Commonly Asked Questions or Concerns
We can refinish your cabinets in an opaque paint color of your choice without any problem. Whether your cabinets are vinyl, thin plastic veneers, or melamine over particle board, with the right primer and prep work, your cabinets can be refinished and still have great durability. Staining is a bit different in that the plastic does not have actual wood pores and grain to soak up the stain. Therefore, you won't be able to get an enhancement of the grain or a suitable surface for the stain to dry to. Here, we will work with special stains to slowly change the color tone of your cabinets while working on top of the faux wood grain.
We can work with any kind of wood out there. Many people think that large pores in wood, such as oak, will never look good once painted. That could not be further from the truth. With the proper prep work, pores can be filled, and your heavily-grained wood with large pores can look surprisingly smooth and clean. We will use a variety of techniques and wood fillers to get the ultimate desired look.
We are always curious about kitchen remodel choices and their costs. Naturally, there are a lot of choices out there with a wide range of options when it comes to quality. According to www.remodeling.hw.net, the average cost of a major kitchen remodel where cabinets are being torn out and replaced is $59,999 for 2016. Getting accurate, updated associated costs is not easy to find, hence the 2016 date. A minor kitchen remodel comes in, on average, at $20,122. Big box stores, as well as local carpenters, will run $6,000-$16,000 for the replacement of cabinets in an average smaller kitchen, and the price only goes up from there. Remodeling and updating is one of the most important parts of owning a home and keeping its resale value ahead of the curve, not to mention day-to-day personal enjoyment. This is why we believe that it's so important to spend your money wisely where it matters. If you are working within a particular budget, why not update your existing cabinets by refinishing them, adding wood molding, as well as hardware? Now, you will have a sizable chunk of money left over to redo your kitchen floor, backsplash, countertop, appliances, lighting, and wall color. Pricing does vary when it comes to your kitchen's refinishing. Depending on the size of your kitchen and the finish look chosen, the price can vary. As a safe estimate, expect it to be 4 to 6 times less expensive than the costs of replacing your cabinets with new ones for an average-sized kitchen.
According to a 2015 study done by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor Magazine, the average cost of a 200 sq. ft. minor kitchen remodel in the mid-range quality was $19,226. For a major kitchen remodel in the mid-range quality, the average was $56,768. For the upscale major kitchen remodel, the average was $113,097.
www.realtormag.realtor.org
The average time for kitchen cabinet replacement takes 3 to 6 weeks typically. It takes this long because you have to tear out your old kitchen cabinets and countertops, measure for your new cabinets, wait for the new cabinets to be made, ship those cabinets, and install those new cabinets. By tearing out and replacing your cabinets, you run into a whole host of problems and unforeseen costs. These costs range from countertop compatibility issues and damage to the backsplash and walls to flooring problems where you see the footprint of the old cabinets where your wood floor finish is different. Replacement is very risky for the homeowner and big business for the contractors.
This always depends on the size of your kitchen and the amount of work that will be done to achieve your desired look. On most occasions, if you are simply changing the color of your kitchen with a glaze applied, it will take an average of 3 to 5 days. This is purely due to allowing proper time for cabinet coatings to dry between coats and prep time for the project. If you find a person who claims they can refinish your kitchen any faster, be aware that they are most likely cutting corners with your kitchen refinishing. I keep in touch with the best refinishers across the country, and there are no shortcuts when it comes to the proper steps for refinishing cabinets. Chemical deglossers or no-sanding solutions should never be used. There is a reason why all of the fine furniture and refinishers around the world are still sanding manually with good old-fashioned sandpaper. (Please see below for more information.) If water-based paints are used, the process will take longer due to their slow drying time. On average, your kitchen cabinets will have 3 to 5 coats in total of color, stain, and clear coats on them. All of which need to dry before moving on to the next step.
1) Initial Setup:
This is when the initial setup and prep will take place. All doors and drawers are taken down and will be refinished off-site to minimize client inconvenience and maximize finished results in a dust-free environment. This is also when your kitchen will be completely taped off and sealed off to prevent the migration of dust and paint to the rest of the house. This is not an easy task, but it will ensure a dust-free environment to get you the results that you expect. This sealing off of the kitchen will also allow for one-way air movement and exhausting of any paint fumes to the outdoors through an on-site ventilation system. If you, the client, require access to your kitchen while the refinishing is underway, that can be arranged, and we can walk you through when it will be okay to enter your kitchen to access your appliances.
2) Protection:
We like to tape everything off with thick paper and tape, which will protect your floors, counters, appliances, cabinet bodies, walls, and ceiling. This full kitchen prep and taping-off requires more work at the beginning but will speed up the overall refinishing process, assure a factory finish, and aid in cleanup at the end. We can work around all appliances and will treat your kitchen like it's our own.
3) Noise:
Noise will be kept to a minimum. Expect the only noise to come from the initial sanding step and the compressor used when spraying your cabinet bodies. Refinishing your doors and drawers off-site will also minimize noise and foot traffic within your home. The initial setup of sealing off the kitchen will be very quiet, and nothing motorized will be used.
We feel that sanding is one of the most important parts in preparation for any refinishing project. It's a necessary evil. There are products out there that claim their product will stick to an unsanded surface. There are also DIY products that have solvent-based and water-based solutions that are applied to an existing surface instead of sanding. These are known as de-glossers, liquid de-glossers, liquid sandpaper, and other "proprietary" no-sand solutions that are all the same thing with varying chemicals. You eliminate the dust when they are used, so it's something that creates interest for a homeowner and do-it-yourselfers. There are problems with these products, and the manufacturers will never tell you anything negative about their products. No-sand solutions don't do any real sanding. They only dissolve/etch the surface coat to remove the gloss. All cabinets have some sort of imperfections and roughness to them, which should be smoothed and leveled before they are refinished with actual sandpaper. No-sand solutions do not smooth your cabinets for the refinishing process to begin.
Like most things, it comes down to physics and chemistry:
Most factory cabinets that are in homes are finished with very durable and hard-catalyzed paints and clear coats. These usually are catalyzed lacquers, conversion varnishes, two-part polyurethanes, and UV-cured finishes. These are high-quality, extremely durable finishes designed to not be affected by acids and chemicals and are very solvent resistant. It is rarely possible to dull these finishes short of abrading them with sandpaper or steel wool.
There is a wide range of chemically catalyzed finish products out there, so which do you have? Can your refinisher tell? In order to use a no-sand solution, it needs to be made of harsh chemicals that will eat away/dissolve these hard-cured surfaces on your cabinets. Most likely, a no-sand solution will not be able to properly dissolve these surfaces. If they do, how are they changing the integrity of that now-dissolved coating, which all new coats of finish will be applied onto? We have experimented with these products and have not been happy with any of them. When sanding with sandpaper, you know exactly what your grit size is and how deep your scratches will be. These scratches create three-dimensional surfaces, which paint needs to mechanically and adequately adhere to. How deep does a no-sand product eat into your surface? Under a microscope, what does that surface really look like? We use products that will stick without sanding to most surfaces, but we still need to sand to achieve the ultimate surface for your initial coat of finish to adhere to. Many forget that cabinets take more abuse than just about any surface in your home. For a finish to last the long term, the surface needs to be prepped correctly, and that means sanding.