Why your kitchen drawers bind, and the fix

Three causes of kitchen drawer binding, in order of how often we see them.

Cause one: the drawer runners are out of parallel. This is the most common. The drawer box opens fine for the first 20mm, then starts to drag, then locks up halfway. To diagnose: pull the drawer out completely, look at the runners with a torch. If one runner is twisted out of plane (you'll see the front of one rail higher than the back), that's it. Fix: remove the runner, check the cabinet face for square, refit. Usually 30 minutes of work for someone competent with a screwdriver.

Cause two: the drawer box is racked. Solid timber drawer boxes can wrack out of square if they were stressed during install or if the timber moved. Symptoms: drawer opens at one corner but jams at the diagonal corner. To diagnose: measure both diagonals of the drawer box. If they differ by more than 2mm, the box is racked. Fix: ungluing and re-squaring is a workshop job, not a DIY one.

Cause three: humidity-driven expansion. Australian kitchens go through 60-90% relative humidity in summer, 30-50% in winter. Timber drawer boxes can change dimension by 1-2mm seasonally. If your drawer binds in summer only, this is the cause. Fix: nothing dramatic. Sand the binding edge with 240 grit, take 1mm off the height. Will re-bind in two years; sand again.

When to call a carpenter: if you can't pull the drawer out at all without lifting it, if the fix is structural, or if the cabinet face itself looks off (gap between cabinet sides and the carcass). When to handle it yourself: causes one and three are usually within DIY range.