Plywood cabinet boxes and drawer construction in Lynn, MA is the half of a kitchen you never see, so Custom Cabinets Lynn lists it on your estimate instead of folding it into a total. Building and fitting custom boxes carries $200 to $300 per linear foot of labor inside a $500 to $1,200 total. That is 25% to 40% of the job. Our cabinet price guide shows you what the rest of that figure is doing.
We write the box, the corner joint, the back, the drawer and the slide onto your estimate as separate lines. Two quotes for the same kitchen can differ by thousands while both look reasonable. That lasts right up until those five lines are set beside each other.
It matters because none of it is visible once the doors go on. A particleboard box with a stapled back and a nailed-together drawer looks identical to a plywood one on the day it goes in. The difference reaches you five years later, under the sink.
So we wrote this page to be read with a quote in your hand. Every line below is something you can ask about. The answer either exists on the paperwork or it does not.
What you are choosing between
Plywood against particleboard
Plywood is thin layers of wood glued with the grain running in opposite directions, so the panel stays flat and holds a screw. Particleboard is wood chips and glue, and it swells for good once water reaches it. The place that decides your kitchen is the sink base. A slow drip from the drain wets the floor of that cabinet, and a particleboard floor goes soft and stays soft. Replacing one failed box afterward runs $400 to $1,400.
The corner joint, and how a box stays square
We cut a groove into the side panel and glue the shelf and bottom into it, so the box carries its weight through the wood. A stapled corner carries it through the staples. The back panel does the same job. One held in a groove keeps your box square for its whole life. One nailed onto the outside is holding a rectangle that has already decided to lean.
Dovetail drawer boxes
A dovetail joint is a row of interlocking wedges cut into the corner of the drawer. The front cannot pull away from the sides however hard the drawer gets shut. Eagle Woodworking in Lawrence builds ours to size in solid maple, white oak and walnut on a 1 to 2 week lead. That is why a drawer job finishes in days while a full custom kitchen runs 4 to 12 weeks.
The slide under the drawer
A drawer slide is rated for what it holds while moving, not while it sits shut. A Blum soft-close slide is rated to 75 lb, and the wide drawer beside your range holding pans is the one that reaches it first. Anything past that goes on a heavier side-mounted slide. Picking the slide by drawer width instead of by what goes in it is the mistake that shortens a kitchen's life.
How we build it
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We name the material on your estimate
We write the core, the thickness and the wood onto your paperwork rather than saying wood. A line you can read is a line you can hold against another quote.
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We glue into a groove rather than staple
We cut your box joints into the panel and glue them. A joint carrying weight through the wood outlasts one carrying it through a staple, in a room that gets damp twice a day.
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We hold your back panel in a groove
We run the back into a groove on all four sides. The back is what stops a box from leaning, and one stapled to the outside stops nothing at all.
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We size your drawer boxes to the opening
We build each box to the opening it goes into rather than to a standard size. That matters most on a rebuild, where your fronts and gaps have to end up exactly where they were.
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We match the slide to what goes in your drawer
We ask what is going into each one before ordering. A pan drawer and a cutlery drawer want different slides, and the price gap between them is a fraction of one failure.
What the estimate has to carry
Two tests turn a claim into a question you can ask
A well-built shelf or cabinet bottom holds 15 lb per square foot for seven days without sagging and without a joint opening. A good door or drawer survives 25,000 opens and closes. Either a cabinet line was tested that way or it was not. That is a fact about the box rather than a word about the shop selling it, and it is worth asking for.
The glue in the core sits in the air of your kitchen
We build your boxes from Columbia Forest Products PureBond plywood. It is glued with a soy-based adhesive and no added formaldehyde. In a kitchen the cut edges of every panel sit open to the room, so the core is something you can name on the order and check on delivery instead of taking on trust.
The written agreement has to name the materials
Massachusetts requires any home job over $1,000 to be a written agreement signed before work starts. It has to describe the work, the materials, the total price, the payment schedule and the start and finish dates. The materials clause is the one that bites here. A contract saying cabinetry without saying what the box is made of has not described your job.
What a catalog line publishes about itself
KraftMaid and the other semi-custom lines publish how their boxes are built, and that is worth reading rather than dismissing. A catalog box that was tested beats a built box that was not. The advantage of building to your opening is fit, not automatic strength. Anybody selling you built cabinetry should be able to say which of the two you are paying for.
