Garage cabinets and storage in Lynn, MA go into the one room in the house with no heating, so Custom Cabinets Lynn builds the box for the swing in the weather rather than matching what is in your kitchen. A wall of cabinets with a base run and a worktop runs $1,800 to $7,500 fitted. Stock boxes by the foot run $100 to $400, against $500 to $1,200 for cabinetry built to your wall. Our price guide shows what that difference actually buys in a room like this.
We ask one thing about this room that never comes up in a kitchen. Is it heated at all? An attached garage in this climate goes from below freezing in January to warm and damp in July, and the wood inside it goes through every bit of that.
The second thing we look at is your concrete floor. Concrete gives up moisture for years and sweats every spring. So a base cabinet standing directly on it takes water up through the bottom edge and never gives it back.
The third is what you are storing. This is where the heaviest things in a house end up. A shelf holding a row of paint cans and a bag of ice melt is doing more work than anything in your kitchen ever does.
Where the cabinetry is going
A wall run hung off the studs
We hang your cabinets on the wall and leave the floor clear. A garage floor is wet at least twice a year, and it is also where you want to put things down. The framing in most garages is open studs rather than plaster. That is the one way this room is easier than the rest of the house, since we can see exactly what we are screwing into.
A base run on a plinth, never on the concrete
We stand base cabinets on a plinth or on legs rather than setting them on concrete. A box touching the floor draws moisture straight up. Where you want a worktop we build the base as a frame first and set the boxes onto it. Those boxes are plywood rather than particleboard, because a particleboard edge that gets wet in here will never be square again.
Shelving for the heavy end of the house
We size your garage shelving for weight instead of space. Paint, tools and ice melt are dense, and every one of them lives in this room. Heavy side-mounted slides go under anything that has to pull out loaded. A soft-close slide sized for a kitchen drawer is the wrong part under a box of hand tools.
Stock boxes where they genuinely fit
We fit Fabuwood and lines like it far more readily in a garage than in a kitchen. The walls are usually square, a filler strip against a stud wall bothers nobody, and your money goes further on the worktop and the hardware. Where the run has to answer to a floor that drops or a wall framed by eye, built boxes earn the difference.
How we fit it to your room
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We find out how cold it gets in there
We ask whether your garage is attached, insulated or neither. That single answer decides how we build the doors, and it is the one thing about this room nobody thinks to mention.
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We check your floor for damp and for drop
We read the floor along the wall and put a level on it. Concrete that sweats decides how the run is carried, and a floor dropping toward the door decides how far a plinth has to be packed up.
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We measure with your car where it normally sits
We take the clearances with the vehicle parked and both its doors open. A cabinet depth that works on an empty floor is a cabinet you cannot walk past on a Tuesday morning.
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We fix into framing we can actually see
We land every screw on a stud, which is simple in here because the studs are usually open. It is why a garage run goes up faster than the same cabinetry in a plastered room.
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We keep weight off until the finish is hard
We hold your shelves empty through the cure window, and in a cold garage that window stretches. A finish that reaches full hardness in 30 days in a warm room takes its time in an unheated one.
What an unheated room does to a cabinet
This is the widest humidity swing in the house
Air in a heated room runs from under 20% humidity in winter up to the sixties in summer. An unheated garage passes that at both ends and gets there faster. Wood moves about 1% for every 4% change in its moisture. A solid panel glued into a frame that would sit safely in your kitchen splits out here. That is why we build a garage door to float or build it from sheet material.
A kitchen shelf rating is a floor here, not a target
A well-built kitchen shelf holds 15 lb per square foot for seven days without sagging, and that figure was written with dinner plates in mind. A shelf of paint cans is heavier per foot than anything a kitchen holds. So we give your garage shelving shorter spans and thicker boards than the same run indoors.
Salt air reaches an attached garage through the door
On the coastal side of this market the garage door stands open to the wind. Salt air settles on hinges, slides and screws the way it does inside the house. Plated steel starts to rust, and your doors drift out of line because the hinge cup is corroding rather than because the hinge is worn. Blum makes a corrosion-resistant finish that costs next to nothing at the order stage.
