Those Build-up Blues

LOCATION: Chester 

AGE: 20+

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 115 square feet 

WOOD FINISH: Knotty Pine 

TOTAL TIME: 8 hours

Sheila is not the original owner, so it is hard to know everything that has been done to these next cabinets, but the build-up was layered and stubborn. There was kitchen grease, wax from cleaners and nicotine all in the mix. Even after a couple of repetitions of the wet abrasion process, you can still see the gray residue indicating that is was not even close to clean yet.

Sheila was there watching the whole process and when she saw her cabinets looking like this, she started to wonder if she had made a terrible mistake. The crew kept working hard and they were going through record numbers of rags and 3M abrasion pads. After four or five repetitions, things were starting to look better and the residue had finally given way. It seemed as though everything was going to be fine, but...

there was another curve ball too. If you have an eagle eye, you can see that one of these cupboards is much darker than the others. The previous owners had apparently tried to refinish the far left cupboard themselves and had used a much darker stain than the other cabinets. It definitely did not match well with the other cupboards especially once they were all cleaned up.

With tired arms and cramping hands, the crew took a quick lunch break and then they were back at it. Kendall did a blending job with the mismatched cabinet to help it fit in with the others. Sheila stood by and coached the crew, pointing out areas that she wanted to have a little extra color. She started to get excited when she could see the progress.

When it was all finished the mismatched cabinet had blended in nicely, so that you could not tell there had been a problem.

The nasty build up from all of those years was gone.

And there was another smiling customer. Now we are scheduled to cabinets for her friend too!