Dovetails are REALLY expensive and pretty....but totally unnecessary. If he was providing them, the contract would have said so and your final price would have reflected it in a big way. As long as the drawers are well made, they will hold up just fine with no dovetails.

ccoombs,

Thank you for your reply. I was starting to get that sick "Oh no did I make a big mistake" feeling. Thanks for helping to calm that.

Open your drawers. Do they feel comfortable and not wobbly? If they feel good, then they're fine. You can tell the difference when drawers are not well made. If you like how they feel, don't second guess yourself. We all drive ourselves crazy doing that. I know!

I agree with ccoombs1 and have seen similar discussions even with woodworker types that dovetail is probably more than required and in fact there are other joints that can offer excellent durability and strength. Having said that I don't think staples are a good idea. The will probably hold better in ply than in particleboard but it doesn't change the fact that they don't generally grip wood the same way a screw wood (they are smooth - over time they may slide back out). Everyone bottom line is different but stapled assembly was something that got a cabinet line crossed off my list (to be fair I didn't even consider paying for plywood upgrade so consider the source).

Can't comment on the 'staples'. Are they really staples, or brads? But, I think it's important that they are glued first. We just got back from ordering a bathroom vanity, and DH made sure that they were glued and nailed. For our kitchen we have solid wood dove-tailed, and while I like the look- and made the carpenter rebuild the first set that were plywood and stapled/nailed, not sure what I would have done if I'd had to pay 20-30% more (luckily I DID have it in writing!).

this is an interesting question and one that has come up occasionally in my discussions with cabinet makers. If you dovetail the box of the drawer and then just screw the drawer front to the box you haven't really gained anything extra from the dovetail. The drawer front would still be the weakest point and can pull out over time. I have a drawer like this in my kitchen. Drawer front falling off but the box is fine.

My understanding from traditional furniture makers is that a true dovetailed drawer box has a drawer front that is the actual front of the box - hardware goes directly into that. But some of those same furniture makers say that there really isn't the need for the dovetail on the box since today's drawer slides are nylon and teflon not wood like you would have in the past. They glide so easily that there is not much pulling and tugging to get the drawer open.

Anyone agree or disagree with this?

Dovetailed drawers are not that important as far as structural integrity goes, however NOT having dovetailed drawers can be an indication of overall lower quality construction. There are many other structural considerations on cabinetry, like do the base cabinets have a full plywood top? Corner blocks? What thickness is the back panel and how is it joined? What about the thickness of the cabinet sides and how they are joined? What about the grade of plywood used? The finishing process? Are there drips and debris in the finish? Is it a plain varnish finish or a catalyzed UV cured varnish?

In other words, it could be nothing, or it could be an indication that the cabinets are not produced in a quality production process. You have to look at the whole as a whole.

I am a custom cabinetmaker and I agree that dovetails are not required. I used to have them on all of my cabinets but they are expensive to produce or buy. I have gone to my standard drawer being solid maple with a blind screw- so it is not seen. I switched a year and a half ago and I always tell the client that I can do both ways and I have not had a single request in that time frame.

The drawers in our old cabinets were stapled and glued. They were in the house for more than 30 years. All the drawers, even the big pots and pans drawers, were still fine when we replaced them. There wasn't the least sign of the joints failing.

The dovetail joint is a strong joint for solid wood because of the way it works with the grain of the wood. It isn't meant for plywood.

When looking at open houses before we remodeled, I noticed that the quality of the stapled and glued joints varied a lot. On our old cabinets, the joints were very tidy - well filled with glue and the staples evenly and neatly placed. On a sloppy joint, the joint may not be properly filled with glue or there may be excess glue seeping out of the joint and the staples may not be uniformly placed. If your joints look like they were done with care, I wouldn't worry about being stapled and glued.