My cousin is a cabinetmnaker and finish carpenter, he really hates particleboard and asked me why I didn't get that upgrade from Merillat. The answer was that the upgrade from "Classic" to "Deluxe" (dovetailed drawers and undermount FE slides) cost $700, we were already at the top of our budget (had to bring $$ to closing on our old house!). I'd say that if you can afford it, it really is a better long-term choice. Since you're going custom anyway it should be long-term. We weren't sure how long we'd have these cabinets - may do total remodel in 15-20 years, and mass-produced particleboard should last that long.

BTW, I asked how much custom stain-grade maple or cherry 72" long vanity would be, he said $1000 just for materials, plus time and even at a "family" rate it would be roughly $2500. So I know $2700 sounds like a lot, I won't ask how much the Plain and Fancy cabinets are costing, but if you look at it percentage-wise, $2700 probably is a drop in the bucket and it really should be worth it. My mom has plywood cabinets in her 1973ish house and the boxes are still in good shape. She (or my dad, actually) likes to fry things so the gunk was horrible, we cleaned them a few years ago but they could stand to be refinished. She has really thin doors (like 1/2" instead of 3/4" thick?) and one of her drawer fronts has broken, the slides are terrible, but structurally the boxes are fine. Whereas my builder separated the side from the back of one of my kitchen cabinets screwing it into the wall (and put the countertop on anyway, I didn't know why everything rattled when I closed the drawer til I asked my cousin to look at it 21 months later). My cousin says he can make it better, but can't really fix it. Just something to consider.

thanks ajsmama... that's great advice. i am really suprised that it is not included in custom cabinetry lines. i looked at woodmode as well and it was an upgrade for them too... but woodmode at least has a lifetime warranty; whereas plain and fancy only has a 7 year guarantee.

Kaboom, you just stepped into a minefield. I am attaching a link to Cabico's gallery, as you go through you will see that in a number of the beautiful kitchens that they feature the cabinets are constructed from a furniture grade particleboard. Most manufacturers offer the same warranty for particleboard construction as they do for plywood.

Here is a good link that looks at the pros and cons of both:

http://www.monarchkitchenbathdesign.com/cabinets/52-plywood-or-particle

I like their conclusion that it will come down to you and your comfort level. I will say that in our frameless dominated market in Canada I was told that plywood upgrades are not common and to the best of my knowledge cabinets are not falling off the walls or doors flying loose at any greater frequency than they are in the US (though these myths are still trotted out very regularly in US magazines).

Here is a link that might be useful: cabico gallery

Have you ever seen a 20 year old dresser made of particle board? Compare that to an antique with dovetail drawers. The one made of particle board would probably be rickety with drawers that are not holding together too well.

Plywood will last much longer and is worth the investment. I could have afforded new off the "big home improvement store" shelves (cabinets with particle board sides,) or second hand high quality plywood box with mitered drawers. I chose the second hand cabinets because I know that they will hold together much longer.

I am surprised that plywood is an upgrade for the top brands.

I bought OSB boxes today at IKEA. They meet the German standards.

Plywood is also made of wood, cut up and glued back together.

If you research GW there is a thread where many no VOC plywood boxes are listed. Cabico is one of them as far as I know.

I had 12 yr old particle board boxes and my cabinets looked as good as the day they were installed (before my kitchen was demo'd last month). You can't compare particle board furniture to particle board cabinets because the cabinets are stabilized by their attachment to each other and to the wall. The only difference in durability is if they get really wet (we're talking a flooded kitchen); in that case, plywood will hold up better than particle board.

As far as aesthetics go, a plywood interior is better if you want a real wood finish or a painted/stained finish. Particle board usually has a melamine/laminate finish in either white or faux wood.

Particleboard is also available in a non UF form. Major danger from particleboard and MDF is in the machining - in cabinets the particleboard is encased in melamine which is not porous and signficantly reduces off gassing.

Durability is a combination of materials and the type of assembly - don't assume becaue your cabinet is constructed using plywood that it is better constructed than one made from particleboard (many companies only use 3\8 plywood while many companies using particleboard are using 5\8 to 3\4 material for instance). Ikea offers a 25 year limited warranty and they only use particleboard construction. Masterbrand offers the same limmited lifetime warranty on most of its' brands whether you upgrade to plywood or not. It's about your comfort level but more than a few folks have had builder's grade particleboard cabinets that long outlived their desirability.

Here is a link that might be useful: article on non UF particleboard

Oh please, unless you're the kind of homeowner who changes out your cabs every 5 yrs - RUN, don't walk away from particle board boxes.

mpwdmom

If you want plywood terrific for you but that is a completely ludicrous assertion.

Just because the box is particle board doesn't mean the drawers are. I am looking at the Brookhaven book and they have a choice between solid maple dovetail drawers or metal drawers.

mpwdmom, I WISH my particle board cabinets would fall apart! That would give me the excuse I need to replace them! : )

The truth is, they are 16 years old and are in fantastic shape. Even the stapled melamine drawers on cheapo glides will not die.

For our 10 cabinet laundry room, I am ordering particle board cabinets but am upgrading the drawers in order to get the larger drawers that are offered with full-extension undermount glides. May seem silly to some, but I'm guessing that these new cabinets will outlast my love for them.

I don't think there is anything wrong with quality particle board construction. Especially if the budget needs to be maintained.

Sandy

My pre-remodel kitchen had particle board cabinets, and they were beginning to fall apart, which is one of the things that hurried along the coming of the new kitchen. Because of my experience with those cabinets, I steered away from particle board while shopping for my new cabs.

