If Consumer Reports Magazine actually did kitchen cabinet evaluations, Yoder Cabinetry would be at…read morethe top of the list for all categories and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED with "BEST Top Quality for Deluxe Custom Made Cabinets," "BEST Value & Buy," and "BEST Personal Customer Individual Service." However sadly, Consumer Reports Magazine DOES NOT provide a buying guide with "tests" and "evaluations" of cabinetry or a cabinet "best buy" in cabinet categories with top quality for various levels of kitchen cabinet construction such as (1) stock production cabinets (big box store economy lines), (2) semi-custom (big box stores premium cabinet lines, i.e., with minor size customization options to better adapt cabinets to existing kitchen dimensional space, etc.) or (3) deluxe custom made cabinets NOT available at Big Box Stores. Also not evaluated by Consumer Reports are the custom makers themselves who actually build the cabinets in terms of personal individualized customer service, attention to detail, follow-up, quality of materials, quality of hardware, installation, price, etc. SO, WHAT DO YOU DO if you start out knowing nothing about cabinets, cabinet construction, custom cabinet builders in Ohio; are about to spend thousands of dollars still not sure of what you'll get in terms of quality and service, help in customizing your initial kitchen cabinet design, individual service; and you want SUPERB craftsmanship/top-end quality and expert extremely personalized service to meet your needs at a reasonable price from someone you can trust? This was a very daunting, almost insurmountable task for us and for most folks contemplating buying custom cabinets for sure! ***
We found in our research the short answer is to find a small totally family-owned and staffed top quality cabinet making business for your custom cabinet project. In this case BIGGER IS NOT BETTER if you want "old world" craftsmanship, great value for your money spent along with the business owner's attention entirely focused on meeting your cabinet project's unique demands. ***
For us, after extensive research and evaluating makers of cabinets in Ohio, we selected Yoder Cabinetry of Dundee, OH to custom build our cabinets to our specific design needs. You need not read any more of this review or any others on Yelp as Mr. Joe Yoder of Yoder Cabinetry is all you'll ever need to know. We'll explain further if you care to read on as we want others buying cabinets to benefit from what we learned without having to do all the "overwhelming" homework that we did in order to get marvelous top-of-the-line cabinetry with great "bang for the buck" to boot. ***
My wife and I have written an extensive review concerning Yoder Cabinetry that follows, because we were utterly amazed and impressed with the superb experience we have had with Yoder Cabinetry. Our total floor to ceiling kitchen remodel of a very large kitchen was a really major expense, so we put in the INTENSE research effort required that would give us the best return on every dollar spent! Here, since kitchen cabinets make up a large percentage of the total remodeling costs, we did extensive research to get the best value in premium custom cabinets without compromising quality, etc. in any way. ***
The following decision categories were included in our research for the final choice of a Custom Cabinet Maker: ***
(1) Cost, Big Box Stores vs. Custom Cabinet Builders in Ohio; ***
(2) Personal Service & Customization of Our Commercial Semi-Custom Kitchen Cabinet Design Plan; ***
(3) How Cabinet Maker Does Business; ***
(4) Quality of Craftsmanship; ***
(5) Quality of Construction; ***
(6) Quality of Wood Used; and ***
(7) Quality of Hardware Used. ***
(1) COST, FOR BIG BOX STORES SEMI-CUSTOM CABINETS VS. CUSTOM CABINETS: As sophisticated shoppers who took the time to learn about the cabinetry field, we found that Big Box Stores really don't offer good value or the highest quality for the high price charged, even when on sale. For not that much more we could have "custom made, premium in every way, cabinets" built exactly to meet our kitchen's dimensional requirements from Yoder Cabinetry. ***
(2) PERSONAL SERVICE & CUSTOMIZATION OF OUR COMMERCIAL SEMI-CUSTOM KITCHEN CABINET DESIGN PLAN: ***
Mr. Yoder personally came to our home to measure and consult on our kitchen's design and to improve aesthetics visually. It's included with the cabinet price. He would have created a design plan for us totally from scratch with our input if we did not already have an existing draft plan to work from. He offered "significant" improvements on our existing design. He is an expert at this, so he improved our design aesthetically making the kitchen far more attractive and functionally better. ***
He did the following in our case: (1) Centered the kitchen sink under our kitchen's window, which we could not do with the most expensive available fixed-size Big Box cabinets. This was done by custom measuring
