Peeling cabinet doors in Lynn, MA are not a paint problem. The plastic skin has come off the board, so Custom Cabinets Lynn quotes you new fronts rather than a repair that will not hold. Your new doors and drawer fronts cost $180 to $330 a door fitted, or $2,200 to $6,600 across an average kitchen. Painting the doors that are still sound, so they match the new ones, runs $100 to $250 each. That is often the cheaper half of your answer. Both routes sit on our cabinet price guide with their sources.
Thermofoil is a plastic skin pressed onto a board with heat. That is what makes your doors cheap, even and easy to wipe down, and it is also why they come apart.
Heat softens the glue underneath, so the skin lifts at one edge and then keeps going. It does not spread evenly around your kitchen. It takes the doors beside your range, the one above your dishwasher and the panel next to a wall oven. Everything else in the room still looks new to you.
Once the skin has let go, you cannot glue it back down. It has stretched and shrunk, the glue is spent, and any clamp mark or bubble stays where you will see it. We would rather say that in the first minute than sell you a fix with one season in it.
What has actually failed
The doors beside your range and above your dishwasher
Nearly every peeling door sits within two feet of something hot, and the lifting starts on the edge facing the appliance. A dishwasher that vents out the front rather than down is the usual culprit here. The steam runs straight up the door above it, and nothing in your kitchen stops that. Replacing those two or three fronts costs you $180 to $330 each. We match them to what you already have rather than redoing the room.
A whole kitchen where the skin has given up
Sometimes doors nowhere near an appliance have started to lift as well. That means the glue across your whole run has aged out on its own, and it is a kitchen-wide job. Doors and drawer fronts across an average kitchen run you $2,200 to $6,600 fitted, with the boxes left in place. Fabuwood and KraftMaid both still sell thermofoil, so if that is what you want again we will fit it. We will also tell you which door goes first next time.
Painting laminate and thermofoil instead of replacing
Laminate and thermofoil do take paint, as long as we put a bonding primer down first. That primer is made to grip a slick surface, and Benjamin Moore ADVANCE is what we lay over it. What paint cannot do is stick to a skin that has already come off its board. So painting works where your doors are dated, at $100 to $250 a door, and it fails on a door that is already lifting.
Moving to a material that does not do this
Wood veneer fronts at $100 to $250 a linear foot and solid wood at $200 to $500 both take heat in a way a pressed skin does not. Our door shop in Lawrence cuts made-to-order doors in maple, white oak and walnut on a 1 to 2 week lead, so the switch does not cost you a month. We would put that money into the doors near your appliances first, even if the rest of the kitchen stays as it is.
How we find out which one it is
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We map which doors have gone and where the heat is
We walk your kitchen and mark every lifted edge. Then we look at what sits behind each one, because the pattern names the cause. Your dishwasher vent, your range surround and any lights under the cabinets are the three we check first.
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We check the board under the skin
We look at the board under a lifted corner. A board that has swollen with steam is a different problem from a skin that simply let go. Where that board has gone soft, your door is finished whatever we do to the surface.
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We measure every opening you are replacing
We measure each door and front on its own rather than assuming the run repeats. Your 1946 kitchen was refitted in the nineties, so it usually has three or four odd sizes in it. The measure costs you nothing, and it is what makes a partial replacement fit rather than nearly fit.
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We deal with the heat source before we hang new fronts
We tell you where the venting or the gap has to change, because a new door in the same spot lasts exactly as long as the last one did. Usually that means a dishwasher vent kit or a heat shield for your kitchen. Either is cheap next to another set of fronts.
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We hang, adjust and match what stays
We hang your new fronts on the hinge holes already in the boxes, where those are sound. Where they are not, your hardware is $30 to $80 a door. A wood front weighs more than the skinned one it replaces, so we would rather change the hinges while your doors are off. Then we check the old doors against the new ones in your own kitchen light, because a match under a shop lamp means nothing at home.
What a peeling-door quote should tell you
Why people here call us about a peeling door
Nobody wants to hear that a door cannot be saved. So we say it on the phone rather than after a visit you paid for. Most kitchens in Lynn went up around 1946 and were refitted in the nineties, which makes the skin on your doors about thirty years old. We replace the ones that have lifted at $180 to $330 each and leave the rest of your kitchen alone. Where your whole run has gone, a full set of fronts is $2,200 to $6,600.
No glue puts the skin back, and a quote may call it delamination
The skin was pressed onto your door with heat and glue, and both change for good once it lets go. A tube of contact adhesive cannot put that bond back. Clamping it leaves a line you can see and a bubble at the edge. Any quote offering to re-glue your lifted door is selling you a season.
The heat is the fault and the door is the symptom
Doors peel within about two feet of a range, a wall oven or a dishwasher that vents forward, which is why the same three fail in kitchen after kitchen. Put a new one in without changing the venting and you start the same clock again. A quote that lists your doors and says nothing about what cooked them has priced the symptom.
Old paint under new fronts changes the method
Plenty of these fronts were fitted onto older painted boxes. Taking them off and prepping the frames disturbs that paint, and most kitchens here date to around 1946, so yours may contain lead. Once we disturb more than 6 square feet of it, the state lead-safe rules apply, 454 CMR 22.00. Sealing your room and cleaning it down runs $350 to $1,200, and that belongs on your quote as a line you can see.
