Cabinet Refacing is the Eco-Friendly approach to Kitchen Remodeling

   Because cabinet refacing recycles your existing cabinets, it is recognized as a wonderful green remodeling option for those who are environmentally conscious.

   More than 90% of homeowners plan to keep the layout of their kitchen basically the same. If your existing kitchen is well-designed, well-built and functional, there is really no reason to tear your cabinets out, send them to a landfill and replace them with new cabinets. If you are looking for an eco-friendly alternative to remodeling your kitchen, cabinet refacing uses less resources and less goes to the landfill. Refacing is a "green" alternative.

                                            

                                                                                       Concerned about the environment?

   At Custom Cabinet Refacing, you can have the new kitchen you want and honor your commitment to choosing environmentally conscious products and services. With our refacing process, we take inventory of your kitchen's current design and amenities, discuss your remodeling needs and ideas, and make recommendations on ways to enhance your kitchen. Then, instead of demolishing all of your kitchen cabinets just to replace them later, we utilize your existing kitchen layout and cabinets as a resource upon which to create your vision. We renew every surface, replace cabinet doors and hardware, and add all the extras you want (such as additional cabinets, new drawer boxes, roll-out shelves, under-cabinet lighting, even a pantry) for a brand-new kitchen. When your project is completed, your old cabinet doors and drawer fronts are recycled, and you've done your part to minimize waste by choosing to reface.

                                                                            

                                                                                            Reface or Replace?

   Installing new cabinets is not the greenest option. Suppose you have whitewashed oak kitchen cabinets circa 1985. You want to completely transform your kitchen, and you have your heart set on cherry cabinetry, in a shaker door style, with large stainless steel bar handles. Imagine making this happen without adding a single piece of particleboard or plywood to the local landfill. Now imagine doing it without introducing any new urea- or formaldehyde-based materials into the home. You might think this is the latest, greatest development in green building, but it's actually a process that has been around for a while. It's called cabinet refacing.

The words "cabinet refacing" can conjure up images of plastic laminates and faux wood-grain thermofoil doors in some people's minds, but today's quality refacing companies offer a selection of woods and finishes to rival any high-end cabinet shop. Our company most often uses cherry or maple in refacing projects. Face frames and end panels are covered with real wood plywood or veneer. Drawers can be replaced with solid hardwood dovetailed boxes on full-extension slides (or doweled drawer boxes made of Baltic Birch plywood for those on a budget), and cabinet doors are hung with hidden Euro-style hinges. Details such as crown, base and trim molding, roll-out shelves and new handles or knobs complete the transformation.

                                          

                                                                                            Indoor Air Quality
By using existing cabinet boxes, rather than discarding them, we avoid adding a few hundred pounds of particleboard or plywood to the waste stream. Probably the most important environmental benefit of cabinet refacing, however, has to do with indoor air quality. The off-gassing of urea-formaldehyde resins found in plywood and particleboard cabinetry is a serious issue in our business. People with chemical sensitivities can experience respiratory problems and nausea in the presence of formaldehyde gas.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as quoted on www.kbbgreen.com, "In homes, the most significant sources of formaldehyde are likely to be pressed-wood products made using adhesives that contain urea-formaldehyde resins. Pressed-wood products made for indoor use include: particleboard (used as sub-flooring and shelving and in cabinetry and furniture); hardwood plywood paneling (used for decorative wall covering and used in cabinets and furniture); and MDF (used for drawer fronts, cabinets and furniture tops)." The release of formaldehyde tends to occur more rapidly at first but then decreases over time. It's probably safe to say that 15-year-old cabinet boxes are no longer emitting much, if any, formaldehyde. With this in mind, it doesn't seem to make much sense to discard the older, inert boxes and replace them with new boxes constructed of fresh, urea-formaldehyde-based adhesive.

Refacing doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Much of our work involves building a custom piece or two to improve the functionality of the kitchen prior to refacing. For example, many of our clients want to get rid of the trash compactor in the kitchen—you know, the one that's usually used as a recycled plastic bag holder. We'll often build a small base unit to replace the trash compactor, for more storage space, or add a pull-out trash bin in its place before we reface.

   If the ultimate goals of green design and building are to reduce the amount of material that ends up in the waste stream and use products that are made of sustainable materials and avoid introducing harmful chemicals into the indoor environment, then cabinet refacing, with solid wood, may very well be the latest and greatest development in green building!!!

   All of our composite wood products are in compliance with the Airborne Toxic Control Measure (ATCM) approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regarding formaldehyde emissions.

