Many kitchen cabinets built 20 or 30 years back have a more solid construction when compared to most of today’s prefabricated cabinets. Therefore, when redoing the kitchen, it usually does not make much sense to begin everything from scratch.
Basic repair/ re-facing projects include the installation of new cabinet drawer fronts and doors, and covering the cabinets’ exposed frames with matching plastic veneer or wood. The majority of these jobs take approximately four days to complete, depending on the size of your kitchen as well as extras such as adding extra cabinets or replacing counters.
One or two craftsmen are enough to get the repair job done. They start by taking down drawer fronts and doors from the cabinets and then rough up the old finish on side panels and face frames to get them ready for fresh covering. The new finish is then glued and at times nailed over the old finish. The edges and seams get trimmed and the nail holes completely filled to make them inconspicuous. New molding or panels are used in trimming out the upper cabinets’ exposed undersides to leave them with a nice, finished look. Lastly, new drawer fronts and cabinet doors are connected and new hardware mounted on all of them.
There are three finish options available: plastic laminates, wood veneers, and rigid thermofoils (RTF). Plastic laminates can be found in a variety of wood-grain looks and gorgeous solid colors. A bit pricier than RTF, plastic laminates are not malleable, which means that they are restricted to plain door styles. RTF, on the other hand, is quite malleable. It can be molded and shaped in different ways. RTF is, however, available in fewer solid colors in comparison to laminates, but its wood-grain looks are more realistic.
Choosing the right finish material is one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make when refacing. One common option is replacing the old wood center glides in kitchen drawers with new side-mounted tracks on more efficient rollers.
In addition, a lot of refacers also deal with countertop and flooring installations, because most homeowners often look to update the entire kitchen. And not unless the faucet and sink are both in proper shape, most refacers recommend having them replaced together with the countertops.
Refacing is, however, not meant for all kitchens. Keep in mind that refacing does not tackle the issue of a poor kitchen layout. In fact, if you incur all the expenses that come with refacing and still wound up having a non-functional kitchen than you will have wasted your time and money. Other things that dismiss refacing as the better option is if there are any cabinets that aren’t solidly constructed and have started falling apart, or even rusting metal cabinets. If you are experiencing any of the above issues, then refacing is definitely not an option you should consider.
