refinishing a kitchen

[Shannon Brantley]

A little back ground: I'm a cabinet shop. I spray pre-cat lacquer with an air assisted airless. I use Milesi products. I'm not really set up to spray anything else.

Here's my predicament: I've got a customer that I'm doing a lot of work for through the rest of his house . He pays very well so I don't say no to him. He's insisting that I, not the contractor that's been dragging this job out, repaint his cabinets. I've talked him into letting me rebuild all of the doors and drawer fronts so it's just face frames and inside that concerns me. The old paint is super glossy and looks so be latex.

Here's my plan: I'm thinking sand and prep everything, spray a white pigmented shellac, (shellac sticks to everything and everything sticks to shellac, right?) and then the lacquer. Anyone see problems with this plan? Or have a better one?

[Frank Pratt]

Problem is that lacquer thinner will readily dissolve the resins in latex paint. I doubt even a heavy coat of shellac would keep the old paint safe. A quick rub with a lacquer thinner soak cloth will tell you if it's latex or oil base paint. It won't touch the oil base.

[Jim Becker]

I'm assuming you mean spraying in-situ. I would not personally use any kind of solvent based lacquer product "inside" someone's home, at least if they are living there, and even then it would be a somewhat dangerous proposition. Spraying or hand-applying waterborne would be the approach I would take for those cabinet carcasses. My chosen product for this is typically Sherwin Williams ProClassic, but folks are saying nice things about their Emerald Urethane, too. I've only used that on my front door to-date.

[Jamie Buxton]

The old doors and drawer fronts are going to be thrown out, right? So you have plenty of material to test what you’re going to do to the casework.

[John TenEyck]

I would use one of Milesi's waterborne products. They should be able to provide recommendations for primer and product once you tell them what you need to do. I know people spray solvent borne products on built in cabinets all the time but I'm never going to do it. There are plenty of good WB products these days. If you don't have experience with them now's a good chance to get some.

John

[Tom M King]

Please let us know what you end up doing, and how it goes.