Loose Joints and Re-Gluing
Face-frame seams, drawer front corners and five-piece door joints loosen as old glue dries out. We clean out the old glue, re-glue and clamp until it sets, then fill and caulk the seam.
Fix it first, then finish it
Cabinet Repair in Kitchener
Plenty of cabinets in Kitchener need a repair rather than a new kitchen: a sagging door, a hinge torn out of particleboard, a split stile or a sink base edge that swelled after a slow leak. Kitchener Elite Cabinet Painting & Refinishing fixes those problems on their own or as the first step of a paint job, so the finish goes onto solid, square cabinets.
In 16+ years and 1,700+ jobs we have repaired a few cabinets in almost every kitchen we painted. That experience also means we will tell you plainly when a part is past repair and paint will not save it.
Most minor repairs cost $40 to $150 per item, and because we are also the painters, the repaired spot is primed and finished so it blends in.
- Written fixed quote
- WSIB covered crew
- 1-year labour warranty
What we repair
Kitchen and Bathroom Cabinet Repair Services
Cabinet repair covers the structural and surface damage that makes a door hang crooked, a drawer front wobble or a panel look beaten up. We repair kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, laundry banks and built-ins, as a standalone visit or folded into a painting quote.
The repairs we do most often:
- Re-gluing loose door joints, drawer fronts and face-frame seams
- Rebuilding stripped hinge screw holes
- Gluing and clamping split stiles and rails on five-piece doors
- Cutting back and sealing swollen particleboard edges
- Filling chips, dents and gouges
- Adjusting or replacing sagging hinges
- Sanding back peeling or failed DIY paint
Vanities live with steam and splashes every day, so many of these repairs happen alongside our bathroom vanity painting service.
Common fixes
Cabinet Problems We Fix
Most cabinet damage falls into a handful of patterns, and each has a proper fix that outlasts a dab of glue or a longer screw.
Stripped Hinge Screw Holes
A screw that spins without biting has chewed out its hole, usually in particleboard. We drill out the damage, glue in a hardwood dowel and drill a fresh pilot hole, so the hinge screw holds like new.
Split Stiles and Rails
The vertical stiles of five-piece doors split along the grain near hinges and pulls. We work glue into the split, clamp it closed and fill any gap before priming.
Swollen Particleboard Edges
Particleboard edges that have puffed up from water are sanded or cut back to firm material, sealed and filled. If the board has gone soft and crumbly, it is replaced instead.
Chips, Dents and Gouges
Two-part wood filler rebuilds chipped corners and dented edges, sanded flush to the original profile. Primed and painted, the repair disappears.
Sagging Doors and Failed Paint
Sagging doors are rehung on adjusted hinges or new Blum soft-close hinges at $14 each. Peeling DIY paint is sanded back with 120 to 150 grit, or stripped where it lets go in sheets.
Know the limits
What Paint Will Not Fix
Paint will not fix water-swollen particleboard, mould, rot or a wrapped finish that is coming loose. Primer and topcoat can hide a dent, but they cannot make soft material hard or a lifting surface stick, so these parts are repaired or replaced before anything is painted.
These are the problems we always point out before quoting a paint job:
- Sink base floors and side panels swollen from a slow leak under the trap or dishwasher line
- Mould on the back or floor of a sink base, which needs cleaning and a fixed leak first
- Soft, rotted wood at the bottom of doors beside a dishwasher
- Thermofoil that is peeling, bubbling or heat-damaged beside an oven or toaster
- Melamine edge banding that is lifting off the panel
- Hairline cracks at the joints of five-piece doors that open and close with the seasons
Hairline joint cracks come from Waterloo Region's dry winter air, when indoor humidity can drop below 25% with the furnace running. A humidifier holding 35 to 50% keeps them closed, and because they are seasonal wood movement rather than a defect, our warranty does not cover them.
Decision guide
Repair, Refinish or Replace the Door?
