Before you price new cabinetry, find out whether the boxes have actually failed. Most of the time in Woodstock, they have not — and that changes the number by an order of magnitude.
- Check
- The boxes, not the doors
- Common finding
- Sound boxes, tired fronts
- Replace when
- Water damage or joints opening
The boxes are the cabinet
A kitchen cabinet is a box fixed to the wall and a door hung on the front. The door is what you look at and what you touch, so it takes all the wear and all the blame. The box behind it usually sits untouched for decades.
That matters because the box is the expensive part. Replacing cabinetry means removing the boxes, which means disturbing the countertop, the backsplash, the plumbing and often the flooring underneath. Changing what is on the front of them does not.
Four things to look at before deciding
Under the sink — this is where water damage starts and where it hides
The joints at the back corners of a box: are they still tight?
Whether doors sit true, or whether it is the hinges that have gone
Drawer boxes — these fail before carcases do, and replace individually
If the joints are tight and there is no swelling under the sink, the cabinetry is sound. What you are unhappy with is the colour, the hardware or the doors — and those are separate problems with separate prices.
What actually dates a kitchen
Hardware is the fastest thing to change and the most underestimated. A kitchen full of small brass knobs from 2003 reads as 2003 no matter what else is done to it. Handles are a few hours of work and they change every sightline in the room.
After that: the colour of the doors, the backsplash, and the lighting. A room that feels dark is often a lighting problem being blamed on the cabinets.
When replacement is the honest answer
Water damage that has reached the carcase. Boxes coming apart at the joints. And the one that has nothing to do with condition — a layout that has never worked. If the sink, the range and the fridge are in the wrong relationship to each other, no amount of refinishing fixes that, and moving them is a renovation.
What we do about it
We look at the boxes first and tell you what we find. If they are sound we will say so, even though the smaller job is the smaller invoice. Kitchen remodeling covers both routes, and the estimate that tells you which one you need costs nothing.