Refacing keeps the cabinet carcasses and replaces everything visible: doors, drawer fronts, hinges, handles, and a matching veneer on the exposed face frames and end panels. Across Vancouver it costs $7,000 to $16,000 against $15,000 to $65,000 for new cabinetry.
The reason it suits this city specifically is the housing stock. A great many Vancouver kitchens — 1990s and 2000s houses, condo units of any age — have perfectly sound plywood or HDF carcasses in a layout that works, behind doors that are dated. That is exactly the case refacing is for.
Which Vancouver kitchens should be refaced?
Reface when the boxes are structurally sound, the layout works and the drawer configuration is acceptable. Replace when any box is swollen or sagging, when the layout needs to change, or when you want deep drawers where there are currently doors and shelves.
The test takes thirty seconds and you can do it before we arrive. Open the sink base and look at the bottom panel and the back. Push sideways on a cabinet and see whether it racks. Check whether any shelf is bowed.
If the particleboard under the sink has swollen anywhere, refacing puts $10,000 of new doors onto a structure that is failing. We will tell you that at the measure rather than taking the easier sale.
| Vancouver kitchen type | Reface or replace? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s–2000s house, plywood boxes | Reface | Boxes are sound; doors are the only dated element |
| Condo, builder-grade thermofoil doors | Reface | Boxes fine; thermofoil cannot be repainted |
| Pre-1960 house, original cabinetry | Usually replace | Boxes rarely sound; layout usually needs to change |
| Any kitchen with a swollen sink base | Replace | New doors on a failing carcass is money on a problem |
| Kitchen where you want drawers, not doors | Replace | Refacing cannot change the opening configuration |
| Frameless European boxes | Assess carefully | Very little frame to veneer; results vary |
Why refacing suits Vancouver condos particularly
Refacing generates almost no debris, needs no plumbing or electrical work, and takes days rather than weeks. In a condo that avoids the two hardest parts of a kitchen renovation: the freight lift booking for a full delivery, and disposing of an entire kitchen through a shared corridor.
In many buildings it also sits below the threshold that triggers a full strata alteration agreement — though you should always check, because some stratas require notification for any contractor work at all.
The practical difference is real. A full condo kitchen renovation is four to six weeks on site plus two to six weeks of approval. A refacing job is three to seven days with the sink and counters still working. See condo kitchen renovations.
A representative Vancouver refacing project
The pattern: a 1998 house on the East Side or a 2006 condo, 14 cabinets, plywood or HDF carcasses in good condition, honey-oak or cherry doors that date the kitchen instantly, worn hinges so several doors sit unevenly, and counters the client either likes or is replacing at the same time.
What gets done: new painted MDF shaker doors and drawer fronts, matching rigid laminate on the face frames and end panels, all new soft-close concealed hinges, new full-extension runners where the existing drawer boxes are worn, new hardware, and a half-day final pass adjusting every door and drawer to a consistent reveal.
Typical cost $9,500 to $14,000. Five days on site, after a two to three week door manufacturing lead. Most clients pair it with new quartz counters, which is the combination that changes a kitchen most for the money.
What separates good refacing from the cheap kind
- Frames degreased and sanded before anything is applied — kitchen grease defeats every adhesive and every finish
- Rigid laminate or real veneer, wrapped around the frame edge, not peel-and-stick film stopped at the edge
- Hinge cups freshly bored in the new doors rather than reusing worn positions
- New soft-close hinges throughout — old hinges are usually why doors sat unevenly
- Reveals set to within about a millimetre across the whole kitchen
- Interiors optionally relined at $600 to $1,500 where they are stained or dated