Numbers worth knowing
| Replacement doors and fronts, fitted | $180 to $330 per door |
|---|---|
| Doors and fronts across a kitchen | $2,200 to $6,600 |
| Painting per door and drawer front | $100 to $250 |
| Thermofoil and laminate fronts | $80 to $125 per linear foot |
| Wood veneer fronts | $100 to $250 per linear foot |
| Hinge swap while the doors are off | $30 to $80 per door |
Refacing a Lynn kitchen runs $5,000 to $13,000 installed, or $150 to $450 per linear foot. Swapping doors and drawer fronts alone runs $180 to $330 per door. What moves the number is the door material, how many boxes are actually still sound, and whether the kitchen predates 1978.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Refacing a standard kitchen: new doors, drawer fronts and veneered boxesThe whole visible surface changes and the layout does not. Priced on the door count and the run length rather than on the square footage of the room. | $5,000 – $13,000 | installed |
| Refacing priced by the footMeasure the run of base and wall cabinets along the wall, not the floor. This is the number to compare quotes on, because it strips out how big the kitchen happens to be. | $150 – $450 | per linear foot |
| Rigid thermofoil or laminate doors and frontsThe cheapest way to change the look. It is a vinyl film heat-pressed onto a substrate, and it is the one door type that will not survive a steam vent or a wall oven at close quarters. | $80 – $125 | per linear foot |
| Wood veneer doors and frontsReal wood face over an engineered core. Stable through a New England heating season because the core does not move the way a solid panel does. | $100 – $250 | per linear foot |
| Solid hardwood doors and frontsFive-piece doors with a floating panel. The top of the refacing range and the only version that can be sanded and refinished again in fifteen years. | $200 – $500 | per linear foot |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, boxes left aloneWhere the boxes are sound and only the faces are dated. Includes the door, the hinge boring and the hanging. Drawer fronts price the same way. | $180 – $330 | per door, installed |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, whole kitchenThe same job counted across an average kitchen rather than per door. The cheapest real change you can make to a kitchen that is structurally fine. | $2,200 – $6,600 | installed |
| Labor alone on a door and front swap, doors suppliedFor anyone pricing the doors separately. Hanging and adjusting is most of this line, because a door that is hung but not adjusted reads as a bad job within a month. | $140 – $230 | per door |
| Soft-close hinge and undermount runner retrofit during a refaceDone while the doors are already off, which is the only time it is cheap. Hinges and runners carry their own load and cycle ratings, so this gets specified rather than picked off a shelf. | $30 – $80 | per door or drawer |
| Replacing a failed sink base or dishwasher end panel during a refaceThe row that separates a real refacing quote from a cosmetic one. A swollen particleboard sink base will lift new veneer inside a year, so it gets replaced rather than skinned. | $400 – $1,400 | per box |
| Lead-safe containment and cleanup on a pre-1978 kitchenSealing the room, HEPA vacuuming and a wet cleanup rather than a broom. On a kitchen built before 1978 this is a rule about the work, not an upgrade, and it is on the quote or it is being skipped. | $350 – $1,200 | per job |
Tell us about the problem
Send photos and one measurement across it, and we will tell you whether you are looking at a repair at $120 to $600, a reface at $5,000 to $13,000, or new boxes.
Questions we get asked
Can peeling thermofoil cabinet doors be repaired?
No. The skin was pressed on with heat, and once it lets go the glue is spent and the skin has moved. Re-gluing leaves a line and a bubble you can see. New fronts run $180 to $330 a door, or $2,200 to $6,600 for a kitchen.
Why are only some of my cabinet doors peeling?
Because heat causes it. The ones that fail sit within about two feet of your range, a wall oven or a dishwasher that vents forward. The rest of your doors are the same age and the same product, and they are usually fine.
Can you paint thermofoil or laminate cabinets?
Yes, and we put a bonding primer down first, at $100 to $250 per door and front. What paint cannot do is stick to a skin that has already lifted off its board. So this works on your dated doors and not on peeling ones.
How much does it cost to replace peeling cabinet doors?
$180 to $330 per door fitted, or $2,200 to $6,600 for a whole kitchen with your boxes left alone. Most people replace only the two or three doors near their appliances. We match those to the fronts you already have.
What lasts longer than thermofoil near a range?
Wood veneer at $100 to $250 per linear foot, or solid wood at $200 to $500. Both take heat in a way a pressed skin does not, so they are what we fit beside a range. Made-to-order doors run a 1 to 2 week lead, and switching does not add a month to your job.
Who replaces peeling cabinet doors near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn replaces peeling fronts across Lynn and the North Shore at $180 to $330 a door. We map which doors have gone against where the heat is, because a new front in the same spot fails on the same schedule.
A peeling door is one of the few cabinet faults with only one honest answer. We would rather give you that on the phone than book a visit to say it in person. Where your boxes underneath are sound, new fronts are a two or three day job.
If the rest of your kitchen is dated rather than peeling, cabinet painting covers it for $2,000 to $6,500. Where you are replacing the fronts anyway, door and drawer front replacement sets out how we do that, and everything we handle lists the rest.