# Cabinet Repair, Refacing and Replacement: Cost, Hours and Process in Hacienda Heights RV cabinet work covers three different jobs that owners tend to call one thing: repairing a failed box or hinge, refacing doors and end panels over sound boxes, and replacing the cabinet entirely. Which one applies depends on whether the box is still square and still fastened into framing, not on how the doors look. ## Specifications - Price band: $500 to $7,500 - Shop hours: 4 to 35 hours - Turnaround tier: Moderate body - Insurance billable: yes - Parts lead time: Hardware and laminate in stock, door and drawer fronts 10 to 20 business days, matched factory doors frequently discontinued - OEM brands: Lippert, Wilsonart, Blum, Dometic, Villa ## Why RV cabinets fail where house cabinets do not A residential cabinet is a static box in a static wall. An RV cabinet is a lightweight box, often quarter inch or three eighths ply on a stapled frame, hanging off a wall that flexes, carrying a load that shifts every time the coach turns. The failure is almost never the finish. It is the fastening. The most common single failure we see is a hinge screw that has crushed its way out of a thin stile. Once that happens the door hangs low, the latch no longer lines up, the door works loose over road inputs, and the leverage tears the stile further. Correcting it properly means reinforcing the stile with a hardwood backer and relocating the hinge, not driving a longer screw into the same crushed hole. The second is a box that was fastened into the wall panel rather than into framing behind it. That holds until the first heavy load and then pulls. We locate framing, add a cleat where the framing does not line up, and hang the box off structure. ## Repair, reface or replace, and how we decide Repair applies when the box is square, dry and fastened into structure and the problem is hardware, a joint or a localized crush. That is the fastest and cheapest outcome and it is where most cabinet complaints land. Refacing applies when the boxes are sound but the coach looks dated. New door and drawer fronts, new end panels, new hardware and a matched laminate or finish over the exposed face frames changes the entire look of an interior for a fraction of replacement, and it does it without adding meaningful weight. For an owner whose only complaint is that the interior reads like 2009, refacing is usually the honest recommendation. Replacement applies when the box is out of square, water damaged, or when the layout is changing. It is also the answer when you want a deeper counter, a different appliance opening or drawers where shelves were, because none of those fit inside the original box. - Repair: hardware, hinge relocation, stile reinforcement, joint rework - Reface: new fronts, end panels, hardware and matched laminate over sound boxes - Replace: new boxes built to the opening and hung off located framing - Rebuild for function: drawers in place of shelves, deeper base for a new counter ## Matching a factory finish, and when to stop trying Coach builders change interior decor packages annually and rarely stock doors more than a few years out. If your coach is older than roughly six years, assume the exact factory door is gone. That leaves three options and we will tell you which is realistic for your specific interior. The first is a close match on the doors you are replacing, which almost always reads as a mismatch in daylight because the surrounding faces have aged. The second is refacing everything in one room so the room is internally consistent, with the adjacent rooms left alone. The third is refacing the whole coach, which costs more up front and is the only approach that produces a result nobody notices. We show samples against your actual interior under shop light and daylight before anything is ordered, because a laminate chip on a counter in an office tells you almost nothing about how it will read next to twelve year old thermofoil. ## Not included - We do not perform cabinet work at a customer location. Refacing needs a bench and a controlled finish area. - A cabinet pulling out of a wet wall is a structural repair first. We do not refasten into soft substrate. ## Questions **Can my RV cabinet doors be refaced instead of replaced?** If the boxes are square, dry and fastened into framing, yes, and it is usually the better value. New fronts, end panels and hardware over sound boxes changes how an interior reads without adding meaningful weight and without disturbing plumbing or wiring routed through the cabinet runs. We check the boxes first, because refacing a failing box just hides the failure. **Why do my overhead cabinet doors keep falling open on the road?** Almost always because the hinge screws have crushed out of thin stiles and the door now sits low enough that the latch cannot engage. Driving a longer screw into the same hole buys a few hundred miles. The correct repair reinforces the stile with a hardwood backer, relocates the hinge into solid material and resets the strike so the latch actually catches. **Can you match my existing cabinet finish exactly?** On a coach under about six years old, sometimes. Older than that, assume the factory door is discontinued and plan around it. We show samples against your real interior in both shop light and daylight, and we will tell you honestly when a close match will read as a mismatch and refacing one full room is the better outcome. **Is cabinet damage from a water leak covered by insurance?** It depends on cause. A sudden event, such as a supply line letting go or storm damage that opened the envelope, is often covered. Long term seal failure and slow intrusion are normally treated as maintenance and are not. We photograph and document moisture readings so the distinction is legible to an adjuster rather than left to interpretation. --- Source: https://ocrv.club/rv-remodel/cabinet-repair-refacing-and-replacement OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887 Phone (949) 799-3387. Email info@ocrvcenter.com. Serving Hacienda Heights and the surrounding area. 18.4 miles, 24 to 38 minutes via SR-60 west to Fullerton Rd, then south to La Palma Ave. In shop work only. All estimates are priced and credited against an authorized repair.