Vetting cabinet painting contractors to uncover the most suitable one for your specifications and vision requires a substantial amount of effort. The first place to begin is by understanding precisely what aesthetic you want to achieve with your kitchen cabinets. You should ask contractors to view a sample of their prior work aligning with your vision beforehand to gain a feel for their experience and ability. Professional contractors would be pleased to accommodate this request, and many keep a gallery of pictures for potential customers to browse through on their in-person or online.
You should have a defined budget in mind when shopping around for professional cabinet painting contractors, as prices sometimes fluctuate widely. Make sure that any painter you consider provides written statements of all equipment and labor costs and gives clear verbal communication throughout the process about it's timeline. The last thing you need is for unexpected surprises to pop up after the project begins that will raise costs higher than you planned for.
Give attention to the professional's reliability by checking any online customer reviews. Most professional painters will have feedback and reviews from previous customers for view online, and these are also an efficient way to judge their ability to deliver the services you expect on time and on budget.
It's always enticing to immediately start dipping brushes into paint and get your kitchen remodeling project moving forward, but there is some prep that needs to happen first to ensure your cabinets look great and are protected from the heavy-use they will likely see in the future. Cabinet painting will quickly become an overwhelming project when doing it on your own, but a professional will quickly and efficiently bring your vision to reality beginning with the most important prepping steps of cleaning, sanding, and priming:
- Cleaning: It's very important that any dirt and grime are thoroughly cleaned from cabinet surfaces prior to painting or staining or it could affect their adherence. The cleaning stage is also an appropriate time to disassemble the cabinets and their components, such as drawers, knobs, hinges, etc., to make the following stages easier and more efficient.
- Sanding: The good news is that efficiencies in home improvement have made great strides, and there are products today which contractors use to make some of these prepping steps easier. Deglossers, also referred to as liquid sandpaper, is a chemical abrasive that easily removes gloss from cabinet surfaces so that the long process of sanding in the old way is virtually obsolete. Liquid abrasives will also penetrate to those places that would be exceedingly difficult to get to with regular sandpaper.
- Priming: Priming will be necessary in some cases, as it serves many important purposes for the painting that comes next, such as facilitating better adhesion, preventing stains and imperfections from showing through, and providing a protective layer over the cabinet surface. If the current paint is oil-based and you apply a latex paint before priming, it will only flake away and require repainting sooner than you'd like.
Figuring out if your existing cabinets can be painted or not mostly depends on their quality. Almost any solid wood cabinets can be refinished many times within their lifespan, though the techniques necessary may be a bit more difficult for “open grain” woods such as oak. Solid hardwoods absorb stains and paints more effectively than most other surfaces and can undergo repeated sandings to hide imperfections that accumulate over time from use. Engineered woods like fibreboards, wood laminate, and even metal cabinets can also be painted comparatively easy.
The most difficult kind of kitchen cabinets to paint are cheaper thermofoil cabinets, which is a manufacturing process of applying a thin sheet of PVC over engineered fibreboard. Some painting contractors will recommend against painting this material as the surface repels the paint trying to adhere to it, and even when scuffing and priming methods are employed, the paint will likely peel off much sooner than a better quality material like hardwood.
A more straightforward question some people may need to ask themselves is should their cabinets be painted. If your cabinets are too old and worn out, it could be more cost-effective to purchase new units.
Painting your cabinets will almost always be the more affordable choice than buying new custom-built cabinets or even stock models. Painting and refinishing your cabinets will be a great investment in your house's value, with many residents in Cedar Park, TX reporting an return as high as 70%. Refreshing your existing furniture in this manner offers you the ability to beautify your space and stay up-to-date with current design trends, not to mention follow through on your commitment to sustainable values.
The price of new cabinets fluctuates in Cedar Park, TX, but may be up to 300% more expensive than painting. This is even when considering that cabinet paints are often more expensive than wall paints because they contain more resins that protect surfaces from fading, scratching, and staining.
Finding a professional for your project instead of doing the job yourself will add to the expense, but it will still likely be significantly cheaper than replacing them. A talented contractor will know what your cabinets are manufactured with and how to apply different materials to ensure they come out the way you've envisioned when complete. If your cabinets have minor damage like chips and scratches, they will use wood filler and paint to cover them up. Painting cabinets may be a harder job than it sounds, but a qualified painting contractor will be an invaluable resource in helping you stretch your investment further.