Stumbled on a stat that 30% of custom cabinet jobs fail because of wood movement, and I'm debating if we all over-engineer for it or not enough.

Saw that number in a Fine Woodworking survey from last month and now I'm questioning if my standard 1/8" gaps are too tight or if others are seeing more callbacks than they admit.

2 comments

2 Comments

jamesm4814d ago

Back up for a second, that 30% number might be a bit misleading. I think that stat includes every kind of failure from cracked panels to doors that won't close, not just simple wood movement. A lot of those callbacks are probably from folks skipping basic stuff like accounting for seasonal humidity changes in their region. So you might be fine with 1/8 gaps in a stable shop, but it could be tighter than you want if you're shipping installs somewhere with wild swings in moisture. What kind of climate are your builds going into most of the time?

kimr1014d ago

Maybe it's just me but I wonder if part of that 30% is from folks using materials that don't move well together, like mixing solid wood panels with plywood frames that expand differently. A lot of the over-engineering focus is on gaps and hardware, but matching the expansion rates of your components might matter more than any single number. Slowing down in the design phase to check how each part's movement lines up could cut down callbacks without adding any extra work.