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