Most of what we are asked for here is a kitchen somebody basically likes. The layout works, the boxes are sound, and what has aged is the colour and the doors. That is a job measured in days, not weeks.
Refacing replaces the doors, the drawer fronts and the visible ends, and leaves the carcasses where they are. You get a different-looking kitchen without the room being emptied and rebuilt, and without the plumbing and electrical work a replacement drags along with it.
What it cannot do is change the layout or the cabinet sizes. If the corner wastes half its volume, if the appliance is in the wrong place, or if the boxes have swollen at the toe kick, new fronts are money spent on a problem they cannot reach.
So the first thing we do in st. Albert is open a few cupboards and look at what the boxes are actually made of. That answer decides the entire quote, it takes about two minutes to establish, and it is the step most quotes skip entirely. See how refacing works, refacing against replacing and redooring alone.
Recent work
What to expect
A st. Albert Refresh, Step by Step
Look inside the cupboards
Box construction decides everything. Plywood in good order refaces well; particleboard swollen at the bottom does not, and we say so rather than take the money.
Choose doors and finish
Profile, colour and hardware, with samples you can hold. This is the stage where a sprayed finish and a new door profile get compared honestly against each other.
Doors made, then fitted
Fronts are made in our shop while your kitchen stays in use. Site time is short because the disruptive part happened somewhere else.
Hinges tuned, then handover
New fronts need the hinges set properly or the gaps give the job away. That adjustment is the difference between refaced and re-covered.
Paint or reface
Two Routes That Are Not the Same
Painting changes the colour and nothing else. Same doors, same profiles, same layout, with a sprayed catalysed finish over properly prepared surfaces. It is the cheaper of the two and it is the right answer when you like the doors you have.
Refacing changes the doors as well, so the profile and the style can change with it. A dated raised panel can become a plain shaker, which paint alone can never do. It costs more because parts are being made rather than coated.
Both fail the same way when preparation is skipped, which is why we talk about it far more than about colour. Degreasing, sanding and a proper primer are what decide whether a finish is still sound in five years, and no paint compensates for skipping them. See cabinet painting, painting against refacing and shaker doors.
Choosing
Refresh options
Ways to Refresh a st. Albert Kitchen
From the cheapest visible change upward. Each one buys something specific.
What refacing fixes, what it cannot, and how long it takes.
Usually a few days on site rather than weeks, because the boxes stay put and the fronts are made in our shop while you carry on using the kitchen.
It depends on the boxes, which is why we open a few cupboards before quoting. Sound plywood refaces well. Particleboard swollen at the toe kick does not.
Not reliably. Thermofoil is a vinyl film over a board core and paint does not bond to it, so replacing the doors is the sounder route and we will say so.
Generally yes, because nothing is replaced. It also changes the least: same doors, same profiles, same wear underneath the new colour.
No. Refacing and painting both leave the boxes exactly where they are. If the layout is the problem, you want new cabinetry rather than new fronts.
Usually, and they get set properly afterwards. Badly adjusted hinges on new fronts are what makes a refaced kitchen look refaced.
Yes, and it is the sensible moment. The doors are already off, so fitting internal storage costs less labour than doing it as a separate visit later.
