Hi!

Sorry about the damages. I used to work in a wholesale kitchen cabinet company and ship pallets of flat packed cabinets out of state. Damages due to shipping happens all the time, but in your case 50% percent of the damages in the cabinets are really a lot.

It's fine if the damages are not visible, but I certainly won't recommend sanding and painting them on your own because it's going to be some work and you have to match the paint color.

Not sure exactly what parts are damaged, but here are my suggestions:

1. If the damages are on the doors, can you install the cabinets (the carcasses) first so you can install the countertop? That way you have a functional kitchen while waiting for the new doors to arrive.

2. If the damages are on the side panels of the cabinets, can the cabinet vendor expedite a 1/4" thick skin panels to cover them up? Those panels are normally premade, not unless it's custom made that they have to paint them first. Can they send you decorative doors to cover the unfinished side of the cabinets?

Anyway, cheers! Hope you'll get it resolved soon.

Thanks @Haus Ideas Kitchen Cabinets i'll try skin panels. At least 2 base cabinets need to be replaced, which means i can't move forward with countertops or flooring. The rest are doors, shelves and upper cabs, which don't slow down the bulk of installation.

I would wait. I am sure many problems are covid related as someone mentioned but for example I had a great experience with items shipped from Spain (Porcelanosa). We purchased 3 big vanities which came in excellent shape, not one ding. They were packed nicely, all corners of cabinets protected with foam. On the opposite side, vanity for the laundry room ( not cheap) ordered online which was sent from a few states away, 3 times arrived in horrible condition. It was packed poorly and not handled properly during transportation.

Some shipping damage is routine, and expected to be handled by the installer touching up in the field. Minor nicks and scratches fall into that category, and would not impede installation.

Damaged doors are easily changed out on installed cabinets. Damaged doors doesn’t inpede install at all.

Cosmetically damaged cabinet sides that are not visible in the design, are unimportant and will not impede install at all.

Flush finished ends with cosmetic damage can perhaps be covered by - field applied decorative door. Skins won’t work with flush ends. The KD has to look at the overall measurements to see if adding the 3/4” door impacts the clearances. I’ve had kitchens where the company comped us on applied decorative doors for all 6 exposed ends, becsuse 3 were damaged.

Damaged ends with integrated decorative door ends can usually have those removed in the field, and a replacement attached. Depends on the skill of the installer.

Structural damages on boxes are another story. They have to be carefully assessed, as some can be field repaired as good as new, and others cannot. Some damages are more important to replace than others. Some installation can still occur, even if you have to wait on a cabinet in the middle to be slipped in place when it arrives. You have to examine the design plan, to see how much is there that is good to go, and what maybe just going to get a door replaced, vs the whole box.

Corner cabinets are the key to holding up installation. They have to be set, before the cabinets connected to them in the 2 directions can be installed.

Your KD should be working with your GC and installer, cabinet plan in hand, to assess if install in phases can proceed. It usually can, barring a corner cabinet or farm sink base being do danaged that they have to be waited on. The goal is to get enough base cabinets installed that the stone template can occur. And you don’t need 100% of the cabinets on hand or perfect to get there.

DesignCraft is Medallion Cabinetry's frameless series. You can't do a skin on frameless, but can do 3/4" finished side panels....or like Haus said, a loose door on the end.

Here are pics of a frameless cabinet display in my showroom. The 3/4" panels are on both sides.

@User yeah that's what I was hoping for, but there are enough critical pieces in need of replacement that it doesn't make sense to move forward with the rest of construction.

Thank you @chispa for the perspective.

Thank you @The Kitchen Place for letting me know skins won't work.

And who's to say the new cabinets won't arrive damaged?

@Joseph Corlett, LLC yes this is a concern.

The only truly critical pieces are the corners and the sink base. You can install everything else, and leave gaps for the replacements. Theres no reason to hold this up. Move forward.

@User unfortunately both corners are in need of being replaced.

Is the damage on the corners showing?

Yes, very obviously @The Kitchen Place. and one has structural damage as well.

@The Kitchen Place are the side panels uniform on both the upper and lower cabinets? or just lower? Is there also a scribe closing off the edges to the back wall?

There are no upper cabinets on that coffee bar. Just a floating shelf.

One of the reasons these end panels (aka gable end) are done with frameless is because of the use of HP Laminate, acrylics, thermally fused laminate and other non-wood materials. Many of these materials don't offer a matching scribe molding. If I need to have a small molding with these types of materials, I order a tall filler with an edgeband and have my installer rip it down. Or I order 'gabled ends' which gives it a nice finished look. You can have the gabled end panels line up with the cabinet box....or the door/drawer fronts....as I have done in the photos above. I like it lined up with the doors/drawer personally.