Refacing or replacing cabinets: which question you are actually answering
Refacing and replacing are frequently presented as two prices for the same job. They are not. They are two different projects, and only one of them can change a layout.
What refacing actually is
Refacing keeps the existing cabinet boxes in place and replaces the doors, drawer fronts and visible surfaces. Because the boxes stay, the layout stays: the same runs, the same openings, the same interior dimensions. It is considerably faster and generates far less disruption, and on a kitchen where the boxes are sound and the layout works, it is a reasonable answer.
The condition of the boxes is the deciding factor. Particleboard boxes that have taken water under a sink, or shelving that has sagged, are not worth dressing with new doors. A contractor who will not open a cabinet and look before quoting a reface is quoting a hope.
When replacement is the only real option
Any change to the layout requires new boxes. So does fitting current appliances into older cabinet runs: a common situation in housing from the 1970s and 1980s, where openings were built for narrower refrigerators and shallower ranges than are sold today. In those kitchens a reface leaves you with new doors on a kitchen that still does not fit the appliances.
Replacement also resets the interior: soft-close hardware, full-extension drawers, pull-outs in the base cabinets. Those are interior features, and refacing does not deliver them because it does not touch the interior.
Before accepting a refacing quote
- Has anyone opened the cabinets under the sink and looked at the box material?
- Do the current openings fit the appliances you intend to install?
- Is the layout something you are willing to keep for another fifteen years?
- Are the drawer boxes and slides being replaced, or only the fronts?
Next step: How long the work takes