Commercial casework

Commercial casework is the built-in cabinetry of a building: base and wall cabinets, tall storage, nurse stations, medication and supply rooms, break room runs, reception back counters and the open shelving behind them. Most of it is plastic laminate on an engineered core, and some of it is wood veneer or hardwood where it faces the public. We build it for corporate and administrative offices, hospitals and nursing facilities, and medical and dental offices. The drawings usually come from an architect, and the specification tells us the grade, the materials and the hardware. Our part is to turn that into shop drawings everyone can approve, then build boxes that hang straight, open smoothly and survive the cleaning schedule of a clinic. Nurse stations add their own details: a transaction ledge at standing height, charting space below it, and lockable drawers for supplies.

Most commercial laminate casework is frameless, built on the 32 mm or European system. There is no face frame. The box itself carries the load, the front edges are edgebanded, and hinges and drawer slides mount straight to the sides on a grid of bored holes. That gives you more usable space inside and even reveals across a long run of doors, which is why laminated commercial casework has been built this way for more than half a century. Face-frame cabinets still have a place. They are more forgiving at install and suit traditional stained or painted wood interiors, but they take more parts and more hand labor. For the core, industrial particleboard is the usual choice under laminate because it is flat and stable and keeps the laminate face true. Plywood earns its cost at sink bases and other wet areas, where taped particleboard is a poor match for the moisture. Edges take the abuse. Our advice is heavier PVC banding on exposed door and drawer edges and thin banding on interior parts, all run on our automatic edgebander.

Most casework specs point to the Architectural Woodwork Standards, published jointly by AWI and its Canadian and West Coast counterparts. The standards set three grades, and each one fixes the allowed materials, appearance, detailing, finishes and the fabrication and installation tolerances. Economy is the minimum and is rarely specified for anything the public sees. Custom is the middle grade and the default on most commercial and institutional work; many owners' design standards say Custom unless noted otherwise. Premium is the top grade, with tighter tolerances and more control over materials and matching, and it usually shows up only on selected pieces such as a reception area or a boardroom. The grade drives the price, so our advice is simple: put Premium where people will look and Custom everywhere else.