Garage Cabinets: think I got played

[eacmen]

Long time lurker here but first time poster. This has been a great community to learn from. Hopefully someone can help shed light on these cabinets.

Just had the floor epoxy'd a couple weeks ago. Was planning on buying some NewAge Pro cabinets to put in along with some slatwall. The NewAge cabinets were showing delivery times for February during Black Friday, which was too far out for my taste.

I had a local garage cabinet installer come by the house on a Saturday, said he could knock out the whole garage on the Monday after. Said that the cabinets were "Made in the USA in Chicago", which turned out to be a lie as the boxes said Made in China. The base cabinets and overhead cabinets were fully assembled, but the lockers were flat packed and assembled on site.

Does anyone know who makes these things? They look like NewAge clones. The base cabinets and top cabinets look like they were manufactured flat-packed then welded then powder coated.

These were *not* cheap. Just curious if anyone else has run across them in their travels. Put a caliper on the doors and measured out to .060" but that is with the powdercoat.










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[allinon72]

They look a lot like Saber cabinets which is what I have. I’d be pissed that the installer lied about the origin, but if they are Saber, they are better than NewAge in my opinion.

 

[Git]

Ya, even the one model number in the photo is real close to what Sabercabinet uses -> STX-30-3K and Saber's is ST-30-K. I would give Saber a call and ask them about it. (Maybe a Saber knockoff or just a 'branding' thing?)

 

[Ralf11]

real issue is do you like them for the price?

if not, then is the local garage cabinet installer licensed? many states have a complaint system for contractors...

and about the worst thing the licensed contractors here hate is a guy working with no licenses...

 

[eacmen]

real issue is do you like them for the price?

if not, then is the local garage cabinet installer licensed? many states have a complaint system for contractors...

and about the worst thing the licensed contractors here hate is a guy working with no licenses...

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

Yeah I like them. I just don't like being deceived and the installer wasnt able to provide any kind of specs regarding weight capacity.

It is mounted about 8 inches off the floor and I found one upper cabinet with zero lag bolts in it. When I pointed it out they fixed it. But there doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to the number or placement of the lags within any of the cabinets or lockers. I might just zip some GRKs in there for piece of mind I guess.

I just want to know how much I can safely load it up. And I want to mount the Vise to it, but without specs not sure I would feel comfortable doing it.

I'm sure its fine, but just don't trust the work or the product without some kind of documentation.


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[allinon72]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

Yeah I like them. I just don't like being deceived and the installer wasnt able to provide any kind of specs regarding weight capacity.

It is mounted about 8 inches off the floor and I found one upper cabinet with zero lag bolts in it. When I pointed it out they fixed it. But there doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to the number or placement of the lags within any of the cabinets or lockers. I might just zip some GRKs in there for piece of mind I guess.

I just want to know how much I can safely load it up. And I want to mount the Vise to it, but without specs not sure I would feel comfortable doing it.

I'm sure its fine, but just don't trust the work or the product without some kind of documentation.


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They are actually designed to sit on a stem wall and be anchored to the wall without legs supporting them. So as long as you have some support that they’re sitting on, you should be good.

The lags may seem random because of the placement of the studs behind. And keep in mind that the uppers bolt together. That may be a reason they skipped the middle. However, adding more screws never hurts. I used Headlok fasteners on mine.

 

[eacmen]

They are actually designed to sit on a stem wall and be anchored to the wall without legs supporting them. So as long as you have some support that they’re sitting on, you should be good.

The lags may seem random because of the placement of the studs behind. And keep in mind that the uppers bolt together. That may be a reason they skipped the middle. However, adding more screws never hurts. I used Headlok fasteners on mine.

Thanks!

This might be a dumb question, but how can I tell if the wall is a stem or monolithic? Its an attached garage with concrete floor. Built in the late 70s in Maryland.


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[allinon72]

Thanks!

This might be a dumb question, but how can I tell if the wall is a stem or monolithic? Its an attached garage with concrete floor. Built in the late 70s in Maryland.


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To clarify - they are designed to sit on some type of ledge against the wall. They aren’t designed to be bolted straight to the wall with no support.

 

[eacmen]

To clarify - they are designed to sit on some type of ledge against the wall. They aren’t designed to be bolted straight to the wall with no support.

Ugh, okay. There is nothing beneath the cabinets at all, they are bolted to the wall and sit about 8 inches off the ground.


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[Daniel Dudley]

9 inches is practically a highway if you want to get under there with a ledger.

 

[eacmen]

9 inches is practically a highway if you want to get under there with a ledger.

That is what I am thinking as well, bolt a 2x6 to the wall and call it done. Just reached out to Saber to see what they say about it as well. Its nice having them off the ground but not at the cost of safety.

 

[allinon72]

That is what I am thinking as well, bolt a 2x6 to the wall and call it done. Just reached out to Saber to see what they say about it as well. Its nice having them off the ground but not at the cost of safety.

They will likely recommend bolting on legs, which is easy to do. I recommend getting them from Obsessed Garage.

 

[eacmen]

They will likely recommend bolting on legs, which is easy to do. I recommend getting them from Obsessed Garage.

This is what Saber said:

Saber cabinets are designed to be mounted on the wall completely off the floor. Every unit can be mounted on the wall. We offer the legs as an option since some customers wants an extra support since they want to store extremely heavy items.

The cabinet shelfs can handle 250lb each since they have a support beam on the bottom. The drawers can hold 100lb for the shallow drawer and 200lb for the deep one.

It really depends on the wall type and how you mount it to the wall.

