Melamine, laminate and thermofoil that is still tight will all hold paint, provided a waterborne bonding primer lays the foundation. Cabinet painting cannot rescue a door whose vinyl skin has lifted.
Builder stock from roughly 2005 to 2015 filled Huron Park, Doon South, Lackner Woods and Deer Ridge with exactly these materials, usually white or espresso fronts on melamine boxes. The boxes are almost always sound. The finish is what has aged, which puts those kitchens squarely in cabinet painting territory.
Bonding Primer Is What Makes Cabinet Painting Stick To A Slick Surface
Melamine, laminate and thermofoil are all non-porous by design. An ordinary latex or enamel undercoater has nothing to grip, which is why a homeowner repaint on these doors comes off in sheets at the handle within a year.
A waterborne bonding primer is engineered for the problem. It grips melamine, thermofoil, laminate and glazed surfaces, it recoats in three to four hours, and it reaches full adhesion in three to four days. It runs under 100 grams per litre of VOC. It is not a stain blocker, so a door with water staining or old marker needs a shellac primer under it as well. Getting that sequence right is most of what makes cabinet painting on slick doors last.
Thermofoil That Is Already Peeling Cannot Be Painted
A thermofoil door is an MDF core wearing a heat-pressed vinyl skin. Steam from a dishwasher vent and heat from a wall oven or a range break the bond, and once the film has curled away from an edge or bubbled across a face, it keeps going.
Paint does not re-adhere vinyl. Coating a lifting door hides the problem for a few months and then the film moves again underneath and takes the new finish with it. The honest options are to strip the door back to the MDF with heat and refinish the core, or to replace the door and paint it in with everything else. Both routes are priced under new doors and refacing, and both go in the cabinet painting quote as a separate count.
Chipped Edges And Damaged Banding Need Filling Before Cabinet Painting
Melamine chips along its edge banding, usually at the corners nearest the dishwasher and at the drawer fronts that get pulled hardest. Those chips are filled, sanded flush and spot-primed before anything else goes on, because a chip under a topcoat reads as a shadow forever.
Swollen or water-damaged particleboard is different. A box that has soaked up a slow sink leak has lost its structure, and no amount of cabinet painting puts it back. Those carcasses get called out at the visit so the household can decide whether to replace one base unit or carry on with the rest.
Condo And Rental Cabinet Painting Deals Mostly With These Materials
Apartment and condo kitchens across the East Ward, Victoria Park and the downtown towers were built with melamine boxes and thermofoil or laminate fronts because they are cheap, hard and easy to install. That makes bonding primer the default product for most small-kitchen cabinet painting in the city.
Rental turnover work has its own clock, since a unit between tenants has a fixed window and a landlord needs the kitchen back on a date. Door counts in a galley usually run ten to fifteen pieces, which is the smallest cabinet painting bracket, and the schedule is built backwards from the move-in. Small-kitchen pricing is set out on the condo kitchen page.
Find Out What Cabinet Painting Can Do With Your Doors
A photograph of a door corner and the inside edge usually settles the material question in a minute. Call +1 (226) 271-7725 or send a picture through the contact form, and the visit will confirm whether the kitchen is a straight bonding-primer job, a partial door replacement, or neither. The full cabinet painting service list covers oak, refinishing, islands and hardware as well.
Thermofoil, Melamine and Laminate Cabinet Painting Questions
Can thermofoil really be painted?
Intact thermofoil can be, once a waterborne bonding primer is down. Thermofoil that has lifted or bubbled cannot, because the vinyl keeps peeling under the new coating.
What happens to chipped melamine edges?
Chips and damaged banding are filled and sanded flush before priming. Without that step the damage shows through the finish, so the repair is listed as its own line in the quote.
Will the paint peel off laminate?
Not when the surface is degreased, scuff sanded and sealed with a bonding primer. Skipping any of those steps is what causes peeling, so each one is named on the quote.