Rediscover the beauty and integrity of your kitchen cabinets.
Getting back to normal after a disaster or accident can be difficult. Your local Furniture Medic technicians are here to help recover what might have been impacted by water of fire damage. Our experts can refresh and reimagine your kitchen cabinets, restoring their beauty for a fraction of the cost of complete replacement. We revitalize cabinets, bringing new life into your home that’ll last for years to come.
Furniture can be particularly vulnerable to fire and water damage. We often conduct on-site cabinet restorations covering everything from structural repair to wood color blending and refinishing. Keep reading to learn about the Furniture Medic process, steps you can take before our team arrives and how our network of technicians remedy water and fire damaged cabinets.
Cabinet Cleaning
First things first, the process to restore a fire-damaged cabinet starts with addressing any water or chemicals that might have been used to put out the fire. Time is of the essence. The only way to prevent mold growth is to dry the cabinets. Otherwise, mold can form rather quickly, sometimes in as little as 24 hours. If your kitchen has a window, open it to facilitate airflow. Consider using a dehumidifier to help reduce humidity levels and prevent any growth.
Cabinet fire restoration also requires cleaning oils, grit and grime from your cabinets. Furniture Medic technicians address smoke damage after finishing initial cleaning steps. Depending on the severity of damage and your cabinet material, special products and tools may be necessary. HEPA vacuums, for example, are specially designed to trap and remove very small particles other vacuums cannot. In the case of fire damage, this may be the most effective way to clean entire surfaces.
Cabinet Repair Evaluation
Your local cabinet restoration technician conducts an initial repair assessment in order to determine whether or not the cabinet is structurally sound. This step allows our cabinet technicians to evaluate what restoration steps may be necessary.
Furniture Medic technicians have experience dealing with water, heat and smoke damage. And we pay special attention to antique cabinets. Salvaging and giving new life to cabinets is one of our specialties.
Understanding your cabinet condition starts with the source of the damage. We may ask you if your cabinets got wet from a water leak or a burst pipe. If your cabinet experienced fire damage, we may inquire about how the fire started and inspect what areas have been damaged the most. We’ll also check the cabinet’s composition and finish type to guide our next steps.
Cabinet Restoration Process
Following cleaning and evaluation, we’ll discuss your repair options. Furniture Medic technicians can remove the smoke-damaged finish, complete repairs and restore color and finish to give them new life and save you from the sizable cost of complete replacement. We can match the stain color of damaged areas. We’ll make sure to find the correct color as stain color often changes and shifts slightly with age.
If structural damage is minimal, refacing the cabinets — replacing the damaged cabinet door and drawer fronts — can be a cost-effective option, too. Cabinet refacing may include applying a new veneer over existing cabinet surfaces and replacing hinges, handles and drawer fronts. We work directly with manufacturers and our vendor partners to provide any custom or standard cabinet option you may want for your home.
After focusing on cabinet and drawer fronts, we complete any structural restoration that might be necessary. Furniture Medic has extensive experience with insurance claims, coordinating with adjusters to get work started promptly and finished quickly. The individual assessment of your cabinets will inform most of our process, but in the case of water damage, we often disassemble and rebuild to match other non-damaged cabinets in your home. After cleaning fire damaged cabinets, we also deodorize, sand, stain and finish, if appropriate.
Cabinet Restoration Cost & Timeline
Furniture Medic technicians understand that restoring the original beauty of your home is high-priority. Before beginning any work, we’ll provide you with a cost estimate based on the unique elements of your project. This estimate covers factors including the number of cabinets, their style, the size of your kitchen, the species of wood, the type of finishing process and the structural condition of the cabinets.
Rest assured, Furniture Medic cost estimates are comprehensive and tailored to your cabinet restoration project. While the length of a repair or restoration also varies according to project type and size, technicians can generally clean, touch up and refurbish cabinets in one to two days. If you want to change the color of your cabinets, this can be accomplished in approximately three to five days. For cabinet structure restoration, or cabinet refacing, may take a few weeks to complete.
If you’d like a more detailed timeline, don’t hesitate to ask your local Furniture Medic technician. They’ll be able to provide an estimate based on their assessment and knowledge of your home’s cabinet restoration project. More often than not, cabinet restoration takes significantly less than the process of shopping for new cabinets. Complete removal and replacement of old cabinets can be a time-consuming process.
Environmental Advantages of Cabinet Restoration
Restoring water or fire damaged cabinets doesn’t just save time, money and memories—cabinet restoration can also be an environmentally responsible alternative to replacement. Waste is often reduced when technicians restore salvageable cabinet pieces. This, in turn, saves trees and results in lower emissions. Many Furniture Medic technicians even use water-based products to protect the environment.
It can be hard to plan the first steps after an accident. Whether it was caused by water or fire, it might seem like you have too much for one person to handle. Start by contacting Furniture Medic. We’re proud to have been helping families repair, restore and enhance their cabinets for many years. And we’ll be glad to get started as soon as you’re ready.
Find a Cabinet Restoration Expert Near You
Reach out to your local disaster restoration technician to find out if your cabinets can be saved by calling 1-800-RESPOND or find a Furniture Medic location near you.