If the time has come to replace your kitchen cabinets, there is something you need to know.  In many situations, the cabinets themselves are structurally sound, but they just look a little shabby.  While most people will just rip out the old cabinets, send them off to the dump, and install new ones, the price tag of this option is enough to scare even people with money to spare.  Fortunately there is something you can do that will give you nearly the same result as a complete replacement for just a fraction of the price.  What I’m talking about is refacing kitchen cabinets.  This job involves replacing just the visible parts of the cabinets, which are the doors and other surfaces, and leaving the rest intact.  Let’s take a more detailed look at what this job entails and how much it costs.

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Cost

Fortunately for those of us who don’t want to spend half a year’s wages on our renovation, kitchen cabinet refacing can be a really economical solution to getting a new looking kitchen.  While the price of removing and installing your cabinets can cost upwards of $20,000 and more, refacing them on the other hand can cost much, much less.  The price you will pay depends on what materials you want to use for your new doors, and other surfaces, and whether or not you are willing to do it yourself.  In most western countries, doing a job like this yourself can easily cut the kitchen cabinet refacing price in half. Even if you’ve never done this before, there is a plethora of books and other information that will show you step by step how to tackle a job like this.  See them for yourself here

Let’s take a look at the work involved to reface kitchen cabinets.  Many people consider refacing kitchen cabinet doors to be the easy part of the job.  The other thing you need to do is put a layer of material on the other parts of the cabinets that are visible to the eye.  For this step, you have a choice of three materials.  The first one is plastic laminate, which is made to look like wood.  The second choice is known as rigid thermofoils, or RTF’s for short.   This material has one main advantage, which is that it can be easily molded to form various detailed shapes, such as grooves, arches, and the like.  The third type of material is wood veneer, which like its name suggests is made of real wood.  The advantage of using real wood veneer is that it you can get it in any number of types of wood, including oak, birch, cherry, and maple.  Doing this will allow you to use the same wood as the doors themselves.  This option is about 25% more expensive than using the cheaper plastic or RTF options.  As far as appearances go, real wood will obviously look the best and match the wooden doors as closely as possible, but the other materials are designed to do this as well.  If you look very closely at them, you will see a difference, but from a distance, most people will never even know!

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Sooner or later, there comes a time when the cabinets that are in your kitchen start to look old and worn out.  Quality cupboards can last quite a while, but eventually even the best of them start to deteriorate from wear and tear and old age.  When this happens, you pretty much have three choices.  First, and most expensive, you can tear out all of the cabinets and install new ones.  The second way to do it is called kitchen cabinet refacing, which involves removing the doors and replacing them with new ones, along with other exposed areas.  The third method is called cabinet refinishing, which involves placing a new layer of material on top of the visible parts of the cabinets.  For this article, I’m going to explain the ins and outs of kitchen cabinets refacing so you can make an informed decision about whether this is something you want to do.

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Cost

If you are trembling at the thought of dishing out tens of thousands of your hard earned dollars (or whatever currency you use), here is some good news for you:  Refacing kitchen cabinets cost about one-third of the cost of a full replacement.  In many cases, the structural integrity of your cabinets is fine, but the outside looks worn.  If you fall into this category, you really only need to replace the visible parts, which are the doors.  While a full cabinet replacement might cost $20,000 to $30,000 dollars, if you choose to reface kitchen cabinets, you might spend $5,000 to $10,000.  The reason why I can’t give you a specific price is because there are so many variables that affect the cost of the cabinets, including the type of material used the quality, and whether you pay someone to do it or try to tackle the job yourself.  If you are working on a very low budget and are either handy with tools (or are willing to give it a go anyway!), you can save yourself a heap of cash on the kitchen cabinet refacing price.

Additional Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Information

In addition to kitchen cabinet door refacing, which happens to be fairly easy to do, there is another step that many people find tricky.  The kitchen cabinets have lots of other surfaces that are visible, and you need to put a new finish on these so that they match the new doors.  You will need to put a new, thin material on these visible areas.  For this step, you generally have three choices as to materials that you can use.  All of them are designed to match the wood finish of your cabinets, but they differ in material and price.  Your choices are RTF’s, which stands for rigid thermofoils, laminates made of plastic (think of those fake wood floor panels), and wood veneer.  All of these are made to look like real wood, and while you can tell the difference right up close, from a distance they do the job quite well.  If you think you might want to tackle this job yourself, I highly recommend getting one of these books to show you the step by step methods involved in this renovation.

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If your kitchen is looking dull and worn, before you rip out your old cabinets and replace them, consider getting them refaced.  Kitchen cabinet refacing involves removing the cabinet drawers and doors and replacing them with new ones.  If you don’t have cabinets, you will need to buy new ones.  If you already have cabinets, you should definitely consider a cabinet reface as one of your options.

Why should you consider refacing?  There are many reasons.  First of all, the cabinets you have now may well be better quality than the new ones you will buy.  Most cabinets used to be made of solid wood, but these days the majority of them only have solid wood doors and drawer fronts.  The rest of the cabinets are made from cheap particle board.  Refacing kitchen cabinets lets you keep your quality cabinets intact (if you have them), and only replace the parts that are visible from the outside.  In addition, it is a lot quicker, easier, and cheaper to reface cabinets than to replace them with new ones.
If your cabinets look really, really bad, chances are they will need to be thrown away and replaced.  Cabinet resurfacing may hide some things, but if your cabinets are really falling apart, it is better in the long run to just replace them.  For example, if your cabinets have extensive termite damage, or moisture has rotted the particle board away, it might be time to consider replacing them.

Kitchen Cabinet Refacing Cost

A typical cabinet refacing cost is between $5,000 and $8,000.  Compare this with $12,000 minimum for new cabinets, and you can see that you can save 50% right there.  What’s more, if you are handy and have the time and desire to figure out how to do it on your own, do it yourself cabinet refacing can save thousands of dollars off your typical cabinet refacing cost. It actually isn’t that hard a job, and most people can complete the task in a weekend.
Although you might be cringing at the expense, resurfacing kitchen cabinets will add value to your home.  The kitchen is arguably the most important room of the house.  Home inspectors know this, and will look closely at your cabinets when determining the value of your house or apartment.  If the insides look fine and have little or no visible damage, you should be able to reface kitchen cabinets.  If however, the insides look awful, it is most likely better to just replace them.

If you are going to hire professionals to do your kitchen cabinet resurfacing, here is a checklist to make sure that quality work has been done:

1. Open and close each door and drawer.  Make sure they close easily and return to the correct place
2. Take a look and make sure the doors and drawers line up and are level.  Hinges that are incorrectly installed can cause gaps and doors that are not level.
3. Make sure the colors are all the same.  You might have a completely different color than you had before.  This is fine, as long as all doors, drawers, and trim match.

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