Cabinet delivery checklist: what to check before the installer shows up

The installer gets to the house at 7:30. By 8:15 he's found a cracked side on one wall cabinet, two drawer fronts in the wrong finish, and no crown at all. The freight came two weeks ago. Nobody opened the boxes.

Every one of those problems was findable on the day the truck came. Most of them could have been fixed before install, too, if someone had looked.

What should you check when cabinets are delivered?

Check the shipment in five passes: at the truck, before you sign, box by box against the ack, after unpacking, and once more a few days before install. The first two happen with the driver standing there. The rest can wait until the driver leaves, but not long.

Print this and keep it in the job folder.

1. At the truck

• Count pallets and cartons against the bill of lading or delivery receipt. Count them yourself.
• Look for crushed corners, punctures, torn shrink wrap, broken pallets and forklift marks.
• Look for wet or stained cardboard. Water damage doesn't get better in storage.
• Check for cut, missing or re-taped tape on the cartons.
• Photograph the load on the truck and each damaged carton before anything moves.

2. Before signing

• Write every shortage and every damaged carton on the delivery receipt, specifically. "2 cartons crushed, 1 carton wet, 1 short" beats "damaged".
• Make sure the driver's copy has the same notes as yours.
• Photograph the signed receipt with your notes on it.
• Don't refuse the load because one box looks bad, unless your supplier tells you to. Most want you to accept it and note the damage.

Some carriers give you very little time. One supplier's curbside policy allows 30 minutes to count and inspect before signing. Have two people there if you can.

3. Box by box, against the order ack

• Every cabinet on the ack is here: size, hinge side, depth, any modifications.
• Door style, species and finish match the ack, not just the label on the box.
• Fillers, panels, toe kick, crown, light rail, scribe molding are all here, in the right lengths.
• Hardware, hinges, shelf pins, roll-outs and other accessories are in the right cartons.
• Anything on backorder is listed as backorder on the ack, with a date.

4. After unpacking

• Boxes: cracked panels, broken corners, loose joints, out of square.
• Doors and drawer fronts: scratches, dents, chips, edge damage, warp. Hold a few up next to each other in daylight to check the finish matches.
• Drawers: open and close them. They should run evenly and not rub.
• Hinges and soft-close work and doors line up.
• Re-wrap anything you're not installing this week.

5. Before install day (a few days out)

• Every open issue has a replacement ordered or a plan.
• The installer knows which pieces are damaged and what to do about them.
• Appliance openings, sink base width and fridge surround are confirmed against the appliances that actually came.
• Cabinets are staged where the installer can get to them, in install order if you can manage it.

Why check against the order ack, not the packing list?

Because the packing list only tells you the factory shipped what the factory thinks you ordered. The ack is what you approved. If the ack says a 36" sink base and the factory built a 33", the packing list will say 33" and match the box perfectly.

So the check that matters is ack against cabinet. The packing list tells you whether the freight is complete. The ack tells you whether the order is right.

And while the ack is in your hand: compare it once more to the final drawing. If an error is on the ack itself, that's on whoever approved it, and it's better to know now than on install day. Keeping the ack, the drawing and the delivery photos in one place for each job is part of tracking cabinet orders from contract to install.

What do you do if cabinets arrive damaged?

Write it on the delivery receipt before you sign, photograph the damage and the packaging, keep all the packaging, and report it to the supplier in writing the same day. Don't install a damaged box. Once it's on the wall, the claim gets much harder.

The suppliers whose policies we read agree on most of this:

• Note it on the receipt. Allwood's policy says no claim can be made for damaged or missing cabinets unless it's noted on the bill of lading. Wholesale Cabinet Supply says it won't be responsible for shortages if the receipt is signed without a notation.
• Photos. One wide shot of the whole piece unwrapped, plus a close-up of the defect, is what Unfinished Kitchen Cabinets asks for on concealed damage. Shoot the packaging too.
• Keep the cartons. The carrier or supplier may want to see them.
• Concealed damage counts. A box can look fine and the cabinet inside can be cracked. That's why the box-by-box pass has to happen fast.
• Report to whoever the supplier says. Some want an email to a specific replacements address, not a call to your rep.

Missing parts follow the same rules. If a shortage isn't on the receipt, some suppliers won't replace it free.

How long do you have to report freight damage on cabinets?

It depends on the supplier, and the windows are short. Among the policies we read, Ideal Cabinetry asks for missing items and shipping damage within 24 hours of delivery, Allwood within 72 hours, and Wholesale Cabinet Supply within 5 calendar days. Read your own supplier's terms, and report the same day anyway.

These are a few retailers' published policies, not an industry rule. Your semi-custom or custom manufacturer will have its own, and it may be stricter for freight claims than for warranty issues. Find it, and write it on the inside of the job folder.

The practical problem is that cabinets often get delivered weeks before install. A 24 hour window means the box-by-box pass happens the day of delivery, or the next morning at the latest. Not the day before install.

Where should cabinets be stored before install?

Indoors, dry, flat and off concrete, out of direct sun, and stacked the way they shipped. Whether that's your warehouse, the client's garage or the room next to the kitchen, put it in writing who is responsible for them once they're delivered. Cabinets stored in a damp garage for a month can warp, and that's not a freight claim.

A few things that help:

• Stage by wall or by install order, with the ack page taped to the stack.
• Keep doors and drawer fronts wrapped until the installer needs them.
• Put damaged pieces in their own pile, clearly marked, so nobody installs them by accident.
• If cabinets sit at the client's house, photograph them as staged. That's your record of their condition when you left.

If the client asks you to hold delivery because their schedule slipped, that's a contract and payment question too. See deposits and payment schedules for how to word it.

Should install go ahead with a damaged door?

Usually, yes. A damaged door or drawer front is a cosmetic part that can be swapped later. Install the box, hang the damaged door or leave the opening, order the replacement, and swap it at the end. A damaged box is different. If the case itself is cracked or out of square, don't install it.

The test is simple. Can the piece come off later without touching anything else? Doors, drawer fronts, panels that aren't load-bearing and most trim can. Base cabinets under a countertop can't, and a wall cabinet in the middle of a run is hard. Holding a $40,000 install for one door doesn't make sense. Holding it for the sink base might.

Tell the client before install day, not on it. "One door came damaged, we've ordered a new one, it'll be swapped in about four weeks" lands better from you than from the installer.

How do you log a remake so it doesn't get lost?

Treat the replacement as its own small order, linked to the original job, with its own supplier, ack and date. Remakes get lost when they live in someone's inbox or on a sticky note. Six weeks later the door arrives, nobody remembers which job it's for, and the client is calling.

Log at least:

• Which piece, by ack line, and what's wrong with it.
• The photos and the date you reported it.
• The supplier's claim or RMA number.
• Who pays: the supplier, the carrier, or you.
• The expected ship date, and who's going back to hang it.

In Salone, the delivery photos and the ack get attached to the order, the order moves to Delivered on the status board, and the replacement door goes in as an add-on order on the same job. It's the same thing you'd do with a folder and a list, except nobody has to remember which job the door belongs to when it shows up. The wider case for keeping this out of a spreadsheet is in what a kitchen showroom CRM has to do.