I do want to mount the vise to the worktop. but now I am not so sure.

 

[Zmann]

Well if it is any consequence for your headaches they sure look nice

 

[eacmen]

Well if it is any consequence for your headaches they sure look nice

Thank you! So many issues with this installer thatI haven't even posted. After digging a bit others have had similar dealings with them. There is still work pending so I am not going to name the installer yet, but I will likely be writing up a full review with the good bad and ugly.

I like cabinets and the garage, I just don't trust it.


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[nadogail]

IMHO, if the installer has not lived up to the terms of your contact you might consider bringing action against him.

 

[dcg9381]

I'd be surprised if you could find cabinets like that made in the USA. If you could, they'd be on the rather high end. Other than install issues, how are the cabinets working?

 

[eacmen]

I'd be surprised if you could find cabinets like that made in the USA. If you could, they'd be on the rather high end. Other than install issues, how are the cabinets working?

Working well. Only issue so far is the base cabinets with the doors has a pull out shelf which has significant flex to it.


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[pbon]

.060 would be 16 gauge, which is pretty sturdy. My New Age Pro are 18 gauge, but they are welded rather than bolted.

 

[eacmen]

.060 would be 16 gauge, which is pretty sturdy. My New Age Pro are 18 gauge, but they are welded rather than bolted.

The box said 18 gauge and was one of the selling points of the cabinets. I think the extra thickness is just the powder coat.


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[pbon]

I have a couple of bolt together New Age Bold lockers also because they are only 18” deep and they are 24 gauge. They are pretty flimsy.

Honestly, stuff like this is really gentleman’s garage stuff, not professional level. A Harbor Freight 72” tool chest is sturdier than my New Age Pro. But I like the look and it works well enough for my gentleman garage use.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Thank you! So many issues with this installer thatI haven't even posted. After digging a bit others have had similar dealings with them. There is still work pending so I am not going to name the installer yet, but I will likely be writing up a full review with the good bad and ugly.

I like cabinets and the garage, I just don't trust it.

It's your money, and you pay for what you wish. If I had the above concerns, I don't think they'd be continuing with whatever else we had planned.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Agree that they look like Saber. I have the older style Saber cabinets. I have loaded them up without regard in 3 different houses with no issue. They absolutely have to have something under the back though. Use a 2x6 or rip down a 2x8 or 2x10 so that it is tight between the floor and the cabinet. That way it doesn't have to bear any weight and you can just screw it into the wall without using weight bearing lag bolts.

 

[ROBZ71LM7]

They probably are Saber. Most of these garage renovation companies/contractors like to keep the manufacturer or source of their cabinets, shelving and other hardware secret or private label. Makes it more difficult to see what the markup is and for cross shopping.

 

[Cryptic1911]

What did all of that cost?

 

[gtsgarage]

What did all of that cost?

That’s a good question.

OP they look good. Similar to New Age Pro.

 

[eacmen]

That’s a good question.

OP they look good. Similar to New Age Pro.

The floor was done by a different company.

The cabinets, slatwall, and two "tire racks" installed came to $14k. They wont admit it but the slatwall is the Storwall Basic. Its floor to ceiling on both walls.

 

[pbon]

I don’t think you got any discounts. I have about $6k into 29’ of New Age Pro lockers and cabinets, but I installed and I did buy 3 years ago on sale and Trump put tariffs on stuff like this that were passed onto the consumer in the form of higher prices so that $6k would be $8k today. Maybe the slatwall is really expensive.

 

[gtsgarage]

Don’t worry it’s over now. Enjoy what you got which looks decent.

Nothing good coming out of second guessing or trying to figure out how you could have got cheaper.

Good new you won’t need cabinets now for many years!

P.S. I’m a chronic second guesser, drives my wife crazy!

 

[Jwco5.3]

Don’t worry it’s over now. Enjoy what you got which looks decent.

Nothing good coming out of second guessing or trying to figure out how you could have got cheaper.

Good new you won’t need cabinets now for many years!

P.S. I’m a chronic second guesser, drives my wife crazy!

I can second that. Perfection is the enemy of progress. I have regretted purchases in the past, and all that did was stop me from enjoying them in the future. I would have them address the install issues and enjoy your nice garage!

 

[Ls1Lark]

Having shopped various cabinet manufactures myself, I’m in the camp of yours being Saber, Newage places lock tumblers on all their equipment, and those tool drawers you have are very stylistic to Saber. The biggest clue is you stated most items had to be bolted together, Saber does that for shipping ease on their end (which was a turn off for me and and time constraints I had at the time.) plus just all the time it was going to take aligning the panels.

If you received no discount and were charged per piece versus a package deal your current set up is approx 6400 according to Saber web page today and that includes the 2 pieces of SS work top.
Slat wall is EXPENSIVE. Especially the metal/aluminum. Even Proslat pvc stuff is pricey for a 4x8 section ($160 pvc on sale)
(Aluminum $215 4x4. $430 4x8)

You have two full walls of it.

I bet your project cost is ******* in slat wall and Labor.

Projects can get pricy, hopefully every item that was purchased fits and fills a need. That’s how I rationalize it.

Now go out and find those slat wall accessories that will further assist you in garage organization. Cheers

 

[allinon72]

Your cabinets retail for a little over 6k retail on Saber's website. However - if you buy from someone else and have them install, they are going to charge a margin, obviously. Rest assured you got some great cabinets.

 

[red61cj5]

My only issue would be with the "made in America" claim. If a salesman lies to me once, I'm done with them. The cabinets are nice, and I don't care that they are made in PRC, but why lie about it?