Home Repair: How to Ready Kitchen Cabinets

Quick solutions to the most common cabinet bug

Introduction

Kitchen cabinets work hard, and all that opening and endmost creates a multifariousness of bug. Well-nigh are inexpensive and like shooting fish in a barrel to fix, then take a solar day and plow through them—it'll be like having a new kitchen.

Tools Required

Materials Required

  • 1/iv-in. plywood
  • 1x2
  • iii/4-in. plywood
  • Back plates for knobs
  • Brad nails
  • Door bumpers
  • Drawer slides
  • Dry lubricant
  • Magnet take hold of
  • Removable thread adhesive
  • Roller catches
  • Toothpicks
  • Wood cleaner
  • Forest fill stick
  • Wood mucilage

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Projection stride-past-step (15)

Step 1

Build a Shelf That Won't Sag

kitchen cabinets

Don't bother replacing a sagging shelf with another 1/two-in.-thick shelf or it'll end up sagging too. Instead, cut a new shelf from iii/four-in. plywood. Make it the aforementioned length and 1-1/two in. narrower (so you tin can add rails). Then gum and brad nail (or clamp) 1x2 track along the forepart and dorsum of the shelf, flush with the ends. The track give the shelf additional back up so it won't sag, even if you load information technology up with heavy cookware. Utilise a polyurethane (or other) cease to match your other shelves.

Step 2

Replace Worn-Out Drawer Slides

kitchen cabinets

Lubricants won't set damaged drawer slides. They take to be replaced. This is a common problem on silverware drawers and other drawers that comport a lot of weight. Purchase new slides that are the same, or nearly the same, as your sometime ones. Then it's just a thing of swapping them out. Y'all'll find a limited selection of drawer slides at home centers, merely there are dozens of online sources. These sites also sell the plastic mounting sockets that attach to the back of the cabinet to hold the slides in identify.

Step 3

Conform Euro Hinges

kitchen cabinets

Adjusting cabinet doors with European hinges is as easy as turning a screw or two. Hinges like this ane adapt in 3 directions; others arrange in two. If your door is crooked—not square with the cabinet—set up that offset, then raise or lower information technology to the same height as adjacent doors.

For crooked doors, arrange the side screw on one hinge, which moves the door from side to side. Information technology'southward a trial-and-error process. Brand a small adjustment, and then close the door to check its position. If the door is higher or lower than side by side doors, loosen the mounting screws on both hinges, raise or lower the door, and so tighten the screws. Place a straightedge beyond the door height or bottom to make sure it's level with neighboring doors.

If the door sticks out too far from the cabinet or the hinge side brushes against the chiffonier when you open the door, adjust the depth screw. Some hinges move the door as yous turn the depth screw; others crave y'all to tap the door in or out and then tighten the screw.

Door adjustments aren't as easy if you have traditional hinges. If your doors are sagging, get-go attempt tightening the screws. If the hinges are bent, replace them if you can find a match.

Step 4

Silence Banging Doors with Bumpers

kitchen cabinets

Doors and drawers slam loudly when wood smacks against forest. That's why almost accept "bumpers" near the interior corners to cushion the touch and reduce the noise. Only the bumpers sometimes fall off (or kids pick them off). Get new ones at home centers. Peel off the backing and stick the bumpers in place. They're available articulate or with felt, and in dissimilar thicknesses. Employ bumpers the same thickness every bit those on next doors.

Step 5

Fill up In Stripped Spiral Holes

kitchen cabinets

When the screws in your hinges or drawer slides plow but don't tighten, the spiral hole is stripped. That can forbid doors and drawers from closing properly. Fix the problem with glue and toothpicks. Outset by removing the hardware. So utilise a drop of forest gum to the ends of toothpicks and cram as many every bit will fit into the hole (maybe only 2 or 3). Wipe away whatsoever glue that drips out. Let the gum dry out, then use a utility knife to cut the toothpicks flush with the cabinet or drawer. Reinstall the hardware, driving the screw through the filled hole.

Step 6

Beef Upward Wimpy Drawer Bottoms

kitchen cabinets

The thin plywood used for drawer bottoms sometimes gets wavy. Stiffen up the bottoms with i/4-in. or 3/8-in. plywood. Cut the plywood to fit over the drawer bottom, leaving about a one/4-in. gap on each side. Apply forest mucilage on the drawer bottom and set the plywood over information technology. Gear up a gallon or two of paint over the plywood to agree information technology in place until the gum dries.

Stride 7

Glue Loose Knobs

Once knobs autumn off your cabinets, twisting them back on won't solve the problem. They'll only continue coming loose. Use a dab of thread adhesive to keep them in place (Loctite 242, blue, is one brand that will hold the knob in place without gluing it permanently; information technology'southward sold at hardware stores and home centers). Apply the adhesive to the screw, and so attach the knob. If y'all decide to supercede the knob subsequently, don't worry. Y'all can remove it with a screwdriver. (If you buy a different brand, wait for a removable type.)