Repair the door when the damage is local and the core is sound, refinish it when only the surface is worn, and replace it when the material itself has failed. Here is how we make that call for the damage we see most.
| Damage | Usual answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stripped hinge screw hole | Repair | A glued hardwood dowel restores full holding strength |
| Split stile or loose joint | Repair | Glue and clamping close it for good if the wood is sound |
| Chips, dents and old hardware holes | Repair, then refinish | Two-part filler is invisible under primer and paint |
| Worn, dull or sticky finish | Refinish | The door is sound; only the coating has failed |
| Swollen particleboard edge, still firm | Repair | Sanded back, sealed and filled before priming |
| Particleboard that is soft, crumbling or mouldy | Replace | Paint will not bond to or strengthen failed board |
| Peeling thermofoil | Replace the door | The foil keeps lifting under any paint put over it |
| A door style you dislike | Replace the door | Paint changes colour, not shape |
Sound doors with a tired finish suit our cabinet refinishing service. When doors need replacing, our cabinet refacing service fits new MDF doors painted to match your boxes.
Priced per repair
Cabinet Repair Pricing
Most minor cabinet repairs cost $40 to $150 per item before HST, quoted individually so you can see each fix on the quote. When the repair is part of a painting job, it is simply added to the painting price.
| Repair | Price before HST |
|---|---|
| Re-gluing a loose joint, swollen edge or split stile | Usually $40 to $150 per item |
| Blum soft-close hinge, supplied and installed | $14 per hinge |
| Filling old hardware holes or drilling new ones | $6 per hole |
| Respraying a repaired door, both sides | $110 to $150 |
| Minimum job | $650 |
Because of the $650 minimum, a standalone repair visit makes most sense when several fixes are grouped together or come before a full paint job. For the painting side of a quote, our cabinet painting pricing lists every per-piece rate.
Painters who repair
Why Homeowners Call Us for Repairs
A carpenter can fix a door and a painter can finish it, but when one crew does both, the repair blends in because nobody hands the job off halfway.
Repairs That Blend In
We prime and paint over our own repairs in any Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams colour, so the fixed spot disappears instead of standing out.
Booth Finish on Repaired Doors
Repaired doors go back to our shop and are sprayed with Renner 2K, the same finish as our cabinet door painting service.
Landlords and Home Sellers
We fix and refresh rental kitchens in Waterloo between student leases from May to August, and repair cabinets for sellers 2 to 3 weeks before listing photos.
Across the Region
We book repairs in Cambridge, Guelph and Elmira and St. Jacobs, with no travel charge inside Waterloo Region or Guelph.
Common questions
Cabinet Repair FAQs
Repair questions usually come down to two things: will it match, and will you take on cabinets someone else built or painted.
Can you match the colour on a single repaired door?
Usually, yes, if we know the colour and sheen. We can tint any Benjamin Moore or Sherwin-Williams colour, but an older finish may have yellowed or worn to a different sheen, so we sometimes respray both doors of a pair, or a whole run, for an even match.
Do you repair cabinets you didn't paint?
Yes. We repair factory-finished, DIY-painted and other painters' cabinets, and our warranty covers the work we do ourselves.
Can a swollen sink base be repaired?
If the particleboard is still firm, we sand it back, seal it and fill it. If it is soft or mouldy, the leak has to be fixed and the damaged panel replaced before any paint goes on.
Is it worth repairing old cabinets instead of replacing them?
Usually. Solid wood and plywood boxes in Kitchener's 1970s and 1980s kitchens are often sturdier than new budget cabinets, and repairs plus painting cost a fraction of the $20,000+ that new mid-range cabinets typically run installed.
Free repair quote
Book a Cabinet Repair
Send photos of each problem: a close-up of the damage and a wider shot of the whole cabinet. We will tell you what can be repaired, what needs replacing and what it costs, in a fixed written quote within 1 business day.
- Show any water damage under the sink in daylight
- Tell us if the cabinets will be painted afterwards
- Group several repairs into one visit
- Evening and Sunday estimates available
- Shop
- 330 Gage Ave, Kitchener, ON N2M 5C6
- Monday to Saturday
- 7:00 am to 9:30 pm
- Sunday
- 9:00 am to 9:00 pm