our process - so much more than just paint
Painting is just the final step to successfully refinish your cabinets.
cleaning
What you can’t see can hurt you!
Lurking on the surface of your cabinets is years of cooking grease, dirt and oils that will prevent any primer from properly adhering to the surface. We use an industrial strength cleaner and thoroughly scrub then rinse all surfaces.”
SANDING
No Grit, No Glory
Sanding serves two critical functions; it provides better adhesion to the surface and ensures the smoothest possible finish. That’s why we always sand first and then between each and every coat of primer and finish paint.”
PRIMING
You Cannot Build a House Without a Proper Foundation
When painting over woods like oak and maple, it’s not enough for your primer to have strong adhesion. adhesion is critical. But, wood has natural oils, called tannins, that will be drawn up to the surface and penetrate each layer of paint, creating a blotchy, speckled mess unless they are properly sealed. This primer will keep those tannins buried in the wood, just where we want them.
As for cabinets with a solid lacquer or therma-foil finish, we use just the right primer for them too.
FILLING GAPS & HOLES
Just Say No to Cracks
When stained and varnished, the seams between panels of wood on the doors and the cabinets themselves are barely noticeable. Once the primer goes on however, every gap, crack or hole sticks out like a sore thumb. We fill all of these with expandable caulking and putty so that each door looks like one solid panel. A professional and quality expandable sealant is necessary because wood will swell and contract with changes in humidity and most caulking will crack when this occurs.
PAINTING
A True Cabinet Coating
Where most refinishing projects fail isn’t just due to improper prep work, but also in the final coatings used to clad the surface. So long as the doors have been sprayed, refinishing may have that professional quality look, however, if they’ve been done with a latex or acrylic paint, that surface simply won’t hold up over time. That’s why at Pearl Cabinets we use waterborne lacquers. These lacquers are a true cabinet coating (identical to those used on new cabinets) which won’t just look spectacular when finished, but also stand the test of time. And unlike solvent based lacquers, ours won’t yellow in years to come.