What the spec has to carry
| Building and installation labor alone | $200 to $300 per linear foot |
|---|---|
| Cabinetry built to your opening, by the foot | $500 to $1,200 per linear foot |
| Rebuilding a dovetailed drawer box | $180 to $450 per drawer |
| Shelf and bottom load test, held for 7 days | 15 lb per square foot for 7 days |
| Door and drawer open-and-close test | 25,000 cycles |
| Blum soft-close drawer slide rating | 75 lb per drawer |
Fully custom cabinetry in Lynn runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, or $10,000 to $26,500 for a 10x10 kitchen. Semi-custom runs $150 to $700 per foot and stock $100 to $400. What moves the number is the box, the door and how far out of square the wall is.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Fully custom cabinetry, built to the openingDrawn to your kitchen rather than assembled from catalog sizes. Any width, any height, any depth, and no filler strips standing in for a wall that is not straight. | $500 – $1,200 | per linear foot, installed |
| High-end custom: inset doors, specialty species, hand-applied finishInset doors sit inside the frame rather than over it, which means every reveal has to be even and every one is visible. That is where the hours go. | $1,200 – $2,500 | per linear foot, installed |
| Semi-custom cabinetryCatalog boxes with real choices on door style, finish and some sizes. The middle of the market and the honest answer for most Lynn kitchens. | $150 – $700 | per linear foot, installed |
| Stock cabinetryFixed sizes off a shelf, usually in three-inch increments. Cheapest per foot, and the version most likely to need filler strips against a pre-1940 wall. | $100 – $400 | per linear foot, installed |
| Fully custom 10x10 kitchenThe standard comparison kitchen the industry prices against, roughly 20 linear feet of cabinetry. Use it to sanity-check a quote, not to price your own room. | $10,000 – $26,500 | installed |
| Stock or semi-custom 10x10 kitchenThe same comparison kitchen in catalog boxes. The gap against the custom line above is the whole decision in one number. | $3,000 – $11,000 | installed |
| Building and installation labor alone, on custom workRuns 25% to 40% of the total on a custom job. Worth knowing, because a quote where labor is far under that is either using catalog boxes or leaving something out. | $200 – $300 | per linear foot |
| Installing cabinets you already haveHanging, leveling, scribing, joining and setting the doors on boxes bought elsewhere. The spread is mostly about how true the walls and floor are. | $4,500 – $15,000 | per kitchen |
| A published North Shore figure for the same job, Salem MAOne live, published, local number for a full cabinet installation. Carried because it is the only one in this table that came from this side of the state, and because it sits above the top of the national custom range. | $28,564 | as quoted |
| Scribing and leveling a run into a pre-1940 openingPlaster over lath, a floor that has settled, and no corner at a true 90 degrees. Scribing the end panels and stiles to the real wall instead of filling the gap. On a 1946 kitchen this is normal work, not an extra. | $450 – $1,600 | added to the job |
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
Are plywood cabinet boxes worth the extra money?
In a kitchen, yes, and the sink base is the reason. A particleboard floor under your sink swells for good once the drain drips on it. We charge $400 to $1,400 to replace a failed box, which is more than the upgrade costs across a whole run.
What should a cabinet quote say about the boxes?
Five things: the core material, its thickness, how the corners are joined, how the back is fixed, and what the drawer boxes and slides are. Massachusetts already puts the materials in any written agreement over $1,000, so all five are yours to ask for.
How is a cabinet box tested?
Two tests matter to you. Your shelf has to hold 15 lb per square foot for seven days with no sag and no joint opening, and your doors and drawers have to survive 25,000 opens and closes. Ask whether the line you are quoted was tested that way.
Do I need dovetail drawer boxes?
Not everywhere, though they are cheap to ask for. A dovetailed box is locked together so the front cannot pull off the sides. We get made-to-order boxes on a 1 to 2 week lead, against 4 to 12 weeks for a whole custom kitchen.
How much of my kitchen price is labor?
25% to 40% on custom work, which is $200 to $300 per linear foot inside a $500 to $1,200 total. If your quote shows labor well under that, it is either using catalog boxes or has left something out of the number.
Who builds custom cabinet boxes near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds cabinet boxes and drawer boxes across Lynn and the North Shore. We put the core, the joint, the back and the slide on your estimate as separate lines, because that is what makes two quotes comparable.
No one wants to pay custom prices only to get cabinets that feel like flat-pack furniture. We build every box from thick plywood instead of particleboard, glue the joints into grooves, and fit dovetail drawers that will not pull apart when they are full. We would rather write you a longer estimate naming five things than a short one naming none of them.
If the doors are what you are choosing between, inset and shaker cabinet doors is the page. What a cabinet estimate should itemize is the short version of this one, and everything we handle lists the rest.