Cabinet Refacing vs. Replacement in Ontario: When the Boxes Are Worth Keeping, and When They Are Not

What each one costs

Those replacement numbers are the installed cabinet figures from the cabinet cost guide, and they do not include the countertop, which refacing usually lets you keep and replacing usually does not. Add $4,000 to $9,000 for a quartz top if the counter goes, which it has to if the layout changes or the old counter is glued to the old boxes. That is the number that makes refacing look good: not the cabinet saving, the counter saving.

The test: are the boxes worth keeping?

Go through these in the kitchen, with a flashlight, and answer each one. Any “no” in the first three is a replacement kitchen whatever the salesperson says.

1. Is the layout staying? Refacing keeps every box where it is. If the island is moving, the range is moving, a wall is coming out, or you want drawers where there are doors, that is new cabinets. No amount of veneer changes a floor plan.
2. Are the boxes dry and square? Open the sink base and press on the floor of it. Soft, swollen, delaminated, stained black: that box is done, and if the sink base is done the ones beside it are suspect. Open and close each door; a box that has racked out of square has doors that do not line up and will not after refacing either.
3. Is the box material sound? Plywood boxes from before about 1990 are often better than what replaces them, and reface beautifully. Particleboard boxes from the 1980s and 1990s with swollen edges and loose hanging rails are not worth the veneer. Push on the sides, pull a shelf out and look at the edges, pull a drawer and look at the runners. If the box fails the quality checklist on structure, refacing dresses up something you would not buy new.
4. Are the uppers hung well? Grab the front edge of an upper and pull down. It should not move. A cabinet that was hung on drywall anchors in 1985 is a cabinet that is going to need re-hanging, and refacing contractors do not do that.
5. Do you want the drawers fixed? Refacing changes the fronts. The drawer boxes and runners behind them are only changed if you pay for it, and on an old kitchen you should: it is the difference between a kitchen that looks new and one that works new. Budget $150 to $250 per drawer for a new box on undermount runners.
6. Is the kitchen staying longer than 8 years? Refacing is a 10-to-15-year finish on boxes that are already 25 years old. If you are staying 20, it is a kitchen you will do twice. If you are selling in 5, it is the best money you can spend.

What refacing actually includes

The word covers a lot. A proper refacing job replaces every door and drawer front with new ones in whatever style and material you choose (the same choices as a new kitchen, see painted vs. thermofoil vs. laminate), covers every visible box surface (face frames, end panels, toe kicks) with matching veneer, laminate or a rigid panel, and fits new hinges, and usually new handles. It should include new fillers, new crown and light rail if you want them, and it can include new drawer boxes, roll-outs, a new sink base floor, and a new end panel on the island.

What it never includes: moving anything, new countertops, plumbing, electrical, anything inside the box other than the drawer boxes, or fixing a box that is failing. A refacing quote that is $18,000 and a replacement quote that is $24,000 for a mid-grade kitchen are closer than they look once the countertop and the drawer boxes are on both.

Where refacing goes wrong

The option in the middle: painting

If the doors are solid wood or a good five-piece MDF and the only problem is that they are oak and it is 2026, spraying them is the cheapest real fix. A proper job: doors and fronts taken off and sprayed in a shop (never brushed in place), boxes degreased, sanded, primed with a bonding primer and sprayed on site, new hardware, and new hinges if the old ones are tired. $3,500 to $7,500 for a typical kitchen and it lasts 7 to 12 years if the prep was done. The jobs that chip in a year are the ones where the prep was not. Thermofoil doors cannot be painted well and laminate doors need a specific primer and a painter who has done it; ask. More on what each door material can and cannot do is on the door finishes page.

How to decide, in order

• Layout changing? Replace. Done.
• Any box failing the flashlight test? Replace, or at minimum replace that box and reface the rest, which some shops will do.
• Boxes sound, layout staying, doors tired, budget under $8,000? Paint.
• Boxes sound, layout staying, you want new drawers, new fronts and a kitchen that works properly for 12 years? Reface with new drawer boxes.
• Boxes sound but the countertop is going anyway? Price both. Once the counter is on both quotes, the gap between refacing and a builder-grade replacement is often $5,000, and the replacement comes with a warranty on the box.