Cabinet Refacing vs Replacing: The Sink-Base Test and Four Other Ways to Decide
Reface or replace your kitchen cabinets? A New Mexico cabinet shop that does both explains the five tests that decide it, what each costs installed, and the hybrid option most people miss.
We build custom cabinets and we reface cabinets, so we have no reason to push you either way. Here is how we actually decide at a measurement, including the one test that settles most of them in thirty seconds.
Test one: the sink base
Open the cabinet under the sink and press on the floor of it. This is where thirty years of slow drips end up. If it is flat, firm, and dry, the boxes have survived the hardest test a cabinet faces and they are almost certainly worth keeping. If it is swollen, soft, or crumbly, the boxes are particleboard that has met water, and no veneer will fix that. Veneer over a swollen box looks fine for a year and then lifts along the bottom edge. We will not do it.
Test two: what are the boxes made of?
Look at the exposed edge of a shelf or the back of a box. Plywood shows layers. Particleboard shows a uniform, granular core. Plywood boxes from a 1980s or 1990s kitchen are often better built than a lot of what is sold today, and they are ideal candidates for refacing. Particleboard boxes can be refaced if they are dry and square, but they are the ones most likely to fail test one.
Test three: does the layout work?
Refacing keeps every box where it is. If you reach for the same pot every night and it is in a dark corner cabinet behind a door, refacing does not fix that. If the island is too small, the pantry is a closet with wire shelves, and the uppers stop a foot below the ceiling, refacing does not fix those either. If the layout is basically right and the doors are what you are tired of, refacing fixes exactly the thing that is wrong.
Test four: what do you want it to look like?
Refacing can change the door style completely: raised-panel oak to painted Shaker, flat laminate to rift oak veneer. What it cannot change is the frame style. A face-frame cabinet stays face-frame; it cannot become frameless European. Inset doors with exposed hinges are possible on some boxes and not others. If the look you want depends on the construction, that is a replacement.
Test five: the budget
Refacing runs $150–$350 per linear ft installed installed. New custom cabinets run $350–$900 per linear ft installed. For the same kitchen, refacing usually lands at forty to sixty percent of replacement. If the boxes pass tests one and two and the layout passes test three, spending the difference on a better countertop or a new backsplash is usually the smarter allocation.
The hybrid most people miss
Reface the perimeter and build the pieces that need to change. A new custom island sized to the room. A pantry wall with pull-outs. Uppers to the ceiling on one wall. The eye goes to the new pieces, the money goes where the eye goes, and the perimeter boxes that were never the problem stay. We build the new pieces in our shop in the same door style and finish as the refaced doors, so nothing reads as a mismatch. In a Rio Rancho or Westside house with sound builder boxes and a small builder island, this is almost always the right answer.
What refacing includes when we do it
- New doors and drawer fronts, built and sprayed in our Edgewood shop.
- Real wood veneer on face frames and finished ends.
- Soft-close hinges and full-extension undermount slides.
- New pulls, knobs, and toe kicks; crown and light rail if wanted.
- New drawer boxes where the old ones are failing.
- Pull-out trash, spice pull-outs, door-to-drawer conversions.
- Usually a new countertop at the same time, because we are already there.
What replacement includes
- Every box built to your measured walls in three-quarter-inch plywood.
- Any door style, wood, or finish, sprayed in the shop.
- A new layout if you want one: island, pantry, uppers to the ceiling.
- Scribing to walls that are not square.
- Countertop templated against the installed cabinets and cut in the same shop.
Get an honest answer
We check the sink base at every measurement and tell you which option we would choose for our own kitchen. Call (505) 203-5508 or send the form. More on refacing and custom cabinets.
How a project runs with us
- Call or send the form. Jesus answers, asks what you are trying to do, and books a time to come measure.
- On-site measurement and a straight conversation. We look at the room, the plumbing, the walls, and how you cook. If a material is wrong for your situation, this is where we say so.
- One written number. Template, fabrication, tear-out, install, haul-away, sealing. No per-item surprises after the fact.
- Slab or sample approval. For natural stone you see the actual slab and where the cuts land. For cabinets you approve a door sample and a finish chip.
- Fabrication in Edgewood. Cabinets built and finished in the shop. Countertops laser-templated once the cabinets are set and level, then cut on the CNC and polished.
- Install by the same crew. The people who measured are the people who build and the people who install. One point of contact from first visit to final walkthrough.
Countertop-only projects typically run one to two weeks from template to install. Full cabinet packages run four to eight weeks depending on wood and finish. A complete kitchen remodel is usually six to ten weeks once materials are approved.
More guides
- Countertop Cost in Albuquerque
- Granite vs Quartz in New Mexico
- Custom Cabinet Cost in New Mexico
- Kitchen Remodel Cost in Albuquerque
- How to Choose a Countertop Fabricator
Get this advice for your own kitchen
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Questions We Get Asked
How do I know if my cabinet boxes are good enough to reface?
Open the sink base and press on the floor of it. If it is flat, firm, and dry, and the boxes are plywood and square, they are good candidates. If it is swollen or crumbly, they are not.
Can I change my layout with refacing?
Within limits: add a pull-out, convert doors to drawers, add a new matching cabinet for an open wall. Moving the sink or adding an island means new cabinets for those pieces, which is the hybrid approach.
How much does each cost?
Refacing runs $150–$350 per linear ft installed installed. New custom cabinets run $350–$900 per linear ft installed. Refacing usually lands at forty to sixty percent of replacement for the same kitchen.