What a deposit on a job like this should look like
Massachusetts caps the deposit on home work at one third of the price, or the real cost of special-order material where that is higher. Garage storage put together from catalog boxes is rarely special-order. So the one-third figure is the one that applies to you. A request for half the money up front on stock cabinets is a number worth asking about before anything gets signed.
What the drawing has to say
| Garage cabinets and storage wall | $1,800 to $7,500 |
|---|---|
| Stock cabinetry, by the foot | $100 to $400 per linear foot |
| Cabinetry built to your wall, by the foot | $500 to $1,200 per linear foot |
| Shelf load test, held for 7 days | 15 lb per square foot |
| Indoor humidity across a New England year | 25% to 65% |
| Deposit cap, Massachusetts residential work | one third of the price |
A custom closet system in Lynn runs $100 to $350 per linear foot. A fitted reach-in runs $1,046 to $3,210 and a walk-in $2,500 to $8,000. What moves the number is whether the run carries drawers and a finished face, or just hanging rail and shelf.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Custom closet system, priced by the footMeasured along the closet wall. The bottom of the range is melamine shelf and rail. The top carries drawer banks, a finished face and adjustable hanging. | $100 – $350 | per linear foot, installed |
| Walk-in closet, priced by the footLower per foot than a reach-in because a walk-in has more wall to spread the fixed costs over. The number to compare two walk-in quotes on. | $70 – $270 | per linear foot, installed |
| Walk-in closet, whole roomA fitted walk-in with hanging, shelving and at least one drawer bank. The spread follows the drawer count more than the square footage. | $2,500 – $8,000 | installed |
| Fitted reach-in closetA single wall behind a door, doubled up on hanging and shelved to the ceiling. The most common closet job and the one that changes a bedroom most for the money. | $1,046 – $3,210 | installed |
| Walk-in dressing room, hardwood face and full drawer banksBuilt like cabinetry rather than like shelving, in a room that is used as a room. Island, seating, glass fronts and lighting all sit at the top of this range. | $3,000 – $25,000 | installed |
| Garage cabinets and storage wallWall cabinets, a base run and a worktop in an unconditioned space. Different material spec from an interior cabinet, because a garage in this climate swings further than a heated room does. | $1,800 – $7,500 | installed |
| Laundry room cabinetry, uppers and a folding counterWall cabinets over the machines, a counter across them and usually a tall broom bay. Short run, so most of the cost is the fitting rather than the boxes. | $1,600 – $6,000 | installed |
Want yours measured properly?
We come out, measure the opening at three heights and check how far off square your walls sit, then put a written number on it before anything is ordered.
Questions we get asked
How much do garage cabinets cost in Lynn?
$1,800 to $7,500 for wall cabinets, a base run and a worktop. Stock boxes come in at $100 to $400 per linear foot against $500 to $1,200 for cabinetry built to your wall. In a garage we will usually point you at the stock version.
Will kitchen cabinets work in a garage?
Not for long. A garage passes the 25% to 65% humidity band a heated room sees, and a solid panel glued into a frame splits out there. So we put sheet material or a panel left loose in its frame out there instead.
Should the cabinets stand on the floor?
No. Keep yours clear of it. Your concrete sweats every spring, and a box sitting on it draws water up through its bottom edge. So we hang the run on the wall or set it on a plinth with air under it.
How much weight will garage shelving hold?
A kitchen shelf is tested to 15 lb per square foot, and a row of paint cans goes past it. So we give your garage shelving shorter spans and heavier boards than the same shelf indoors. That costs less than replacing a bowed one later.
How much deposit should I be asked for?
One third of the price at most, unless the material is genuinely special-order. Massachusetts caps what anyone can ask you for at the greater of a third or the real cost of special-order goods. Catalog boxes for a garage are rarely special-order.
Who fits garage cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds and fits garage storage across Lynn and the North Shore. We ask how cold your garage gets before quoting, because that answer changes the doors and almost nobody thinks to mention it.
Nobody wants garage cabinets that swell at the bottom the first spring the floor sweats. We hang the run off the studs, keep the base cabinets up on a plinth, and build the doors so they can move with the weather. We would rather build you a plainer run that is still square in five years.
If the storage you need is inside the house instead, reach-in closet systems and built-in bookcases and shelving are the two pages to read. Everything we handle lists the rest.