Kitchen Cupboard Resurfacing Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many benefits to having your kitchen, bathroom or office cupboards remodeled by resurfacing them. There are a few things that are not so good. My views on the pros and cons of renovating cabinets in this way come from thirty years of custom kitchen fabrication and home renovations.

In this article, I will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of kitchen cupboard resurfacing with Formica plastic laminate.





One of the most common questions people ask is; "does the old Formica get peeled off?" My answer is almost always; "no". The process involves roughing up the existing surface with sand paper and covering over the top of the existing plastic.

Buying and Flipping Houses


One of the things that I have noticed is that contractors, Realtors and people looking to make a few dollars, from buying and selling houses, oftentimes will get estimates on resurfacing cupboards.

Covering over the old laminate and installing new doors is a reasonably priced-quick fix-way of remodeling an ugly kitchen or bathroom in comparison to installing new cabinetry.

One of the BIG PROS of resurfacing is that a contract can be signed today and the cabinets be completed within four days. That is if there are not special order doors involved and the plastic laminate is available for next day delivery.

Some Old Cupboards Still Have Wrinkles


Even though your kitchen may get a face-lift on the outside, many things will still "mark" the cabinetry as being old. Things like water damaged areas around the sink, drawers that just don’t move smoothly and dated materials used on the interiors of cabinets years ago will be noticeable.

Even though the outside will look like brand new-the inside of the cabinets almost always show signs that they are older cupboards.

How Good Will the New Surface Adhere?


If your existing Formica laminate is adhered really well, then the chances of the new plastic staying secured to the old are really good. If you have several areas that are coming loose, then you will have problems down the road.

Sure the installer can glue the loose areas down before gluing the new covering on top, but this is not going to stop the process of the old mica letting loose over the course of time. I would say that this is one of the biggest cons of recovering plastic laminate cabinets.

Design Limitations


What you see is what you get. There is not much that can be changed with an existing set of cupboards that are getting resurfaced. Sure, you can add a few drawers, maybe cut something down to make a new appliance fit and install a new cabinet or two, but the basic layout of the kitchen stays the same.

Money Savings Comparisons


There are several things that make kitchen cupboard resurfacing appealing to the home-owner seeking to remodel on a budget. For the most part, several thousand dollars can be saved.

It is less expensive to resurface cabinets for several reasons:

• Less materials are needed




• Appliances do not need to be removed and re-installed




• Electricians and plumbers may not be necessary




• The amount of labor needed is a lot less when compared to fabricating a new set of cupboards

In my experience it seems like the pros and cons people get hung up on are the price savings and the design change limitations. They want to switch their kitchen cupboard layout a bit, but do not want to spend a lot of money for new cabinets. As previously mentioned, resurfacing does not allow for a lot of layout design changes.

So, people have a tendency to find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. Very often, what happens in these situations is that the customer, rather than choosing to replace or reface, decides to wait until they can afford to get everything new.








For more information on this subject follow this link for kitchen cupboard resurfacing.