling's too low get [Music] creative awkward I am surprised knock on wood I haven't pulled my back doing crazy stunts like this so I'm quickly discovering something about my design here because how long it is there's going to be Flex now I'm not concerned about this Flex this simply just holds the stretches together the uh countertops that are going to go on that's going to be stability uh the problem goes down below here big long span uh definitely need something here cuz I I bet you you put a couple of buckets or some laundry detergent and this this is going to have plenty of flex so I think what I'll do is just rip a couple of pieces of plywood and uh secure them down the middle here that way this will be nice and [Music] strong all right ladies and gentlemen we've come to section in our regular programming where I do something and I'm going to either be very very happy or I'm going to cry so what we have to do is we have to spe specifically precisely cut the holes for a water line and our drainage is going to be there I've measured three times but I stuck at measuring so um I gave the old cowboy try kids pray for me let's go see how we did where is the wobbling oh my God 5 and 3/8 oh it's off by like 38 why how did I screw up measuring go oh my goodness we did it oh it's we got all the base cabinets done took me six sheets of plywood at 85 bucks so I think they're 88 bucks a sheet you do the math uh made 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 cabinets with six sheets upper cabinets so I've kind of did my little layout uh the Home Depot cabinets are 30 in wide the specific one I was looking at they come in different sizes uh 12 in deep they vary of how tall you want them so I'm going to maximize our head space here so we got a 30-in cabinet here by 12 in deep we're do a 25-in cabinet here a matching 25in cabinet for symmetry here I'm going to have kind of these like floating shelves up here aren always likes to put Decor fortunately upper cabinets are a little bit simpler to build we're going to have our top and bottom pieces pocket holes on the bottom cuz you can't see and the little face frame is going to cover that even more and then the top obviously is like that uh the bottoms or the sides are just going to be right here everything's getting pocket Hool in and then the back is going to have the cleats going this way so we could actually secure it into the wall both on top and bottom to give the most amount support cuz I don't know if you guys know how much you know full dining room set weighs you know all your porcelain dishes and all that stuff but it's a lot so uh do top and bottom not just the top I think I'm going to do something a little bit different with the backing here so in order to get rid of this exposed plywood Edge what I'll have to do is on one two I think there's only on two sides where the cabinets are exposed and not butting up to anything I think I'm going to put another finishing board uh against it or finishing panel as they call it against it and it'll conceal everything and it'll be perfect upper cabinets looking beautifully for the face frame I decided to space them out so uh this can touch the ceiling and not interfere with any lights as this thing is opening I also Gap it down below as well now one more Finishing Touch we need to put our pins in for the shelves to be adjustable so I got a little Shelf shelf pinning jig following the pattern all the way up and we'll be able to bring our Shelf in and we'll be able to store some you know dishes and such plan here is going to be I marked out my studs which 90% of the time I missed the stud I got my spacers here which these are about 20 in I looked up the cabinet spacings that are typical and they say anywhere between like 18 and 22 in or 16 and and 22 in so I just kind of figured it'll find something kind of middle down the road uh not to make a little over crammed or anything set it on top and hopefully hit those studs but um we all know that's not going to happen all the time okay stud oh don't do that do not do that are you seeing this are you seeing this look this is I mean I was first worried with the low ceilings but because the cabinets are nice and Tall this kind of becomes an an illusion in a way these are beautiful we're going to have so much more storage I don't know if you guys seen what the before looks like but we're going to have such a bigger kitchen so excited okay 25in cabinet next here we go this one's going to be a little tricky cuz I don't have the cabinet well I have a little bit of a cabinet to work here but not on this side so I think I'll just put one stick up push it up and then uh secure to the side and to the back fortunately I have this giant header coming across so I'll have an easier fingers cross easier way of getting that stud so just like my luck there's no stud I mean I have like three studs here but nothing here so I'm not worried about I got one really good connection there two really good ones on top I might put a third one just to Beef It Up and then the rest will secure it through the sides here and then I think in the corner here again there's not enough spacing to create really much of a door so instead I'm going to put a cabinet on the side but make it longer so you can open a small door that'll be like this big and then go into the corner so we can maximize some of that space it'll look it'll look great and I think in hindsight what I should have done is I know there's a lot of software on there out there for like kitchen layout planning it would have been nice to kind of get a schematics of my walls and windows proximity and then see General cabinets and how you can lay them out so cuz right now your boy is just shooting from the hip and we're just cowboying it up but we're doing a pretty damn good job at it I made an executive decision here after catching the first cabinet messing up on these stretchers or the supporting brackets that you actually Mount through when you look on the inside of the cabinet you see this ugly ply layer so what I'm going to do is just iron on uh this veneer that matches it and then that way when you open the cabinet it's going to look nice and [Music] pretty how much nicer does that look compared to that so pretty it's amazing what veneer will do so here's the part of cabinet making they don't tell you about is the installation part uh you can't you can control the size of your cabinets but you can't control where the studs are and even though studs are supposed to be 69 center from this stud to that stud is like 22 in which is ridiculous I mean the best I can do there's a stud running through here best I can do is maybe throw in like a 2 and 1/2 in screw and hopefully it'll get it it's a tough look for the brand right [Music] now I don't know if that even went through oh you know what we could do I have a ceiling uh joist running across here so I could essentially tie in the top here and that'll give me any weak spots of the screws I didn't miss but we need these puppies to be strong and uh not dropping down all right folks we got our last cabinet in it took me 3 days and let's see here 7 and 1/2 sheets of plywood to build all these carcasses 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 cabinet carcasses the idea is the refrigerator is going to sit here and then there's going to be like a a giant cabinet that's top to ceiling top bottom to ceiling obviously have the same cabinet wrap around the other side of the refrigerator so it looks more of like a a unit yeah a unit that's what we're going to do uh in the meantime let me figure out what uh Dimensions I need thinking thinking thinking first of all I looked up what an average refrigerator height and width is there are like 34 in wide and then there are 36 in wide so I'm going to go with a bigger one like double opening I'm giving it an extra inch and a half or inch and a/ qu on both sides so you can push it in and out and then height there goes 62 or I'm sorry 66 in which are small garage ones I think and then the big ones uh again we're just going to plan for the bigger one here uh 72 but I'm giving it an extra inch and a quarter as well just so it's easier to push it in and push it out this is kind of overhead storage whatever will come up with it and then here is going to be our pantry but uh this is the plan so in the meantime I think I'll build the outside part of it the separator here and then we'll figure out the shelving when we get to it oh I hope I ate my Wheaties this [Applause] [Music] morning we almost have to disassemble the walkway because I built this thing exactly 1 in narrow than this door opening here we should have thought about that ahead of time but I got really lucky we got it in here low ceilings was a pain in the butt to get up but I got to cut out this Outlet section and then this last minute decision I I think I'm going to not regret it but uh over here since I have an outlet I'm going to make a countertop in here just so you're the coffee maker and tea kettle all that stuff and then we'll have shelving on top and shelving [Music] below [Music] I mean are you really surprised I'm not I I suck at measuring sometimes I think I've been taking so much time off from building furniture and you know doing the framing instead here that uh I lost that that that muscle to…