Our Process ELIMINATES this common issue

Doing the right prep work is very important. Many companies announce “we do all the right prep-work”. But what does that mean? Are all professionals out there doing the same thing? The answer is No. Just sanding cabinets doesn’t mean a thing if you are not thorough and don’t remove all contamination and compromised coating. Sanding a door could be 30 seconds of time or 30 minutes of time. Other professionals will spend less than a few hours prepping your entire kitchen, while we are spending more than a few days making sure everything is paint ready. So what are other professionals actually doing?

We cannot speak for them, but we can tell you about what we offer. We clean, power sand the surfaces, and spend all the necessary time prepping the nooks and crannies in the door profiles to remove all grime and maximize adhesion. This will remove all residue that has eaten into the finish over the years and prepare all areas for the direct adhesion of our priming system.

You might wonder- how do they get into the contours of the door profiles for prepping? We have tricks for that too in our shop, but we can’t give away all of our secrets. The time and care of analyzing every nook and cranny of a door to get all the accumulated gunk out in a kitchen is not a responsibility you want left to an average worker. A whole lot of time can be saved by painting over these areas that seem small and insignificant, but you will have much bigger problems later now that all that is covered in layers of paint.

Who wants painted cabinets that paint flakes off of every time you touch them? Our Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing Process takes time and hard work, but it pays off, and we love to do it. The direct bond you get with our process offers product adhesion that simply cannot be compared to priming and painting right over the shiny, clear top-coat that is currently on your cabinets, and you won’t have to roll the dice and hope you don’t end up with a permanent mess on your hands.

Filling and Caulking of necessary areas to pull it all together

Open gaps and nail holes do not look great on painted cabinets. We caulk open gaps on your cabinet boxes and trim molding to make everything look solid and complete when it is finished. Many times there are nail holes in the existing crown molding that did not show up before so we fill those too. We also examine the doors throughout the process and fill any joints or blemishes that need filling. We know not to caulk your doors where the frame meets the panel, this is a huge mistake that most painters make that will leave the door wide open to future problems.

Additionally, we glue any loose miter joints in your doors to help keep them from opening up and becoming unsightly. Taking time on the little things goes a long way.

The first thing you notice when you look at your cabinetry and think of the prep involved is all the crevices that gunk can get into! I think it goes without saying that the “other guys” are finding ways to just seal over it and get on to the next project. This part takes time and detail.  Do you trust a common worker with this responsibility? In the end, you want a company that looks at the details for you so you don’t have to see them later on when things are failing. Your cabinets are likely the most used surface in your house, they need a lot of extra attention. A quality Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing Process requires attention to many details.

All power sanding will be done with a high powered vacuum attachment on the sanding tool so that you won’t have all the dust circulating in your home. Our commercial-grade HEPA Vacuum does not re-circulate the dust back into your home like a standard shop vac. Our vacuum has over 99% efficiency at capturing fine dust particles, that’s pretty dust-free, most would not imagine Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing could be so clean!

We do not need to bring sprayers into your home either to get a smooth finish on your cabinet boxes that will transition beautifully behind your factory finished doors. Our customers always appreciate how clean the process is and the fact that we do not have to make a plastic bubble out of your kitchen to attempt to contain the mess. We do things how we would want them done in our own home, this is why I use my experience and expertise to apply a smooth finish to your cabinet boxes without spraying in your home.

Did we mention that you will still have access to your kitchen if need be and you will not need to completely empty your cabinets? You can absolutely clear out your cabinets if you would like to, but we only need the front half of your shelves to do our work. Most of our customers do not clear out their cabinets completely, although it is a great time to re-organize while your doors are off if you choose to do so. We cover and protect countertops and floors and clean up daily.

We use the leading products in the industry to achieve a long-lasting, durable, and rich looking finish while being much lower in odor and VOC content than comparable coatings.

We do not use conventional paint that is used for trim and doors in a home. The products that we use can be refinished if you decide to years down the road or if you have trouble with a door. Some paint products do not sand well leaving you with difficulties if you needed or wanted to refinish them.

We look out for the future of your cabinetry here. Another benefit of our product is that it will not turn yellow over time. Many paint products used by professionals can turn yellow leaving you with no ability to touch up a little ding that may occur and even worse your white cabinets are no longer white!

When we begin your Kitchen Cabinet Refinishing Project our initial time-on-site (in your home) can typically be completed within a week on average sized basic projects.
The first day your doors will be removed and taken back to the shop. All on-site surfaces will be prepped and we will begin priming. This is the busiest day in your home, and there will be some noise with the vacuum and sander running. In another room, with the door closed, you should have no trouble having a conversation if you work from home.

The rest of the days we will continue to apply coatings to your on-site surfaces until we finish. This is a quiet process we just like to have some appropriate music on at a reasonable volume. We will keep your kitchen orderly at the end of each day and you are welcome to pop in if you need something. While we are in your home working we will also be working on your project in our shop. Once we are finished on-site you can put things back into your cabinets. We will only need the front half of your drawers clear when we come back.

The final day of the process, “the install day”, will be scheduled about two weeks from the date we began your project. This date will be scheduled as well before we even start your project. On the day of installation, your doors will be re-installed and hinges will be properly adjusted. With painted cabinet doors suddenly the margins between the doors can look uneven and doors will look crooked. So knowing how to adjust the doors to make everything look it’s best really matters. We take the time on your install day to make your doors open and close properly and adjust the hinges to get the best margins and make your doors line up with each other.

Once your project is complete we recommend that you check out our Cabinet Care page. Here you can learn about the characteristics of wood and how to best care for your “new cabinets”.

It’s the small details that matter when completing a project. When you schedule your project with us you can rely on us being there and completing the work when we say we will. We do not play balancing games with our scheduling, when you commit to us we also are committed to you.