Community Chat

[Say Nay]

I thought to reuse old cabinets they have to be removed undamaged. If there is damage to it and the cabinets are not a standard size they have to be thrown away. From my experience with old homes cabinets were often screwed and nailed in and glued. There's no way to remove them without damage. 

[novamc1]

Sometimes cabinets are literally built in place on the wall, so there can be no simple unscrewing of bolts or getting any of them down in one piece.  That's the way all the cabinetry in my home is/was built, the bathrooms, too.  A builder built my home  originally for himself and had a carpenter who custom-built everything. When we (the third owners) tore out the kitchen, cabinets had to be dismantled board by board and some just had to get destroyed in the process. 

I did ask the kitchen design team to be careful to preserve as much of the cabinets (made of nice birch wood) as possible, and I did manage to sell some of the doors and side panels and hardware to a man who was going to rebuild them in his home.

Recently, we did a total renovation of the master bath, and the eight-drawer sink cabinet had to go out piece by piece.  If I could have preserved and donated or sold the remains of it, I would have.  Just wasn't possible when it was originally constructed in place by a carpenter, instead of a factory.

[tends2dogs]

On a few of the Fixer Upper episodes, they made a point of saying they were giving the kitchen cabinets to Habitat for Humanity.  But then again, I think I recall them "sledge hammering" cabinets in some  of their make over kitchens. 

It seems to be a common theme of "demolition day" on these redo shows.  That has gotten old.  I am surprised they haven't been called out for trashing a lot of reuseable items.

[Allegheny]

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@Smaug wrote:

I thought to reuse old cabinets they have to be removed undamaged. If there is damage to it and the cabinets are not a standard size they have to be thrown away. From my experience with old homes cabinets were often screwed and nailed in and glued. There's no way to remove them without damage. 

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Yes, you are correct, it a cabinet cannot be removed without damage, recycling places do don't want them.  However if dilegent there are ways for bring them down in tact. Its time consuming but possible.  

As far as standard size, you never know what people will purchase based on use (ie. storage for basement, garage or small cabin).  My new cabinets are 42"s high, and wouldn't accomodate some kitchens, but I am sure someone would snap them up at a recycle center.

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[HB glamma]

 I never thought about some of this, but you're right!  I have always hated seeing them bring out the sledgehammers and destroying things in general but now I am thinking about all the garbage being generated to fill up landfills!  This seems to be one of the "wow" factors of these shows to create drama or action. I don't like it!  If you're going to re-do a kitchen or bath, don't turn it into superman aggressively destroying what was once someone's home!  I always hate seeing beautiful tile in older baths destroyed.  The young people don't seem to appreciate things from the past. 

[Mmsfoxxie]

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@Annabellethecat66 wrote:

Saturday afternoon and I'm watching this show.  My late husband and I built several homes.  Actually, we've developed several developments (from land to the houses).

I totally agree with all of you about saving the cabinets, etc.  Habitat for Humanity uses some of the donated things in houses that are being renovated and no longer needed.

Actually in the house I'm living in now we took the cabinets that we'd originally put in the kitchen into the garage.  My late husband put kitchen cabinets from another house he'd renovated into the laundry room.

In May 2001 lightning hit our house (for the 4th time actually) but this time it did some real damage.  We couldn't live in it for 5 months.  We lived in a hotel for 5 months courtesy of our insurance company.  Hence, we had to 'redo' our entire house, again courtesy of the insurance company.

I'm off course again.  Where was I?  Oh!  I enjoy the show but it is frustrating to see where these guys get so much pleasure tearing up things.  I've watched a lot of shows like "inside the Property Brother's show", etc.  I never get the feeling they think much about re-using some of the things taken from previous houses.

That's sad because this show could be a learning experience for future home owners like using cabinets like we did.  A lot of money could be saved if they'd do this sometimes and people would learn there are places where they could get used things.  Most people aren't aware that they can find attractive, usable cabinets and the like in businesses totally devoted to people who have imagination and want to save money.

To the original poster, thank you for offering up this subject.  I only wish more people felt the same way all of you feel.

annabelle, you rant better than any poster I know, lol.

[BabyYoda]

I agree that the property brothers show wants to sledgehammer everything when they redo kitchens and baths. They think viewers love that. All I see is danger in getting hurt. When we renovated our baths and kitchen we wanted to save the kitchen cabinets as they were custom made with pieces of wood. They did not sledgehammer anything. We did reuse the boards for a shed out back so we only threw away just a few pieces that were damaged. 

[ScarletDove]

Heres what happened to the old kitchen cabinets from my parents home, a custom-built cottage from the 30's.  My mother wanted to change the kitchen cabinets in the 50's, with a formica counter top, so my dad who was a architect and carpenter, removed the top glass-pane cabinets which went to the ceiling and base cabinets with wood counter and moved them to the basement to hold canned goods and other storage.  When I bought my brick cottage in 1967, I asked my dad if I could have a top and bottom and would he make it into a cabinet for me.  I had the green paint stripped, a difficult job since I think it was milk paint, he created a wood gallery around the top and this old-rustic-looking piece sits in my living room. Due to the nail holes and removal from the kitchen years ago, it has a rather rough, rustic look which I kept, just sanded some of the edges and problem areas. I put glass knobs on the glass doors at the top and base doors, and glass handles on the drawers. I bought old antique lace edgings (about 1 1/2" long) from an antique linen shop and taped to the frontedge  of the 2 shelves on the top.  Some of the glass panes are so old that they are wavy and bubbly which adds to the rustic charm.  This piece which was my old home kitchen cabinets has become my favorite piece of furniture that displays precious items.

[Tinkrbl44]

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@occasionalrain wrote:

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.

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So what do you expect us to do about it?

If you feel that strongly about it, just make some comments on their social media pages ... or their websites.   There's nothing any of us can do about it.

[Mama Mia]

No need to be snarky about it, OR was just making a comment here

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

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@occasionalrain wrote:

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.

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So what do you expect us to do about it?

If you feel that strongly about it, just make some comments on their social media pages ... or their websites.   There's nothing any of us can do about it.

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No need to be rude about it. O R was just voicing her opinion here, which, I for one, certainly agree with . For all you know, maybe she already has made comments on their socual media pages..

Have a lovely evening.

mm