For more information on the dangers and regulation of formaldehyde emissions visit:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/compwood/compwood.htm

                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                        "Greener" Refacing Options

  Although, cabinet refacing is already considered the "green" approach to remodeling your kitchen, you can go even greener by considering the following options in your new cabinet refacing design:

 Water-Based Finishes

    We are proud to offer Decorative-Specialties' Pure Colors water-based finishes. With Pure Colors we challenge everything you’ve ever believed about environmentally friendly finishes by protecting indoor air quality without compromising the beauty and quality of the finished look. Unlike nearly all other coatings available in the market, Pure Colors emits little to no Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The impact of VOCs can range from strong unpleasant odors, eye, nose, and throat irritation, and headaches to increased allergy and asthma problems. Children are particularly susceptible because their higher intake percentage of indoor air pollutants compared to their total body mass. The available wood species we offer with water-based finishes are Alder, Cherry, Maple, Poplar, Red Oak and European Steamed Beech.

  FSC Certified Wood (Forest Stewardship Council)

   We are now offering wood products certified under the standards established by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) which ensures wood materials are responsibly harvested and tracked through the entire supply chain from forest to final installation. By purchasing products bearing the FSC certified label you are supporting the growth of responsible forest management worldwide. Decore-ative Specialties has been evaluated and approved by Scientific Certification Systems as an FSC Chain of Custody supplier. The available FSC certified wood species we offer are Natural Alder, Natural Maple, Natural Cherry, Budget Red Oak and NAUF MDF. The FSC claim and necessary documentation, for your order, will be supplied with your order's invoices and packing slips.

 NAUF Wood (No Added Urea-Formaldehyde)

   We also offer NAUF wood for customers desiring products that do not have formaldehyde added during the manufacturing process, instead using alternative forms of glue. Using NAUF MDF is a great option for painted refacing projects.

 

 LEED (Leadership In Energy and Environment Design)

   Projects seeking certification under the U.S. Green Build Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) program can contribute to the Material & Resources or Environmentally Preferable Products category by refacing your cabinets with FSC certified products as a Rapidly Renewable Resource. You can contribute to the Indoor Environment Quality category by using NAUF products. Currently FSC is the only forestry management system that is recognized by the USGBC’s LEED building certification program.  FSC material can help contribute to the Material & Resources credit 7 (MRc7) for certified wood if at least 50% of the total cost of the wood based materials for the building project are FSC certified.  Since cabinetry is a high percentage of the wood based product cost for a building, using FSC certified cabinet components is a great way to contribute to the MRc7 category.

     

 MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard)

   Made of approximately 90% wood fibers and 10% resin to hold it all together, MDF maximizes the use of our forest resources by utilizing the residual wood element of forests not used in producing lumber, that could have otherwise ended up in landfills. Our MDF and NAUF MDF products are offered bare for painting or wrapped with RTF as part of our Deco-Form/thermofoil refacing program. MDF is a great material for painting due to its smooth surface and resistance to warping.

 

 Veneered Doors

   Veneer is cut from a log into sheets in varying thickness down to as thin as 1/40” thick. Installing veneered doors, accompanied with an environmentally friendly MDF or NAUF MDF core, allows you to get the solid wood "look" you want while minimizing your impact on the environment.

 

 Natural Wood Grades

   Products built with Natural Grade material allow us to use wood that may include a greater percentage of natural characteristics common within that wood species, such as heartwood and sap (light & dark wood). WalzCraft uses Formaldehyde-Free glue in the construction of center panels for hardwood cabinet doors. We recommend Select Grade material when using natural to light stain colors.

 

 Rustic Grades

   Products built with Rustic Grade material call for the use of knots and burs, which are natural characteristics found in every hardwood. In most residential and commercial applications, knots are considered a defect, meaning knotty material is wasted and subsequently more material is required for the application.

 

 Paint Grade

   Paint Grade materials provide the stability of wood but maximize the lumber usage by not sorting for color or grain. Paint Grade options are also available with a MDF center panel.

 

                                                                                        

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Above Project Location:
San Francisco, CA

Project Details:
-Reface cabinets with wood species: Natural Hard Maple, finish color: Dark Honey and door style: Unity/S100

    

            
 

Above Project Location:

Old Princeton Landing Bar, El Granada, CA

Project Details:

Two of my friends bought this bar, and they called me last minute to see what I could do with their disgusting dive bar countertops before their grand re-opening a week later. They were on a tight budget and could not afford to replace the bar. I removed 3 old layers of stinky formica and refaced the bar with new black formica in less that a week. Part of the bar was rebuilt to give it an "L" shape.