Step viii

Renew the smoothen

kitchen cabinets

Grease splatters and smoke can leave a moving-picture show on your cabinets, dulling the end. Wash the cabinets with a wood cleaner to bring back the luster. Murphy Oil Soap is one type of cleaner.

Use a sponge to rub the cleaner onto the cabinets. Cleaners like Irish potato'south don't need to be rinsed off, which cuts your cleaning time. For stubborn grease spots, scrub lightly with the cleaner using a No. 0000 steel wool pad. Cleaning the cabinets one time a year keeps them shiny and protects the cease.

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Step 9

Repair Disrepair Drawers

kitchen cabinets

Some drawers are held together by only a few drops of mucilage or brusque brad nails. When you first detect a drawer corner coming apart, take out the drawer and set it. And if one corner is declining, others probably will too. Save yourself time to come hassles by repairing all the weak corners now. Place a piece of bit wood against a corner and lightly rap it once with a hammer. If the corner comes apart, fix information technology. If non, it should hold upwardly.

To fix the corner, outset remove the drawer front, if possible. Virtually fronts are attached by screws driven from inside the drawer. Remove whatsoever fasteners from the corner, so scrape away the old mucilage with a utility knife. Reglue the corner, tap the sides dorsum together and clamp the drawer until the gum dries.

Step 10

Repair a broken drawer front

kitchen cabinets

Photograph ane: Reinstall the drawer front

Remove the drawer pull and screws. And then line upwardly the mortise-and-tenons and the drawer lesser with the groove and tap the drawer front end back onto the box.

kitchen cabinets

Photo ii: Reinforce the drawer front

Drill 4 1/8-in. pilot holes through the newly installed box front. Then drive coarse-thread drywall screws through the new box front and into the quondam drawer front.

High-quality cabinet drawers are built with a sturdy box and a separate decorative drawer front. But the drawer fronts on economy cabinets are part of the box itself. They're fastened to the sides and bottom with a mortise-and-tenon joint and held with mucilage and staples. Repeated openings and closings break the joint and the drawer front falls off. You can try regluing the joint, merely it won't concluding. Here's how to fix the problem permanently.

Cutting a 3/4-in.-thick piece of wood to friction match the width and pinnacle of the drawer box. Then remove the staples from the tenons and clean up the rough edges so y'all tin can reinstall the drawer front (Photo 1). Glue the new wood block direct behind the drawer front (employ polyurethane glue if the box sides and bottom take been varnished). Secure with nails or screws. Then attach the old drawer front to the new woods cake (Photo 2).

Using the sometime drawer pull holes every bit a guide, drill through the new wood block. Buy longer No. viii-32 x 1-3/4-in. auto screws and remount the drawer pull.

Step 11

Add Back Plates to Embrace Worn Areas

kitchen cabinets

Years of opening doors and drawers can wear away the finish well-nigh cabinet knobs. Instead of undertaking the time-consuming chore of refinishing the cabinets, try this quick fix: Install back plates under the knobs or handles. Simply unscrew the knob or handle, slide the back plate under information technology, then reattach the knob or handle. Back plates are inexpensive and are available in a wide range of styles. Y'all can special-order them at habitation centers or buy them online.

Step 12

Supersede Bad Latches

Older cabinets sometimes have "roller catches" that concord the doors closed. If you have these and your door won't close or stay airtight, loosen the screws to slide the catch forward or astern on the cabinet frame. Or replace it if it'southward broken. The catches are available at home centers.

Step 13

Fill up in Scratches

kitchen cabinets

Use a wood fill stick to make scratches less visible. The stick fills in and colors over the scratch. Soften the stick with a pilus dryer to brand the application easier. And then run the stick over the scratch and wipe abroad any excess with a fabric. The fill probably won't exist an exact match with the surrounding cabinet, but it'll exist close. The sticks work on shallow and deep scratches. They're available at home centers and hardware stores.

Pace 14

Lubricate Sticking Drawers

kitchen cabinets

The set for sticking drawers is easy. Offset remove the drawer. Wipe the drawer slides and the chiffonier track with a clean cloth to remove any droppings. Then spray a dry lubricant straight on the drawer slides. Cans are sold at domicile centers; information technology'll say "dry lubricant" on the label. Replace the drawer and slide it in and out of the cabinet several times until it glides easily. If the drawer is still difficult to open, replace the drawer slides.

Dry lubricants won't leave an oily residuum that attracts dirt and dust. The lubricants also work bang-up on squeaky hinges.

Step 15

Pull Doors Close with Magnets

kitchen cabinets

Sure, this trick is equally sometime equally Benny Colina jokes, but it all the same works. When your chiffonier door is warped and won't fully close, but install a magnetic catch (sold at home centers) at the trouble area. Spiral the magnetic take hold of to the cabinet runway or stile and the plate to the door. The magnet pulls the door airtight.

Originally Published: June 20, 2022