Fixing a prefab bathroom cabinet with water damage

[Keith Downing]

I've got a prefab bathroom cabinet and drawer front that are made of an mdf type material, painted white. Managed to allow it get it soaked with water recently and now a portion of the mdf blew up from the moisture and cracked the paint.

My question is, will sanding it down and repainting work as a fix? Or is the "wood" just going to come apart if I start sanding down the paint?

[Robert Engel]

You can try but I would replace it. My experience is once the fibers come apart the integrity of the material is compromised.

BTW, MDF cabinets are not appropriate for bathrooms.

[Tom Ewell]

You can 'try' to stabilize the stuff by squeezing a glue (pva, TBIII, epoxy, etc) or appropriate two part filler into the damaged area before sanding then prime/paint after full cure.
This assumes that the repaired area is not a particularly structural portion of the cabinet.

Not the best solution but a quick fix until future replacement.

[Keith Downing]

You can try but I would replace it. My experience is once the fibers come apart the integrity of the material is compromised.

BTW, MDF cabinets are not appropriate for bathrooms.

This is what I'm afraid of. Making it worse.

I'm just not sure I'll be able to find anywhere that carries replacements. Seems near impossible to track down a random prefabricated cabinet door and drawer these days with all the options. And I could of course build my own, but that would mean potentially replacing 10 so they all matched.

Ugh..seems like I may be screwed either way.