Laminate boxes reface well, but only after the surface is properly prepared. The laminate you already have is smooth and sealed, which is exactly what new veneer needs help sticking to. Skipping that step is where lifting edges and bubbles come from.
Laminate is a sealed plastic surface designed not to absorb anything, which is excellent for a kitchen and awkward for an adhesive. New veneer bonds to a surface that is clean, dull and dry, so every exposed face gets degreased and then scuff sanded before anything goes on.
Kitchen grease is the part people underestimate. Years of cooking film sits on the face frames around the range in a layer you cannot see, and adhesive will not hold through it. Where that step gets rushed you get lifting edges, bubbles under the veneer and uneven finish lines within a season.
Done properly, a laminate box takes cabinet refacing as well as any other. The boxes stay, the doors and drawer fronts are replaced, and the frames get a matching veneer. What you pay sits between thermofoil and hardwood on the cost page.
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How it works
How We Reface Laminate Cabinets
Inspect and press
Before quoting we check every laminate face for lifting corners and press the panels around the sink and dishwasher for softness. What we find there decides whether the run is refaced or replaced.
Degrease, then sand
Every exposed surface is degreased and scuff sanded. Cleaning alone is not preparation, and this is the step that decides whether the veneer is still flat in five years.
Doors and veneer
New doors and drawer fronts go on with concealed hinges while face frames, end panels and toe kicks take a matching veneer. Most kitchens are three to five days on site.
Align and walkthrough
Every door is aligned and every drawer run checked before we leave. Doors settle slightly over the first month, so a return visit to re-adjust them is part of the job.
When to stop
The Laminate That Should Not Be Refaced
Peeling is the first sign. Where laminate is lifting at corners or separating from the particleboard underneath, the substrate has usually taken moisture, and gluing new veneer over a failing layer just moves the problem behind something you cannot inspect any more.
Swelling is the clearer one. Run your hand along the bottom of the sink base and the panel beside the dishwasher. If the board feels thickened or soft, that particleboard has absorbed water and will keep moving. Those runs need new boxes, which is custom cabinetry rather than refacing.
This is almost never the whole kitchen. It is usually one run under a window or beside an appliance, so that run is replaced and everything else is refaced to match. The comparison page covers where that line falls, and painting is a third option.
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Other materials
Refacing by Cabinet Material
What your boxes are made of decides the route. Here is the same question for the other materials.
What laminate can take, what it cannot, and how to tell which you have.
Yes, provided the boxes are solid, square and dry. Laminate is a sealed surface, so it needs degreasing and scuff sanding before veneer will bond to it. With that prep done it refaces as well as any other box material.
Look at a cut edge, usually inside a door or at the back of a shelf. Laminate shows as a thin surface layer over particleboard or MDF with a visible seam at the edge. Solid wood has continuous grain through the thickness.
Lifting corners usually mean the board underneath has taken moisture. New veneer over a failing layer hides the problem rather than fixing it, so those runs are better replaced. We check for this before quoting.
It is possible, but we rarely recommend it as the finished surface. Laminate chips near heat and moisture, cannot be repaired once damaged, and tends to show wear within five to ten years. A veneer or a new door is the more durable answer.
Yes. Laminate sits in the middle of the material range, above rigid thermofoil and below hardwood veneer. On a typical kitchen the gap between the cheapest and dearest material is larger than the gap between a small kitchen and a big one.
It does not need to, because the doors are being replaced at the same time. The veneer is chosen to match the new doors rather than the old boxes, so the finished kitchen reads as one thing rather than a repair.
Usually under a day on a typical kitchen, and it happens on site rather than adding to the lead time. The three to five week wait before install is door production, not preparation.
Homeowner reviews
What Edmonton Homeowners Say About Laminate Refacing
Ours were builder laminate from the nineties. They spent most of the first day just degreasing and sanding, which I thought was excessive until they explained why. Two years on and nothing has lifted.
Adele P.
Edmonton
★★★★★
They found the panel beside the dishwasher had swelled and told me that run needed new boxes before quoting the rest. I would not have known to look for it.
Terrence O.
st. Albert
★★★★
Good work and a tidy crew. The only surprise was how much the door material changed the price, but they walked me through the options rather than pushing the dearest one.
Bianca L.
Sherwood Park
★★★★★
I had a quote from someone who said no prep was needed on laminate. Glad I asked a second company, because the difference in approach was obvious once it was explained.
Hugh D.
Edmonton
From the blog
Edmonton cabinet guides
Laminate, thermofoil, veneer and solid wood, and how each behaves in a working kitchen.
We will check your laminate for lifting and swelling, measure the runs, and tell you which parts can be refaced and which cannot. Written quote by the linear foot.
