Nothing holds on a slick factory face until bonding primer has gone down. Given the right product beneath, a sprayed topcoat holds onto laminate, melamine and sound vinyl as firmly as it holds onto timber.
Fronts that have started lifting fall outside cabinet painting altogether. No coating glues peeling vinyl back down, and pretending otherwise is how a kitchen gets done twice inside three years.
Bonding Primer Is Why Cabinet Painting Holds On A Slick Face
Melamine and laminate are resin-impregnated paper pressed onto board; thermofoil is vinyl drawn under vacuum over a shaped MDF blank. Not one of the three offers ordinary primer anything to hold onto.
Cabinet painting is made possible on them by a waterborne bonding primer. It bites onto melamine, vinyl, laminate and glazed faces alike, recoats within four hours or so, and wants several days to reach full grip, which is why nothing gets slammed on the second day. Blocking stains is no part of its work, so any front carrying water marks or smoke damage takes shellac first.
A gentle scuff still comes before any cabinet painting primer, gentle because cutting through a laminate face exposes the board beneath. The whole spraying sequence appears on our cabinet spray painting page.
Thermofoil Fails At The Heat, Every Time
The curled corner shows in the same two spots every time, next to the dishwasher, or over the range, since steam and heat break down whatever adhesive sits beneath a skin. Once a front has lifted at one corner it goes on lifting.
Only two honest options exist. Either take the vinyl off with heat, down to bare MDF, and prime and spray the blank itself, or fit a new front and bring it into the run. Heat-stripping is slow and earns its keep only where the shape cannot be reordered; new fronts are covered under refacing and replacement.
Doors still tight everywhere in the kitchen take cabinet painting perfectly well, and it is normal to strip two doors, replace one and simply paint the other twenty.
Rental And Condo Kitchens Are Where Melamine Turns Up Most
Melamine was standard in Ontario apartments and starter kitchens from the 1970s onward, and it survives in quantity in the buildings downtown and in the rental stock around Trent and Fleming. The edges chip because the face is hard and the board behind it is not.
Chipped edges are filled and levelled before primer so colour conceals them. Given proper cabinet painting, a melamine kitchen stops reading as rental stock, at a fraction of replacement cost in a unit that may be sold or let again. Logistics inside a building sit on our condo kitchen cabinet painting page.
What Cannot Take Cabinet Painting Gets Said At The Visit
Three things rule a door out. Vinyl skin already delaminating, particleboard that has swollen from water and stayed swollen, and a box whose joints have let go are all beyond what any coating fixes.
Turning that work down costs us jobs, and it is still the right call. Sprayed over a lifting skin, a finish peels inside one season and the owner has paid for the job twice. What cabinet painting can and cannot manage is stated plainly during the visit.
Bonding Primer Adds To The Price Of A Cabinet Painting Job
Bonding primer across laminate or vinyl usually adds $150 to $400 to a kitchen, covering both the product and the slower preparation. Heat-stripping is priced one front at a time, because the hours swing enormously with the shape.
Which fronts get coated, which get stripped and which get replaced is all set down in the cabinet painting quote, leaving nothing about a single opening ambiguous.
Have The Doors Looked At Before Deciding Anything
Most cabinet painting questions here are settled by five minutes with the two fronts closest to the dishwasher. Call +1 (705) 230-9056, send photos of the worst corners, or read through the other cabinet services while you decide.
Thermofoil, Melamine and Laminate Cabinet Painting Questions
Can thermofoil really be painted?
Sound thermofoil can, with bonding primer under the topcoat. Vinyl that is already lifting or peeling cannot be saved by paint, because a coating is only as sound as what lies under it. We check the doors at the visit and say so plainly.
Why does thermofoil lift beside the dishwasher?
Heat and steam soften the glue under the vinyl skin, so it lifts at the edges nearest the dishwasher and oven first. A door that is already lifting falls outside cabinet painting, and replacing that door is the honest fix.
Does melamine need a different primer?
Yes. Slick melamine and laminate need a bonding primer that grips a factory face, and the doors are scuff sanded first. Ordinary primer would peel. The quote names the primer, and bonding primer adds a modest amount to the price.