Most homeowners who call us about new cabinets do not need new cabinets. They need the doors, the fronts and the hardware replaced, which is a different job at a fraction of the price. Here is how to tell which side of that line your kitchen falls on.
1. The boxes are solid but the doors are not
Open a door and push gently on the side of the cabinet box. If it feels rigid and the shelves are flat, the structure is fine. Warped, chipped or delaminating doors are a surface problem, and surfaces are exactly what refacing replaces.
2. The finish has gone but the layout still works
If you would keep the same footprint given the choice, there is no case for tearing the room out. Refacing changes the entire appearance of the kitchen without touching the layout, the plumbing or the electrical.
3. The hinges sag and the drawers stick
Hardware wears out long before cabinetry does. New hinges and soft-close runners come as part of a reface, so doors that have not closed straight in years stop being a daily irritation.
4. The colour is dated rather than damaged
Honey oak and heavy raised panels date a kitchen faster than anything else in it. That is a style problem, not a condition problem, and it is solved by changing what you see.
5. You cannot face months without a kitchen
A full replacement takes the room out of use for weeks. Most refacing jobs are installed in three to five days, which is the difference between an inconvenience and an ordeal.
6. The quotes for new cabinets made you close the tab
Keeping sound boxes removes the single largest cost in a cabinet project. For a lot of Valley homeowners that difference is what makes new countertops affordable in the same job.
7. You would rather not send a working kitchen to landfill
If the carcasses have another twenty years in them, there is no good reason to throw them away.
When refacing is the wrong answer
Refacing is not a fix for water damage, particle board that has swollen, boxes that are out of square, or a layout that genuinely does not work. If we find any of those when we come out, we will tell you plainly rather than sell you a reface that will disappoint you. That is the whole point of a free estimate.
If you are not sure which camp your kitchen is in, call us on (480) 890-8000 and we will come and look at it.
