RTA vs assembled kitchen cabinets: what changes when the box arrives built

What is the difference between RTA and assembled cabinets?

Where the box gets built. RTA stands for ready-to-assemble. The cabinet ships as flat panels, a door, hardware and instructions, and someone puts it together in your house before it can be installed. An assembled cabinet is built in a shop: glued, fastened, squared and checked, then delivered as a finished box that goes straight onto the wall or floor.

Both can end up as a working kitchen. The difference is who does the building, under what conditions, and how much of that work lands on your project schedule.

Why do people buy RTA cabinets?

For good reasons, mostly:

• Price. The buyer supplies the assembly labor, and flat boxes are cheaper to store and ship.
• Speed of supply. Most RTA lines are made in advance in stock sizes, so they are often available quickly.
• Do-it-yourself projects. If you are comfortable with tools and have the time, assembling the boxes is part of the job you were going to do anyway.

RTA can be a sensible choice for a rental, a garage, a laundry room or a simple kitchen where the walls divide neatly into stock widths.

What should you know before buying RTA?

Three things decide how an RTA kitchen turns out, and none of them is on the product photo.

• Assembly is real work. A kitchen is dozens of boxes. Each one has to be put together square, or the doors will not line up once it is hung. If your installer does the assembly, it is time on their invoice as well.
• The sizes are fixed. Most RTA comes in the same 3-inch width steps as stock cabinets. Where your wall does not divide evenly, the gap is closed with a filler strip.
• The material varies by line. Many mass-produced boxes, RTA or not, are particle board, often sold as “furniture board”. Some RTA lines use plywood. Read the spec sheet for the box sides, back and bottom, not just the door.

What does assembling an RTA cabinet involve?

Each box arrives as a set of panels: two sides, a bottom, a top or rails, a back, and often a toe kick. They are joined with the hardware in the box, usually with glue as well, then checked for square before the glue sets. Drawers are often built from their own kit, the slides are fitted, and the doors are hung and adjusted.

None of that is difficult on its own. The difficulty is doing it the same way dozens of times, on a job site, with the same care on the last box as the first. A box that goes together slightly out of square will still hang, but its doors will not sit evenly with its neighbors, and adjusting the hinges can only hide so much.

Which works better in an older home?

Older homes are where the difference shows most. Walls bow, floors slope and corners are rarely square. Stock-size RTA boxes meet those rooms with fillers and shims. A custom cabinet is drawn after the room is measured, so the run is sized for the wall it sits on and the installer is fitting cabinets that were built for the space.

What does “fully assembled” actually mean?

It should mean the cabinet arrives complete: box glued and fastened, face frame or edge banding on, drawers built and fitted on their slides, hinges on. The installer sets it, levels it, fixes it to the wall and to its neighbors, and adjusts the doors.

Ask any seller what is and is not attached when the cabinet arrives. “Assembled” sometimes means the box only, with drawers and doors still to fit.

How does Crafted Cabinetry build its cabinets?

Crafted Cabinetry does not make RTA cabinets. Every kitchen is built to order in the shop and delivered fully assembled, labeled and wrapped. Standard on every order:

• Plywood boxes. Frameless boxes are 3/4-inch plywood. Framed boxes are 1/2-inch plywood behind a solid face frame, with 3/4-inch available as an upgrade.
• Full-extension dovetail drawers and soft-close hinges, as standard rather than as upgrades.
• Exact sizing. Each box is cut to your measurements in 1/16-inch increments, so runs fill the wall without filler strips.
• A limited lifetime warranty on materials and workmanship.

The shop builds a kitchen in about 8 weeks after the design is approved, and the whole project runs about 12 weeks from first call to installed. Because the boxes arrive built, the work on site is fitting and fixing, not assembly.

Is assembled worth it if you are buying online?

Buying online and buying RTA are not the same decision. Crafted designs every kitchen remotely, with a dedicated designer, 3D renderings and physical samples mailed to your home, then ships the cabinets assembled. You get the convenience of buying from home without building the boxes yourself.

The fair way to compare is like for like. Put an RTA quote and an assembled quote side by side and add what the RTA number leaves out: assembly time, the fillers your layout needs, and any upgrades to the box or drawers. Then compare the box material and the sizing. The gap often narrows once both quotes describe the same kitchen.

How do I tell which one a quote is for?

• Does the cabinet arrive as a finished box, or as flat panels?
• Are drawers, doors and hinges fitted, or packed separately?
• What are the box sides, back and bottom made of, and how thick?
• Are sizes fixed, or built to your measurements?
• Who assembles it, and is that time in the quote?

If the answers are in writing, the comparison is easy.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Plywood vs particle board vs MDF: which cabinet box material lasts
• Buying custom kitchen cabinets online: how the process works, step by step