Simple Solutions To Protect Your Cabinet

By Brian McKenzie

Living in Florida has many perks. A beach is never far away and sunshine 364 days a years (on average). However, there are a few things that come along with our beautiful weather.  When it rains, it rains, and we have very high humidity. We are going to review a couple of cabinet solutions that deal with our specific weather in Florida.

The kitchen is arguably the most important room in your house. So it makes sense to protect that investment and your cabinets. The first solution is to use adjustable legs on your cabinets. When choosing your cabinet box construction, most people go with plywood. Though it’s more expensive, it isn’t effected by water quite as much as furniture board. No matter what, with wood, water will cause expanding, stability issues, and mold. With choosing the adjustable legs, you can use the more affordable furniture board and just have a plywood sink base. The legs will protect the cabinets up to 4 – 4 1/2 inches of water.  The look of the cabinet is the same and if you do encounter a flood under the 4 inch mark, just replace the toe kick and any decorative base boards. That’s a much easier task than replacing all of your cabinets.

Another solution we suggest is painted medium density fiberboard (MDF) cabinet fronts. Humidity is definitely an issue in Florida and painted MDF fronts are a great way to combat that. With the popularity of painted finishes these days, they look almost identical to wood doors and have really become a great option. MDF is a high grade, composite material that is more stable than solid wood and is unaffected by changes in heat and humidity. Solid wood boards typically expand and contract both horizontally and vertically which leads to cracking in the seams of the door. Because it’s made from one piece there is no long term cracking or seam separation. Painted MDF is actually a little less expensive than solid wood and usually carries the exact same warranty.

When designing your new kitchen it would be wise to consider our solutions, so that you can significantly lower the time spent on the repair and your frustration level. With any home renovation comes stress for financial reason and just the hassle of it. If bad luck does strike you and you end up being one of the unlucky few that falls victim to the fickle Florida weather, wouldn’t it be nice to know you’ve chosen the best option at protecting your home?