Garage Cabinets in European Construction, Built for Ontario Conditions

The ones we build for garages will. Carcases are the same prefinished birch plywood we use in a kitchen, sealed on both faces before it reaches the shop, with every edge laser or PUR banded so there is no joint for water to wick into, faces in high-pressure laminate, textured melamine or powder-coated steel, and stainless fasteners. A bay that is genuinely unheated and sits wet through a February thaw gets a moisture-resistant core instead, priced and explained on the estimate. What does not survive here is the builder's box — raw particle core with hot-melt edging swells within a couple of seasons.

Wall-hung is the better default. Holding the boxes 4 to 6 inches above the slab keeps meltwater, salt and grit away from the carcass and lets you squeegee straight through. Floor-standing units still make sense under a heavy bench, at a vise station, or where a wall cannot take the load, and those go on adjustable levelling legs with a sealed recessed plinth.

Push-to-open does, and it is the one people are surprised by. Blum Tip-On opens off a nudge from a knee or a forearm, which is useful when both hands are holding something. Integrated finger-pulls are fine bare-handed but fiddly in winter gloves, so we tend to put those on tall doors and give the heavy base drawers a slim bar handle instead.

After. Coatings need the full slab and a proper cure, so the floor is done first and cabinetry is scheduled once it has hardened. If both are part of the same project, your consultant sequences the two visits at the design stage.

Yes, and it is worth planning for. Mounted tires on rims are heavy and awkward, so they go on an adjustable overhead rack or a dedicated deep shelf rather than on top of a cabinet. We size the rack around your actual tire diameter, which we take down at the measuring visit.

That is the constraint we design to first. Uppers at 16 inches and bases at 24 inches usually clear a two-car garage comfortably, but if the bays are tight we measure with the cars parked, mark the door swings and adjust depths from there.

Any cabinet can be specified with a keyed lock, and cylinders can be keyed alike so one key opens everything. Households with young children usually lock the chemical bay and the power-tool tower and leave the rest open.