How to choose a kitchen renovator on the Sunshine Coast

Short answer: shortlist on the workshop, the hardware and the warranty before you even look at the number. A kitchen company that builds in its own workshop, names the hardware brand in the quote, and writes the warranty down is already in a different class from one that does not. The three questions below sort the field in under a minute.

The three questions that sort the field

Ask every company on your shortlist the same three questions, in this order, and listen for the hedge. They are made to split cabinetmakers from resellers without you needing to know what good looks like.

• Is the cabinets built in your own workshop or imported? A workshop-built kitchen is made on saws you can stand next to, by people you can name. Imported flat-pack carcasses arrive as boxes and get put together on site. Both are real products. Only one is a custom kitchen, and only one is priced like one.
• Will the design be laser-measured and signed off before cutting? A measured design is drawn to the millimetre, walked through with you, and signed off as a final drawing. Anything cut from a sales rough sketch will fit, eventually, after the change orders.
• Which hardware brand exactly is in the quote? A quote that says "Blum" with a model series, plus the runner and hinge cycles, is a quote you can compare. A quote that says "soft close" with no brand is a quote that will be swapped down as soon as the order goes in.

What the licences are, and how to check them

In Queensland, home joinery and install work over $3,300 needs a current QBCC licence in the right class. Our licence is QBCC 15 000 000, in cabinetmaking and joinery. Check it on the QBCC public register before you sign anything. The other two checks are the ABN (active on the ABR) and a current certificate of currency for public liability cover. Any company that hesitates to give you those in writing has answered the question for you.

The workshop tour is the proof

A workshop is hard to fake. You see the panel saw, the edge bander and the CNC. The racks of carcass stock. The doors drying. You meet the cabinetmakers. You see the kitchens about to be sent out. Our Noosaville workshop is open for a tour on every measured-design consult. It is the part of the process most people find the most reassuring, because it is where the abstract pick (which company) becomes a concrete one (these people, these saws).

A custom kitchen lives or dies on the workshop, the hardware and the warranty. Get those three right and the rest sorts itself out. Get them wrong and no number is cheap enough.

Comparing three quotes the right way

If you have shortlisted three real cabinetmakers, compare on the spec, not the total. Side by side, you want: the carcass board (MR-MDF or solid timber, named). The door material and finish (2-pac, melamine, veneer, named). The hardware brand by name (Blum 110-degree Clip Top hinge, Tandem Plus runner, not "soft close"). The benchtop slab named (the actual stone, not "stone allowance"). And the warranty terms in writing. A small price gap on the same spec is honest. A big price gap on different specs is not a comparison at all.

How we do it

We build it all in our own Noosaville workshop. We measure your kitchen with a laser before anything is cut. We name the Blum hardware and the exact slab on the quote, and write the 10-year cabinet warranty into the proposal you sign. The measured-design consult is the start of the work, not a sales call. Book one when you are ready to compare three companies on the spec, not the total.