Replies

1. 
   DaveRicheson | Jul 11, 2003 02:17am | #1

   My parents had it done to thier cabinets over 25 years ago. They sanded the cabinets and used contact cement with a veneer grade laminate. Replaced all doors and drawer fronts. Other than the normal wear and tare on the countertop all the veneer is still in good shape.

   Now that you have brought this up, I must say I am surprized at how well the refacing job has lasted. It was done over 25 year old painted cabinets in about 1977, so the refacing has lasted half of the age of the cabinets. 

   Dave

2. 
   steve | Jul 11, 2003 08:28am | #2

   been there done that, and wont do it again

   there's a couple of ways to refinish(skin) a cabinet, plastic laminate or wood veneer

   plastic laminate goes on with contact cement, veneer either iron on(prefered) or contact cement

   trimming the laminate is easy, small router or laminate trimmer and some filing

   trimming wood veneer is lot more difficult due grain tearout where the face frame wasnt flat

   reskinning exposed ends is also tricky to avoid gaps, skin has to fit perfectly between wall, back of face frame and ceiling or floor

   basically it's a lot of tricky painstaking work

   and you're still stuck with old drawer boxes and mediocre hinges unless you redo those too

   inspite of my negative comments though it can be done and look very good, but its a lot of work

   caulking is not a piece of trim