Thread: Another how do I fix 2 pack kitchen door question.

probably easiest to remake the doors

Hi Ian,

Remaking the door might be a challenge for me and I doubt a commercial cabinet maker is going to be interested in doing a single door before Christmas. I doubt the cost would be 'reasonable' anyway.

Cost is a significant consideration. The kitchen will most probably be scheduled to be pulled out in around another 3 years.

Even if I could make a new door with matching detailing, finding a 2 pack finisher and matching the now UV altered original colour would probably be difficult.

I think in your shoes I'd be looking at a pre-made dor from Bunnings or Ikea. What you have is probably a standard size, and AFAIK Ikea sells doors as spare parts

I suspect you'll never get a 'good' finish. Plane the door as flat as you can to take off the really bad swollen bits and then paint with an epoxy enamel. This will be far from perfect but will stop the damage getting much worse until you replace the kitchen. I don't see the point of spending more on a fix that won't see you any better off in the short term. Replacement is the only alternative option.

Two pac doors can suffer a fair bit in careless hands, but that's the first I have seen suffer from water ingress, as the process is generally water tight unless there is major surface trauma to the extent that paint is missing and primer or substrate exposed before the moisture is present.

Also most 2 pac doors use a moisture resistant coated substrate rather than common chipboard so that they can get the ultra smooth mirror surface that 2 pac offers, and your photo's definitely suggest that the substrate is plain MDF. Therefore I have the suspicion that your doors are possibly just a gloss paint rather than 2 pack finish.

It's difficult to extract full detail for the panel but they seem to be 16mm MDF, with a round over on the front edge and three spaced coves down the hinged side. I think it would be reasonable to cut a pair of blanks, sand the edges smooth, then route the round over and coves, lightly sand the routed bits and paint the doors and fit them. The paint finish does not need to absolutely perfectly match the remaining doors as it is at right angles to both adjoining runs and you will never get the same lighting effect on all three runs to show the difference. Plus, as you say it is for a short term rental property and the kitchen will likely be replaced prior to you moving in to live later on. I have a couple of rental properties and accept rents a touch below market levels and my tenants do not complain about minor issues such as a slight paint mismatch on a couple of doors. Not aiming to be a slum landlord etc, but one long term tenant (12yrs) took 3 weeks to mention (not complain) that the HWS had failed, 'because he didn't want to be a nuisance'. Was fixed in an hour for $20 once he mentioned it, gas thermo couple had failed. Maybe I have good tenants who appreciate that I am not out to rip them off, but I have just bought a unit to relocate that guy to as we are selling his rental to a developer and had always promised that if he worked with us and looked after the property, we would relocate him on better terms if we ever sold out under him.

I have repaired quite a few 2-pac MDF kitchen doors like this.

My tried & tested solution is to:
Cut off ALL the swollen MDF in a straight line.
Cut pine to replacement size, glue & clamp.
Sand & prime the whole door.
Sand primer lightly with block.
Colour match paint @ the big big green shed.
Use a solvent base paint.
Sand in between dry coats with block & wet&dry paper.

Hope that helps.
I use Nitrocellulose paint, & spray for customers.

Hi Graham
apart from not needing to re-drill the hinge cups, that method seems to require more effort than making a new door.

How far down from the top does the damage extend?

If it's not too far, let's say a cm or less because you "caught it" in time, I'b be inclined to have good look at the aluminium channel route.

Quick 'n easy to fit, would prevent further deterioration and could be retrieved and re-purposed when the kitchen is pulled out in a couple of years.

Looks like standard MDF with a paint finish. Not worth mucking about with. Get a piece of modern hmr MDF cut to size. Run the grooves if you want, drill hinge holes, hit it with undercoat and a squirt of matched car enamel. Job done.

Good Morning Franklin

Can you simply go back to the original supplier and get a replaceement door - it looks like a standard kit product?

If no, then Rusty's solution seems best as a temporary solution. It is very difficult to impossible to match weathered paint colours - so repaint all the cupboard doors.

Final alternative is to live with it - the Japanese call this wabi sabi - and bring forward the renovation.


Cheers

Graeme

Hi Graeme
If I'm putting the different threads together correctly, this is a property recently purchased by Franklin, that he intends to use as a rental for a few years before renovating and moving into to "live out his days".
Franklin is concerned that he doesn't come across as a "slum landlord" and thus wants to fix a number of issues bequeathed by the previous owner -- one of which was a cut-down milk container sued as a plumbing fitting inside this same cabinet.

Ian is correct. I've fixed the undersink plumbing already and most of a number of other plumbing issues. There was still a 1000L/day water leak after fixing all the leaking taps that took a bit of work (and $$) to locate. The garden hadn't been attended to for over a year at least, even after slashing the knee high grass it wasn't clear where the wet spot was.

I haven't started work on the cabinetry yet. The kitchen is definitely not a standard kit. The chances of finding any original kitchen supplier still operating on the Gold Coast after 20 or so years is an amusing thought.

Just a thought - why not trim off the damaged part and replace with a strip of timber, then do the same on the other undamaged door under the sink. Round over with a plane or router and it's done. So both doors under the sink will be the same and it becomes at worst a questionable design choice to have these two lipped doors. A few coats of poly to provide some protection and you can avoid the painting route. Replicating/matching the old finish and blending it into the existing door seems to be the hard and time consuming part - so why not skip that part altogether?