HGTV Property Brothers Rant

occasionalrain · ‎03-10-2010

I was watching Property Brothers yesterday. They were renovating a quality older home and redoing the kitchen. I haven't a problem with the new owners having the kitchen they like but why can't they remove the previous well made, solid wood cabinets without trashing them? Lots of people would want these period cabinets for a home they are trying to bring back to it's original style. Even if the cabinets are unattractive, people may want them for a garage or basement workshop, summer camp etc.

So instead of donating or selling the perfectly good cabinets, countertops, sinks etc. they trash them and fill up dumps.

Wasteful and environmentally irresponsible.

Jessa9 · ‎12-18-2010

It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

Jessa

akaburtonfan · ‎12-08-2013

I hate that too. All they have to do is unscrew the screws and the cabinets would come right out. Guess they don't believe in recycling. Did you see the show yesterday with the house with the very large stained glass window? I couldn't believe they put a pool table in front of it. I wonder how long it will be before they put a cue stick or ball through it.

occasionalrain · ‎03-10-2010

On 8/24/2014 JESSA said:
It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

For some people the kitchens that are unacceptable to the new owners would be thought wonderful to others.

When the new owners sell the house to the next set of owners, what do you want to bet the sledge hammer will be employed to smash the "dated" cabinets chosen by the previous owners.

occasionalrain · ‎03-10-2010

On 8/24/2014 akaburtonfan said: I hate that too. All they have to do is unscrew the screws and the cabinets would come right out. Guess they don't believe in recycling. Did you see the show yesterday with the house with the very large stained glass window? I couldn't believe they put a pool table in front of it. I wonder how long it will be before they put a cue stick or ball through it.

That's the one I saw. I actually liked the cabinets that were in the kitchen. The new improved kitchen looked out of place in that house.

Sometimes when I'm watching and they've gone through a beautiful period house with an Art Deco bathroom and talk about about gutting it, I hope they chose a different house. I should stop watching, it's bad for my blood pressure.

------ · ‎03-10-2010

Why don't you write to the network and tell them?

Snowpuppy · ‎03-09-2010

I think the sledge hammer/jack hammer destruction adds to the show's "excitement" factor. After all, how exciting can a can of paint be?

ITA with cabinet recycling if they're in good shape. Habitat Restores will take them and the profits go to a good cause.

Photo Donna · ‎03-09-2010

we put our old kitchen cabinets in our garage

Hey you, get off of my cloud...

rolen · ‎03-09-2010

On 8/24/2014 Photo Donna said:
we put our old kitchen cabinets in our garage

We put our old cabinets in the basement for much needed storage. When the crew was going to dismantle our kitchen, I asked if there was any reason for them to use sledge hammers like on TV. They said there is no need to do that except for the fact that the TV people seem to think it makes for "a good show".
They just used a screw driver to undo the screws that were holding the cabinets and once in a while needed to use a saw with a thin blade to cut some stubborn screws.

They also mentioned that using the sledge hammers was dangerous and sends pieces of cabinets flying all over the place. It can be unsafe for the workers and is a huge mess to clean up. Plus, it destroys the cabinets for any possible reuse.

haddon9 · ‎03-09-2010

On 8/24/2014 JESSA said:
It's amazing that when people move in homes they destroy the cabinets with a sledge hammer instead of just taking them down. Some of which were very good in my opinion. Sometimes they complain about the color and out comes the sledge hammer. Very wasteful.

I have to agree! When we got married 32 years ago my husband bought a fixer upper and did a lot of the renovation work himself. He always comments about how ridiculous it is to see the many shows on HGTV taking a sledgehammer to cabinets! Even if you wanted to just trash them it's so much easier to merely take them down with a screw drill. It's a lot more work using a sledgehammer but I guess it makes better television!

...and we do have old cabinets in our garage and a workshop area in the basement.