That said, my kitchen was old. I mean old. We lived here 11 years before remodeling. The kitchen had already been through a fairly thorough "update" about five years before our purchase. So, it was probably at least 15 years old when we moved in, possibly older. That means, by the time we remodeled, the kitchen was more than 25 years old, and the particle board cabinets had only started to fall apart in the last two to three years. For most people 20+ years is considered a reasonable time for cabinets to last, so if my old kitchen was typical of particle board (and I have no idea if it was), you should be fine.

That $700 upgrade was for 6 drawers in two 18" wide cabinets (1 drawer each), one 27" wide cabinet (with 2 doors under) and a 60" bathroom vanity with 3 drawers in the middle. The pots & pans base with 1 top shallow drawer and 2 deep drawers only came with dovetailed drawers & FE glides. We would have had to upgraded to Merillat's Masterpiece line to get plywood boxes.

Warranty does not cover installation "mistakes". Though I have to say that we went with this thinking it would be fine if we upgraded the drawers b/c the 20 year old builder's grade boxes in our old house were OK, just the drawers falling apart (and had to reinforce corners, try to rescrew wood fronts on with particleboard drawer box front cracked in half from too much weight and people pulling on it - junk drawer with batteries, etc.).

Like so many things, there are a number of different grades of both plywood and particle/furniture board. If you're ordering from a high-end custom house like Plain & Fancy, I'd be willing to bet that they use very nice versions of each.

The one thing that would hold me back from the particle board would be the issue of the cabinet interiors and my desire to stain them as wood instead of coat them with a facing. This may not be a concern for you.

I will say that I used recycled high-end plywood cabinets for my recent remodel, and they are as solid as when they were built 18 years ago, despite being dismounted, hauled around town and reinstalled. I'm not sure particle board is quite as durable in that instance (it tears more easily when screwing/unscrewing from walls), but unless you are planning on reconfiguring your final kitchen a number of times, this shouldn't be a concern.

Asking that question is a lot like asking what's better, a sedan or a coupe. Its the quality of the material that counts. Plywood doesn't necessarily spell quality. In some cabinets the plywood is so cheap that cardboard might have been a better choice! By the same token, you can get really a cheap particle board. The better cabinet brands tend to use better materials, be it plywood or particle board. One thing to keep in mind is that good particle board is quite a bit heavier than plywood. This can make hanging the uppers a lot toughher for the DIY'er.

The big difference between particle board furniture and particle board cabinets, is that furniture is meant to have "object integrity". It is meant to be portable, able to be moved and have drawers and shelves taken out without compromizing it, and able to be freestanding.

Cabinetry (particularly wall cabinets) are meant to be modular units that gain rigidiy from being attached to the wall and each other.

A good particle board (or MDF) cabinet carcass (which also depends alot on the fastening systems) is better than a cheap plywood cabinet any day. I have both particle board and plywood construction cabinets in the same kitchen so I dont have an agenda for either one.

I used to be a plywood purist. Over the internet I discovered a lot about Oriented Stand Board. OSB. I learned a lot about the various kinds of plywood, too. Then I realized it was senseless to keep insisting on "plywood or better."

Using the term "all wood" to include plywood is the worst kind of uneducated snobbery designed to force consumers into "upgrading" unnecessarily. Partical board isn't any less "all wood" than plywood is! It's just smaller particals (thus the origination of the name) vs very thin sheets of veneers. In a flood situation, plywood is NOT any more resistant to moisture damage than partical board is. Some grades of plywood delaminate quite easily. It's all about the grade of each product and the glues that hold it together. The furniture board partical board plywood isn't the 16 pounds per square inch that those round "decorator tables" that you buy from WalMart are made of. That type of partical board DOES fall apart almost instantly when exposed to water. Furniture board partical board is made from much better glues and uses much higher pressures to set it. It's so much more "all wood" than plywood is that it is a LOT heavier than plywood! It wears just as well as plywood boxes if the proper construction techniques are used for each type of material. There really isn't a detectible difference to the end product at all once it's installed. BTW, if you want a matching interior, veneer actually installs and lays much better over MDF than plywood. And, veneer is "real wood" too! If you get matching interior on plywood cabinets, the top portion of the plywood is veneer also. Same materials. Same appearance. Same wear.

"Upgrading" to plywood is money pulled out of your pocket and put into the pocket of the manufacturer and showroom. I NEVER suggest plywood to any of my customers. I always suggest putting that money into organizational conveniences that will make a difference how you live! That IS money worth spending!

Attached is the ANSI standard. I don't work in the particleboard industry and I think if you want ply you should get it but I did my research and I arrived at a different conclusion.

Here is a link that lists the applications of the different grades of particleboard:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Buyers+&+specifiers+guide+to+particleboard+&+MDF-a018193873

Here is another link that includes both sides of the debate:

http://advice.thisoldhouse.com/showthread.php?t=975

Here is a link that might be useful: ANSI Standard

Searching for a middle ground:

I sold cabinetry as part of the design process for several years and I recently bought used particle board cabinets to do my remodel.

The cabinets themselves are in good shape with all wood dovetailed drawers and killer equipment. Where I would prefer ply I went an inbetween route and inserted a 1/4" ply piece between the cabinets in the gap between the particle board. Since there is that gap behind the faceframes there is no visual difference from the front and I feel that I've butressed the cabinets against the weight of the heavy drawers.

Just an option if you are DIY on the install (or even have a cheap contractor since it's just a 2x3 ish piece of ply glue between.