Will Cabinet Door Suppliers Use Your Lumber For Cabinet Doors?
Can you use your own lumber for cabinet doors? Learn what qualifications it must meet and when it’s better to use supplier-sourced wood.
If you’re reading this, chances are you – or your customer – are wondering whether it’s possible to use your lumber to make custom cabinet doors. Maybe you’ve sourced a beautiful piece of walnut or maple. Or, the budget is tight, and you’re hoping to save by supplying the lumber. But will your cabinet door supplier allow it? And will it save you money in the long run?
We get it. Our team has built custom cabinet doors for over 20 years. While most customers choose from our in-stock lumber, we sometimes get requests to work with lumber supplied by our customers. We can do it, but only if the lumber meets specific criteria. This article will help you understand exactly what’s involved.
By the end of this article, you’ll know:
- Whether most cabinet door suppliers will use your lumber
- What qualifications your lumber must meet to make it work for cabinet doors
- What to expect from cabinet doors built with your lumber
- When using your supplier’s lumber might be the better choice
Let’s get started!
Some Cabinet Door Suppliers Will Use Your Lumber – But Not All
Yes, some cabinet door suppliers will accept customer-supplied lumber. But not all will take on this challenge. Why? Because working with unfamiliar lumber carries risk.
At Cutting Edge, we will use customer-supplied lumber in some cases. However, we carefully evaluate each piece of customer-supplied wood. The lumber must meet industry standards to avoid problems during machining or assembly. If the lumber is warped, too wet, too thin, or too narrow, it could lead to failure in the finished product.
To help you avoid those risks, here are the key requirements your lumber must meet before we can build with it.
Qualifications Your Lumber Must Meet to Be Used for Cabinet Doors
Before your lumber ever enters a cabinet door shop, it needs to pass a few tests. These aren’t just about making production easier – they’re about ensuring your cabinet doors meet your supplier’s (and your own) standards.
Let’s explore each of these qualifications.
1. Lumber For Cabinet Doors Must Be Within The Correct Moisture Range
Drying is essential. Lumber that hasn’t been properly dried will warp, twist, or shrink after it’s turned into a cabinet door. That’s a recipe for callbacks and unhappy customers.
While air drying is an option, it can take months or years to achieve the correct moisture level. That’s why kiln drying is the better choice.
But what is kiln drying? Kiln drying is a controlled process where lumber is placed in a kiln (like a giant oven) and dried to a specific moisture content. For cabinet doors, the moisture content should be between 6% and 8%.
Now, how can you test the moisture content? The easiest option is to buy a moisture meter (available at most hardware stores) to test your boards. Using a moisture meter is the most accurate way to measure the moisture content of lumber. If the moisture content is over 10%, they need more time to dry out.
What Happens If Your Lumber Isn’t Kiln Dried?
Chances are, your cabinet door supplier won’t accept lumber that isn’t kiln dried. Wet lumber might seem fine now, but it will likely shrink or swell once installed. That causes cracks, splits, or gaps in your doors. It’s not worth the risk.
2. Lumber Used For Cabinet Doors Must Be At Least 3” Wide
The width of your lumber matters because boards that are too narrow require extra labour to create panels wide enough for a door. This adds time, labour, and complexity. It can also limit your design choices because some door styles aren’t possible with narrow pieces.
Our team recommends at least 3” wide boards, but wider boards are better. Boards under 3” might still be usable, but they will cost more and could delay your order.
What Happens If Your Lumber Is Too Narrow?
You might be limited to shaker-style doors or flat panels, and your supplier may need to charge extra for the added work. Your supplier might decline the project if they can’t guarantee quality results.
3. Lumber Used For Cabinet Doors Must Be At Least 1” Thick
Most cabinet doors end up at ¾” thick. Lumber that starts at 1” gives cabinet door suppliers just enough material to work with, because often there are sections of lumber that are slightly thinner. Starting at 1” thick allows for planing, jointing, and final sanding while maintaining proper strength.
What If Your Lumber Is Less Than 1” Thick?
Boards under 1” thick are too thin to achieve a standard door thickness. Thin doors can lead to poor joinery, structural weaknesses, or incorrect profiles. In most cases, your supplier won’t be able to use thin lumber.
Your Lumber Will Dictate the Appearance of Your Cabinet Doors
Now, all the qualifications in the world matter less than your expectations, because what you supply is what your supplier builds with.
When suppliers buy lumber from mills, it’s graded for clarity, colour, and grain. That makes it easy to match boards for a clean, consistent look. But customer-supplied lumber isn’t sorted the same way. You might have colour variation, knots, or grain shifts that you weren’t expecting.
So, keep in mind that:
- Your supplier won’t be able to sort through your lumber for “better boards” – everything you supply must be usable and acceptable.
- Your doors will reflect the full character of the wood, including mineral streaks, sapwood, and knots. Everything that’s in the wood will appear in the doors.
- Your supplier can’t guarantee matching colours or grain patterns unless your lumber is extremely consistent.
So if you’re using lumber with lots of variation, you’ll need to be okay with that showing up in the final product.
When Supplier-Sourced Lumber Might Be the Better Choice
While using your lumber can seem like a smart cost-saving move, sometimes it’s better to use the lumber your cabinet door supplier already stocks.
Here’s why:
- It’s already qualified. Your supplier’s in-house lumber is kiln-dried, thick enough, wide enough, and ready to go. No guesswork, no delays.
- It saves time. You won’t have to prep, measure, test the lumber, or risk being told it’s unusable at the last minute.
- It guarantees consistency. Your supplier’s wood is carefully selected and graded for cabinet door manufacturing. That means better colour and grain matching across all your doors.
- It can cost less. While it seems cheaper to provide the lumber, extra labour, shipping costs, machining time, or unusable boards could lead to higher costs overall.
If you’re on a tight deadline or want to avoid surprises, supplier-sourced lumber is often the safer, simpler choice.
Price Your Cabinet Doors Online Before Deciding To Supply Lumber
After wondering whether you or your customer can supply lumber for cabinet doors, you’ve likely faced questions about quality, cost, and feasibility. And you’ve seen how lumber that doesn’t meet basic standards can lead to higher labour costs, delays, or even unusable results.
Now that you’ve been empowered by Cutting Edge Doors & Woodworking to understand what your lumber needs to qualify, you can move forward with clarity. We want you to succeed, and that means making sure your lumber works for your project, not against it.
So what is your next step? Learn how to use our online pricing tool to explore cabinet door options and costs, even if you’re still deciding whether to use your lumber or ours.
