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Your cabinets went in about a year ago, and now two of the upper doors sit crooked. The installer says it is normal. You are left wondering whether you have a real warranty claim or whether you are being difficult by asking.
The short answer: some door movement is normal, and most of it is adjustable in a few minutes. A door that has drifted out of alignment is usually not a defect and not a reason for alarm. Whether it is covered depends on what caused it, and that is worth understanding before you push back or let it go.
Why Cabinet Doors Move In The First Place
A cabinet door hangs on hinges that are fastened to the cabinet box (the carcass). On almost all modern cabinetry those are adjustable hinges, meaning small screws let you shift the door up, down, left, right, in and out. They are built to be adjusted because doors are expected to need it.
Several ordinary things pull a door out of line over the first year. Humidity is the main one. Edmonton runs dry through winter and damper through summer, and solid wood doors and face frames take on and give up moisture with the seasons, which moves them a little. Daily use is another: a door opened and closed thousands of times will loosen at the hinge screws over time. Settling in the house itself can shift a run of cabinets by a hair, which shows up first as a door that no longer lines up with its neighbour.
None of that is a manufacturing fault. It is the material behaving the way wood behaves. A reputable maker expects it and builds in the ability to correct it.
Normal Movement Versus A Real Defect
Here is the line most people are actually asking about. Movement that a hinge adjustment fixes is normal. A problem that an adjustment cannot fix, or that comes back within weeks no matter how carefully it is set, points to something underneath.
Signs that lean toward normal wear:
- Two doors that no longer align at the top, correctable by turning the hinge adjustment screws.
- A door that has dropped slightly on one side after a year of use.
- A reveal (the gap between two doors) that has grown or shrunk a little with the seasons.
Signs that lean toward a defect worth raising:
- A door that will not stay adjusted, drifting back out of line within days of being set.
- A cracked or split door panel, a delaminating finish, or a hinge that has torn out of the wood.
- A cabinet box that is visibly out of square or pulling away from the wall.
The first list is maintenance. The second list is the kind of thing a warranty is meant to cover, because it reflects a fault in the material, the construction or the installation rather than ordinary settling.
What A Warranty Usually Covers, And What It Does Not
Cabinetry warranties vary by maker, so the specific document you were given at handover is the thing that governs your situation. In broad terms, most warranties cover defects in materials and workmanship, and most exclude damage from moisture exposure, misuse, and normal seasonal movement of wood.
Adjustment of hinges is a grey area. Many makers will come out and adjust doors as a courtesy in the first year, then treat it as homeowner maintenance after that, because it is a five-minute task with a screwdriver. Being told “this is normal” is not automatically an installer brushing you off. It is often accurate. The fair follow-up question is not “is this covered” but “can it be adjusted, and will you show me how.”
If the installer adjusts the doors and they hold, you had normal movement and now it is solved. If they adjust the doors and the same doors drift out again, you have moved into the territory where a warranty conversation is reasonable, and you have a clear record of having tried the simple fix first.
How To Advocate Without Overreaching
Start by finding your paperwork and reading the warranty terms. Note the length of coverage and what is excluded. Then document what you are seeing with a few photos and a short written description of when it started.
Ask the installer or maker to adjust the doors, and ask them to explain what they think caused the misalignment. A maker who stands behind the work will either fix it or tell you plainly why it is normal and how to keep it in line yourself. If a door keeps failing after adjustment, put your concern in writing and reference the warranty section that applies. You are not being difficult by asking for the remedy the warranty describes. You are being difficult only if you demand a full replacement for something a screwdriver corrects.
Where This Points For Your Next Renovation
Much of this comes down to who built the cabinets and whether they are around to service them. Cabinetry made locally by a maker who does its own work is easier to get adjusted and repaired than product imported and sold through a chain, because the people who built it can come back and set it right.
We manufacture cabinetry locally rather than importing it, serving the Edmonton area including Spruce Grove, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Stony Plain and Leduc. If you are planning a kitchen and weighing who to work with, ask any maker two questions before you sign: what their warranty covers, and who handles adjustments in the first year and after. You can read more about how we approach this work at Prestige Construction and Contracting.
The one thing worth doing next, if your doors are crooked right now, is simple. Find your warranty document, take a couple of photos, and ask for an adjustment before you assume the worst. Most of the time that ends the problem, and the times it does not, you will have exactly the record you need to make the claim.
