Cabinet Refinishing

Have ready

Empty the cabinets and drawers and clear the counters so the boxes can be reached and the doors laid flat to dry. Bag the hardware or set it in a labeled tray. Three checks come before anything comes down. Each door is watched where it meets the frame, because a door that rubs now will still rub after refinishing. The existing finish is tested with a thumb and a drop of solvent to see whether it is a hard factory finish or an old oil paint. The sink base and dishwasher bay are checked for swelling and water stains.

• Degrease and scuff
• Bonding primer
• Spray or roll enamel
• Reinstall the doors

The visit

A cabinet refinishing visit starts by naming the failure, not by selling the fix. We check what the problem touched, protect the floors and the rooms below, and leave a written scope. The work is done in one sequence by the same company, so the trade that caused the damage is the trade that closes it.

What fails first on the Shore is what we look at: salt-rotted fasteners, water finding the soft spot, and the 'quick fix' that never dealt with the cause. For cabinet refinishing, the tell is usually visible on the first visit, and we say what it means in plain English.

Permit

Refinishing cabinet faces in place in New Jersey does not normally require a permit, and swapping doors and drawer fronts onto the same boxes usually does not either. Rules change once cabinets come off the wall or the plumbing and wiring inside a wall are opened up. If the layout stays and the boxes stay, this is a finishing job.

On the Shore

The indoor humidity that comes with living near the water is what makes kitchen cabinet finishes fail here. Doors swell and stick in summer, then shrink in winter, and a brittle finish cracks at panel joints and along the stiles. Cooking steam settles on the tops of upper doors and the undersides of boxes. That is why surfaces are degreased rather than just scuffed, and why a finish with some flexibility is chosen.

When we leave

Doors and drawer fronts go back on their original hinges, and every one is opened and closed to confirm it clears the frame, the next door, and the drawer below. The sheen is checked across the run of cabinets under the kitchen light rather than up close. Overspray on counters and floors is cleaned before the job is called done. You get a care note on how long to leave the doors before wiping them.

Built with

The work starts with a degreaser and a scuff pad, because factory finish or kitchen grease will not let primer bite. A bonding primer comes next, and a stain-blocking one where the old color is dark. The topcoat is a cabinet-grade enamel, waterborne alkyd or acrylic urethane, which cures harder than wall paint and stands up to hand oils. Doors are sprayed, boxes are sprayed or rolled, and low-tack tape masks the interiors.