Our Process
Step 1 - Job Information
We need to learn more about your project to determine if our company is a good fit and will be the best solution to your needs.
Are you building a new custom home, remodeling an existing property, or adding additional cabinets to your space?
First, we need to determine approximately how many cabinets will be needed for your project, to provide you a Ballpark Estimate.
Items needed from you to determine a Ballpark Estimate:
- Blueprints (if available)
- Drawings/Sketches
- Pictures or websites showing the style and finishes of your desired new cabinetry, (if available)
Step 2 - Ballpark Estimate
A ballpark estimate is a quick way for you to see if your budget aligns with the cost of our cabinetry. Our ballpark estimates are unique in that we provide you with three numbers. The first number represents our lowest price point, this is for a simple design and basic, value-oriented selections. The second number is based on the average costs of all our projects over the previous year. The third number represents the most expensive project we did the previous year, a complex project with selections that lean towards the luxury end of the scale and typically include more accessories than the projects that fall in the second tier cost.
The things we will need from you to move forward to Step 3 - Selections and Specifications phase are:
- Your verbal agreement that our range of prices is within your budget or desired spending limits
- Your verbal agreement that the timeframe we can provide will work with your project timeline
- Appliance specifications (either a list of your appliances with model numbers, or the actual specification sheets
Schedule a free ballpark estimate.
Enjoy living better every day.
Step 3 - Selections and Specifications
The objective of this meeting is to gather enough information from you to be able to provide you with a more formal estimate of your project's cost and to begin the Design process. This step needs to be done at our showroom since we will need you to choose a door style, wood specie, and finish for each room of cabinetry.
During this meeting, we will discuss your ideas of what you would like your cabinetry to look like and what features you would like to incorporate into the cabinetry.
For this meeting to be as effective as possible and to be able to move forward to the Formal Estimate phase, you will need to be prepared to make your selections (door styles, wood specie, finish, etc. for each room) and provide us with the following items:
- Blueprints, if we have not yet received them
- Appliance specifications, if we have not yet received them
- List of features you would like included in your cabinetry
- Any samples you may need to assist you in your selections
Step 4 - Formal Estimate
At this point, we will provide you with a formal estimate.
To move forward from the formal estimate phase of the process to the design phase, we will have to have your appliance specifications.
The things we will need from you to move forward to the design phase are:
- Signed copy of the last page of your estimate
- Appliance specifications
Once we have all these items, we will schedule a time to visit your job site to field measure any areas that will require cabinetry. We will then produce a preliminary design and schedule a time to meet again in our showroom to go over the design.
By the way, you signing our estimate is not a contract authorizing us to manufacture your cabinetry; you are only agreeing to pay us to field measure and design your project. Once we have produced the shop drawings and ultimately a proposal, if you choose to purchase your cabinetry from us the design fee/retainer will be part of the proposed price. If you choose to purchase your cabinetry elsewhere, then you are free to take the drawings/design, which you paid for, and shop them with as many cabinetmakers as you please.
Step 5 - Design
As soon as we have received your signed estimate and your check for the design fee/retainer, we will schedule a time to come and field measure your project. We will then produce a design using our advanced design software that will allow you to see what your cabinetry will look like before we ever manufacture it.
Once your design is complete, we will ask you to schedule a design review meeting at our showroom. At this meeting, we will present you with our drawings and review them wall by wall and room by room. We will redline the drawings with any additions, changes, or subtractions and note any discrepancies that are discovered. If there are no discrepancies, additions, changes, or subtractions, or once they have been dealt with, we will then proceed to produce a detailed proposal for your project. As with the estimate, this proposal can be e-mailed or mailed to you, or we can meet at our showroom to review it in detail depending on your preferences
The things we will need from you to move forward to the Proposal phase are:
- Initialed copy of your drawings (you agree that the design is correct and that you understand the design)
Sample Design/Shop Drawings
Step 6 - Proposal
Once you have reviewed the proposal, and everything meets with your approval, we will then need the following to schedule your project for manufacturing:
- Signed copy of the last page of your proposal
- A check for the deposit amount shown on the proposal
- A target delivery date for each phase of your project
Once we have all these items in our possession, we will then review our current manufacturing lead time (it ranges from 4 to 12 weeks depending on the number and size of the current projects in progress), which will determine the actual delivery date for each phase of your project. We will then notify the appropriate people of our proposed dates for delivery and installation. We will coordinate the delivery and installation with the appropriate site supervisor or the builder.
We will attempt to open a line of communication between Midtown Cabinets and the site supervisor so they can notify us of any delays that may affect the delivery and installation schedule. We will also provide the site supervisor with mechanical shop drawings of all cabinetry involved in the project to be used to answer any questions by any of the other trades on the project.
Step 7 - Engineering & Manufacturing
Step 8 - Delivery and Installation
Once all of your cabinetry, or the first phase of your cabinetry, is completed, we will contact you to schedule the delivery. Depending on the terms extended, you will typically need to pay a second payment before the actual delivery (you are more than welcome to come by and inspect your cabinetry if you like), please refer to your proposal to see if this is the case. If it is, you will be contacted by someone at Midtown Cabinets to arrange for this payment to be made. Delivery is made with our company vehicles or by professional movers, and each cabinet is blanket-wrapped to ensure that your cabinetry will not get damaged while being transported from our manufacturing facility to your job site.
This is when your vision or dream starts to become a reality. The installation process can take anywhere from a few hours to multiple days depending on the number of rooms, the quantity of cabinets involved, and the complexity of the project. This portion of the project requires extreme accuracy and highly skilled technicians to do it well. Our installers are some of the best in the industry and have the very best tools and equipment available. Our installation technicians install your cabinetry with the same skill and care that we created your cabinetry with.
We sincerely thank you for taking the time to review our process. I hope that this step-by-step process has been explained clearly and thoroughly, but if not then please do not hesitate to call or email us with any questions or concerns you might have.
