In the kitchen, one of the biggest points for decor in the kitchen are the kitchen cabinets. The cabinets in a home are meant to last for the life of your home. However, there are things that are unexpected which can cause damage to your cabinets, their doors, hinges, drawer slides, and more. When something occurs, there are two choices: repair or replace them. It may be easy to replace them, but that route is expensive, and creates a good deal of waste.
The better choice is to repair the cabinets. How to do so depends greatly upon the location and extent of the damage done to them. If the damage is light, then it can be very easy to repair and will require minimal quantities of parts to purchase, which means a cheaper fix. Based upon the problem areas of the cabinet, the determination of what is needed in terms of money and time becomes clear. From this, you can figure out if it would be cost effective to fix the cabinets, or if it is required to replace them.
Doors and Hinges:
The easiest area to fix, a problem with the door and hinges on the cabinet cab be fixed by looking at a couple of things. Look at the screws; do any need to be tightened? If that is not sufficient, you may need to replace them with larger or longer screws. If the holes for the screws are too damaged, then you can move them to another part of the door
Drawers:
This is another easy to fix area, even if the problem is a stuck drawer. Moving and repositioning the drawer until both runners are back in place will fix most sliding problems. It may be the case however that damage may be done to the slides or runners. If this should be the case, then they will need to be replaced. Many times however, the necessary fix is to ensuring that all screws are tight and in their right locations.
Frame:
Should something occur to the frame and wood of the cabinet, the question is to what extent is the damage. For minor occurrences of damage, it'll work just to reassemble the pieces with wood glue. As the damage grows in magnitude, so will the methods to repair them. More extensive repairs will require something stronger, such as an epoxy wood kit, or the introduction of a piece of wood the same species as the cabinet.
When you should find that damage has occurred to your cabinets it is key to assess the damage and find out what it will take to repair the damage. It could be fixed with a screw driver, or a small trip to the home improvement store. Do not overestimate what you can do however; there are always jobs that beyond the homeowner and it may be best to contact outside help. It may even be the case that the damage is so extensive as to warrant fully replacing the cabinets. Just check out the situation and come up with a plan.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2008-12-03 05:30:21. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
Simple Air Conditioning Cleaning Keeping your air conditioner clean is the best way to make sure it runs at its maximum capacity. Air conditioning cleaning will vary depending on the type of air conditioner you use, but all of them are relatively simple as long as you have basic tools and can follow directions...... -
How to Fix That Leaky Roof It may start with a drip or a deluge, but a leaky roof is a pain to deal with. Fixing it requires a lot of effort, time and money, but not fixing it may cost even more. From dealing with ceiling collapses to water damage, that leaky roof can be...... -
Kitchen Cabinet Remodeling: Refinish or Reface? Instead of replacing your kitchen cabinetry when you redo your kitchen, you can save money and hassle by cabinet remodeling instead. Rather than the need to remove the old cabinets and install new ones (or pay someone to do it) you can opt to either refinish or reface your cabinets....... -
How to Replace a Window Replacing your windows can bring numerous benefits to your home. Not only will they look nicer and add value to your property, but you can also gain significant energy savings. Most new windows are now heat and cold efficient and will greatly reduce the amount of drafts coming in as...... -
How to Make Old Appliances Look New If you’re stuck with some aging appliances and replacing them isn’t in your budget, there are a few tricks that you can use to give them a facelift and make them more energy efficient, on the cheap. For this article, we’re going to focus on refreshing your refrigerator and dishwasher,......
Related Websites -
Funny Windows Errors - How to Fix Registry Errors in Windows Have you ever wondered why your computer sometimes encounters funny windows errors after several weeks from your purchase? Your windows operating system may behave unusually, and if you think about it this happens when you install and uninstall programs in your computer. It is also common that over time, you...... -
Rent or Own - What's Best Right Now? The housing market has many people concerned right now and one of the most popular questions is whether or not this is a good time to buy a home. Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer to this question, and each individual’s financial state will determine the answer. However, there...... -
Garage Door Repair - Does It Make Sense Fixing the Problem Yourself? Garage door repair doesn’t have to be all that difficult, so long as you have good how-to plans. You can even take care of installation yourself if you put some effort into it! However, installation can be somewhat dangerous, so if you have a complicated garage door, you may want...... -
How to Fix a Refrigerator Handle /caption]Around the house, the refrigerator is probably one of the appliances we take most for granted. It keeps our food fresh for days, keeps liquids cool, and the freezer can store foods for months. If you have a broken refrigerator handle, you've already experienced what it's like when this appliance...... - Self storage cabinets for a lovely, elegant touch for your home A place for everything and everything in its place: This is the mantra of the organized, tidy person. If your home is small but cluttered, you want storage space to stow your clutter in, but you don’t want to give up the floor space. There’s a way to have your......
- Keyed Locks Doors Door Hardware Building Hardware Home Improvement
- Nails, Screws Fasteners Building Hardware Home Improvement
- Hinges Doors Door Hardware Building Hardware Home Improvement
- Doors Doors Door Hardware Building Hardware Home Improvement
- Drawer Glides Slides Cabinets Cabinet Hardware Building Hardware Home Improvement
Categories:
Cabinets, Fix, Handy Man, Kitchen, Repair
Tags:
3 comments ↓
I’ve been having a horrible time getting my hignes to stay straight…any suggestions?
You offer some really great suggestions. I particularly like your suggestions about replacing missing screws. But, like the responder above, I have had issues with straight hinges. What do you do for that problem?
Good quality cabinets are meant to last a long time – not for the life of the house. The cabinet doors and drawers receive a tremendous amount of use. And children are even harder on cabinets.
Using a high quality hinge, keeping the doors adjusted and just common sense mantainence should keep your cabinet doors and drawers operating smoothly for years. The type of hinge (i.e. straight, butt, offset, hidden or European hinges) should not matter that much.
However, using inexpensive (cheap) hinges of any kind will definately create problems after time. Poor installation (stripping screws, moving screw holes slightly, bending the hinges) will also cause problems.
Adjusting hinges is not a particularly hard or taxing job. Like everything, if someone knows what they are doing, they make it look easy. There are lots of tips and techniques for each particular condition. Knowing those, and when to use them, is the hard part. If you, the homeowner, are not adept enough to do the job correctly, hiring a cabinet maker to “tune up” and install new hinges where needed is definately worth the minimal cost. For a small investment in maintainence, your large investment in cabinetry will be easily extended.
Leave a Comment