Cabinet refacing vs replacing: real costs in Alberta

Your kitchen works, mostly. The doors look tired, a few hinges sag, and the colour belongs to another decade. You have three real options: refinish what you have, reface it with new doors and fronts, or replace the cabinets. The right choice depends less on taste and more on what is behind the doors.

Prices below are our 2026 ranges in CAD, installed, before GST. Alberta has no PST, so 5% GST is the only tax on top.

The three options, defined

Refinishing means cleaning, sanding, priming and spray-painting your existing doors and cabinet faces. The doors, the boxes and the layout stay. Only the colour and finish change. See cabinet painting and refinishing.

Refacing keeps the cabinet boxes but replaces everything you see: replacement kitchen cabinet doors, drawer fronts, end panels, toe kicks, often crown and light rails. On framed cabinets the face frames get a new skin. It is usually the moment to add new soft-close hinges and drawer runners too. See cabinet refacing.

Replacing means removing the cabinets and building new ones, which lets you change the layout, the heights and the storage inside. See custom kitchen cabinets.

Cabinet refacing cost vs refinishing and replacing

The percentage for refacing is relative to what new cabinets of the same size and finish would cost. For example, if new painted MDF cabinets for your kitchen would run about $17,500 before counters, refacing in painted MDF would typically land between $7,000 and $10,500.

Start with the boxes, not the doors

Refacing and refinishing only make sense if the boxes are worth keeping. Before you get attached to a door style, open every cabinet and check:

• The sink base. Look for swollen particleboard, soft spots, delamination and staining. A leak that went unnoticed for a year is the most common reason we recommend replacing instead of refacing.
• Hinge mounting points. If hinge screws have been re-driven so many times that the holes are stripped, the side panels are tired. Small repairs are fine. Widespread damage is not.
• Shelves. A permanent sag in shelves usually means thin board or long spans. New doors will not fix it.
• Square and level. Doors that never line up may be a box problem, not a hinge problem.
• Box material. Solid wood or plywood boxes in good shape are excellent candidates for refacing. So is well-made melamine board that has stayed dry.

If you are curious how board materials age, read MDF vs plywood vs particleboard.

Refacing vs refinishing cabinets: when paint is enough

• You like your door style and only hate the colour.
• The doors are solid wood or MDF. Painting thermofoil or glossy laminate is risky: the paint has nothing reliable to grip, and thermofoil can peel on its own over time.
• Your budget is under about $9,000 and the boxes are sound.
• You want the least disruption. Doors leave for spraying, the boxes stay, and you keep using the kitchen.

We explain primers, coatings and why we spray in best paint for kitchen cabinets.

When cabinet refacing is worth it

• The layout works and the boxes are dry and solid.
• You want a different door style, not just a colour. Raised panel oak to flat slab, for example.
• Your countertops are in good shape and you want to keep them. Refacing does not disturb the tops.
• You want new soft-close hardware. Old hinges and runners get replaced as part of the job.
• You want to convert a few door cabinets to drawers. That needs new drawer boxes inside the existing cabinet, which a good refacing job can include.

What refacing cannot do

Refacing does not move the sink, add an island, change cabinet depths or fix a layout where two people keep colliding. If the kitchen does not work, a new face only makes it look better while it keeps not working.

When replacing is worth the extra money

• Water damage in the sink base or under the dishwasher
• You want to change the layout, add an island or a tall pantry wall
• You are replacing the countertops anyway. Stone tops are expensive to remove and reinstall without damage, which erodes the savings of refacing.
• The boxes are too shallow or too low for modern appliances
• You plan to stay 10 years or more and want everything under one warranty. Our new cabinet boxes carry a 5-year warranty, hardware 10 years and installation 2 years.

A quick way to decide

1. Are the boxes dry, square and solid? If not, replace.
2. Does the layout work for how you cook? If not, replace.
3. Do you want a different door style? If yes, reface. If no, refinish.
4. Are you replacing the countertops? If yes, the gap between refacing and replacing narrows. Get both priced.

What to ask about cabinet door replacement in Edmonton

• Are the doors made in your own shop, or ordered from a door supplier? (Ours are cut and edge-banded in house in Edmonton.)
• Which hinges and drawer runners are included, and what brand?
• Are end panels, toe kicks, crown and fillers included, or extras?
• Who fixes damage found once the old doors are off?
• What warranty covers the new parts, and what covers the old boxes?

A clear quote answers all of these in writing. For our full price ranges see pricing. If you need help with one or two problem cabinets rather than the whole kitchen, look at cabinet repair or cabinet modifications.