Doors that will not line up
Nine out of ten misaligned doors are a hinge adjustment, not a broken cabinet. Modern frameless kitchens use concealed cup hinges that adjust three ways: side to side for the gap between doors, in and out for how the door sits against the box, and up and down at the mounting plate. A quarter turn on the right screw, worked along the run, brings a whole kitchen back into line. Older face-frame cabinets have less adjustment built in, so they sometimes need the mounting holes plugged and re-drilled instead.
The other common cause is a screw that no longer holds. Cabinet sides are often particleboard, and once a hinge plate has been overtightened the screw simply spins in a soft hole. Toothpicks and glue are a temporary trick that lasts a few months. The proper fix is to drill the hole out, glue in a hardwood dowel, let it set, then re-drill a fresh pilot so the screw bites into solid wood again.
Drawers that scrape, stick or drop
Drawer trouble is usually the slides. Older kitchens around Toronto still have epoxy-coated roller slides that wear a groove and start to sag; newer ones use ball-bearing side mounts or undermount slides hidden below the box. Each type has its own rules. Side mounts need a set clearance on each side of the drawer box, so a like-for-like swap is straightforward. Undermounts need the box built to suit them, with notches cut at the back, which means moving between the two systems changes the drawer box, not just the slide.
Boxes fail as well. Bottoms sag out of their grooves, corner joints open up, and screws pull out of the back of a drawer front until the front hangs loose. Re-gluing and clamping a box, refitting a bottom panel or fixing a front back on properly is quicker than ordering a replacement drawer that may not match the rest of the kitchen.
Knobs, pulls and getting the holes right
Changing handles looks like the easiest job in a kitchen and it is the one that goes wrong most, because every hole is permanent. I mark from a hardware jig so knobs sit the same distance from the edge on every door and pulls line up across a run of drawers. Each hole is drilled with a backer block clamped behind the face so the bit cannot blow out the inside of the door.
Two things are worth knowing before you buy. Pulls come in fixed hole spacings, so replacing existing pulls without new holes means matching the centre-to-centre measurement exactly. And going from a single knob to a two-hole pull leaves an old hole behind: on painted wood it can be filled and touched in, but on thermofoil or laminate doors it rarely disappears completely. I point that out before anything is drilled.
Cabinet repair jobs I get called for most
Kitchens, bathroom vanities, laundry rooms and built-in units across the Greater Toronto Area throw up the same short list.
- Realigning doors and evening out the gaps along a run
- Replacing broken hinges and adding clip-on soft-close dampers
- New drawer slides, including full-extension replacements
- Fitting knobs and pulls from a drilling template
- Repairing swollen toe kicks and water damaged sink bases
- Re-drilling shelf pin holes and stopping shelves from sagging
- Touching up chips, scratches and worn door edges
- Easing doors that rub after a cabinet has settled
What can be saved and what cannot
Most cabinets are worth repairing. Solid or plywood boxes with tired hardware come back to life with new hinges and slides, and the finish usually outlasts the moving parts. Particleboard that has been wet is different: it swells and never returns to shape, so a sink base floor that has gone soft gets cut out and replaced with plywood once the leak is dealt with. Thermofoil doors where the white film is lifting off the edges near the oven cannot be repaired invisibly and are better replaced.
Plumbing under the sink is often part of the story. Swapping a faucet, a supply line or a trap is straightforward and I can do it. If water is coming from inside the wall or the rough-in needs moving, that is a licensed plumber's job and I will tell you rather than guess. An honest answer about what is not worth fixing is worth as much as the repair itself.
