Are you thinking of purchasing cabinets? Purchasing cabinets online is a convenient alternative to in-person shopping. Ready to assemble cabinets or RTA cabinets allow for quality products at a lower price. There are many reasons why online stores that sell RTA cabinets can provide better deals, one reason being that RTA cabinets are not preassembled. This allows RTA cabinets to take up less space and leads to lower shipping costs. Online stores also do not have to deal with the additional business costs that physical stores do, such as store upkeep and staff.
However, it can be easy to focus too much on price over quality or purchase the wrong type of cabinetry based on their photos. Here are some of the most common mistakes online shoppers make, and how you can avoid them.
1. Buying Particleboard
When shopping for cabinets, the last thing you want your cabinet to be made out of is particleboard. Particleboard is compressed sawdust that is held together by glue and other binding agents. This is problematic as it results in the board being structurally weak and not dense. A board that is not dense has gaps in it and does not become very smooth when sanded.
In addition to the structural problems, particleboard is not good at holding screws and does not interact well with moisture. When exposed to moisture, particleboard swells and will eventually disintegrate. This makes particleboard a bad choice for kitchen cabinets or bathroom cabinets, as those tend to have a lot of moisture. When online shopping, avoid buying cabinets with particleboard listed as a building material.
2. Choosing MDF and HDF
MDF, medium-density fiberboard, and HDF, high-density fiberboard, are similar in some ways to particleboard, but they are of better quality. Like particleboard, MDF and HDF are made of very fine particles that undergo a more intense bonding process. These boards are then more dense than particleboard and sand very smoothly.
While MDF and HDF are less expensive than solid wood and are of better quality than particleboard, they do have some disadvantages. Like particleboard, MDF and HDF don’t hold screws well and absorb water. These boards also don’t stain well. Not only do they absorb the stain like water and swell, but they also don’t have any wood grain pattern, so there is no reason to stain in the first place. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as these boards would be fine when painted. It is wise to weigh the pros and cons of MDF or HDF before deciding if these boards are the right material for your cabinets.
3. Choosing the Wrong Color
Looking at a picture of a product may not give an accurate representation of what the product looks like in real life. Different monitors or screens will make the same product look different, which could result in a drastically different color than what is desired. To prevent this, look at the same product on multiple screens with the same brightness to get the best idea of the true color of the product. We recommend checking at least one mobile screen and one desktop or laptop monitor.
4. Not Considering Customer Service
When online shopping, problems may arise with the product. This is where customer service comes in handy. But if the customer service is slow or not helpful, this could make your online shopping experience frustrating. It is a good idea to get a sense of what a company’s customer service is like before purchasing from the company. Be especially aware of the company’s return policy. This way, you don’t end up with a headache from bad customer service on top of receiving a bad product.
5. Ignoring Your Instincts
With everything in life, sometimes the best advice is to trust your gut. If something seems too good to be true, it just might be. This is especially true for online shopping. When online shopping, it is in your best interest to think critically and use techniques that will lead to the most stress-free online shopping experience. One way to ensure a pleasant online cabinet shopping experience is to shop with a trusted business that provides quality products like National K&B Cabinetry.
Choose Quality Wholesale RTA Cabinetry
Online shopping can be an enjoyable experience when you are armed with the proper knowledge. Knowing what to expect from products and how to adjust to a virtual shopping experience helps make the shopping process go smoothly.
When shopping for cabinets, National K&B Cabinetry has high-quality products for reasonable prices — and with excellent customer service! Contact us today to learn more about how you could save time and money with an RTA cabinet.
