Cabinets · Service

Cabinet repair, and knowing what is worth repairing

Most cabinet faults are mechanical and cheap. A few are the visible end of something structural that repair will not reach. The useful skill is telling them apart before you spend anything.

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In short

What is cabinet repair?

Cabinet repair covers the mechanical and structural faults in cabinets you intend to keep: doors that will not sit straight, drawers that drag or drop, bowed shelves, screw holes that no longer hold, and boxes damaged by water. The decision underneath almost all of them is the same. If the carcase is sound, repair is nearly always right and usually small. If the carcase has failed, everything you fix is attached to something still failing.

Triggers

Signs you need cabinet repair

Doors hanging visibly out of line with their neighbours, or catching on the frame as they close
A drawer that drags, tips forward when opened, or has dropped its bottom panel
Hinge screws that spin freely and will no longer tighten
Veneer lifting at a door edge or a box corner near the dishwasher
Shelves that have taken a permanent bow under crockery or tinned food
A soft, swollen or crumbling cabinet floor under the sink, or a dark line along the base of the kick

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The job

How cabinet repair actually works

Separate a mechanism fault from a carcase fault

A door out of line is either a hinge needing adjustment, a hinge whose fixing has failed, or a box that has racked out of square. The three look identical from across the room and cost radically different amounts. The check is to open the door and look at where it is attached, not at the door.

Watch for: Repeated adjustment on a door that keeps drifting back. A door that will not hold its setting is reporting a fixing or a box problem.
Test the sink base and the dishwasher run before agreeing to anything else

These are the two places cabinets die, and the failure is slow and quiet. A floor that gives under hand pressure, a swollen front edge or a dark stain at the base of an end panel all mean water has been present long enough to matter.

Watch for: Repairing cosmetic damage while the leak is still live. A weeping supply or a failed sink seal is a plumber's job and comes first.
Rebuild failed fixings rather than moving them

Blown-out hinge and slide screw holes are the most common repair in an older kitchen. The competent fix restores material to the hole so a fastener has something to bite into. The lazy fix is a longer screw, which enlarges the failure.

Watch for: A repair that relocates the hardware. Once a hinge plate moves, the door's position moves with it, and the reveals across the whole run stop lining up.
Deal with drawers as a running-gear question

A dragging drawer is a runner problem, a levelling problem or a box that has racked. Old side-mounted and bare timber runners can often take modern slides, but the box width and the cabinet opening have to suit — which is where a repair becomes a new drawer box.

Watch for: A quote to convert to undermount slides with nobody having measured the boxes. Undermount hardware needs specific box dimensions and a groove or notch; on an old drawer that often means building it again.
Address shelves as a span-and-load problem

A bowed shelf is not defective; it is under-specified for the span. The durable answers are a thicker shelf, a stiffening front edge, a mid-span support, or less weight.

Watch for: Replacing a bowed shelf with an identical one. Same material, same span, same load, same result.

Money

What does cabinet repair cost?

Cabinet repair is normally charged as a call-out plus time, or per door and drawer, and small faults are worth batching into one visit. Water-damaged carcases and finish repairs are the two things that escalate a small job. The cabinets cost guide sets repair against refacing and replacement.

See the full cabinet repair cost guide — by material, size and region →

Straight answer

When cabinet repair is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

The carcase is swollen particleboard. Once the board has taken on water and lost thickness the fasteners have nothing to hold, and it does not recover on drying.
Every door and drawer in the kitchen has the same fault. Individual repairs are economic; twenty are not. A kitchen failing all at once has reached the end of its life together.
You already intend to reface or repaint within the year. Refacing brings new fronts and hinges with it, and repainting takes the doors off anyway. Repairing fronts about to be replaced is money spent twice.
The underlying leak has not been fixed. A cabinet damaged by a sink supply or a dishwasher seal will be damaged again on the same schedule. The plumbing is the repair; the cabinetry is the consequence.
What is actually wrong is the layout. Doors that collide, a dishwasher that fouls a corner cabinet, drawers that cannot open past an appliance — none are faults. They are design errors, and adjustment does not resolve them.

Your options

Types of cabinet repair

Repair or replace

The decision guide that puts a repair bill against the cost of starting again.

The faults themselves

Sagging shelves, broken hardware, water damage and damaged doors, diagnosed one at a time.

Box materials

Why plywood carcases survive a repair and particleboard ones frequently do not.

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Straight answer

Can I do this myself?

Before touching a cabinet that is wet, find out what made it wet. A live supply leak or a failed dishwasher seal is a plumbing job, and left running behind new work it destroys the repair and the cabinets next to it.

Reasonable to DIY

Adjusting European cup hinges to bring reveals back into line — every one has three adjustment screws and it takes a screwdriver and patience
Tightening or replacing loose knobs and pulls
Adding a mid-span support under a shelf that has begun to bow
Cleaning and lubricating gritty drawer runners
Replacing a like-for-like drawer runner where the fixing holes line up

Call a licensed pro

A wall cabinet that has moved or is pulling away — a fixing failure carrying a heavy load overhead
Any repair to a sink base where the board is soft, because the extent is always larger than what is visible
Rebuilding blown-out hinge fixings on a run where reveals have to stay aligned across several doors
Converting drawers to undermount slides, which frequently turns into new drawer boxes
Repairing a damaged finish invisibly — colour and sheen matching is a finisher's skill, not a handyman's

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for cabinet repair

Is this a handyman job, a cabinet maker's job or a finisher's job?

Three trades, three rates. Mechanism and fixings suit a fitter; new drawer boxes need a shop; invisible finish repair needs a finisher.
Have you checked the sink base and the dishwasher run?

The two places water damage hides. A quote produced without opening those doors has assessed the complaint, not the kitchen.
How will you restore the blown screw holes?

Distinguishes a durable repair from a longer screw. A specific method means they have done it before.
Can you match the existing finish on a repair, and will you show me on a hidden area first?

Colour and sheen matching on an aged finish is difficult. A trial inside a door costs nothing and prevents a visible patch on a front.
Is there a minimum call-out, and can several small faults be done in one visit?

Most cabinet repairs are short, and travel usually costs more than the work. Batching is the economics of the job.

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Local pros

Cabinet Repair near you

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Related work

Often done at the same time

Cabinet Door Replacement

When individual fronts are past saving

Cabinet Refinishing

Where the damage is to the finish rather than the structure

Cabinet Hardware Installation

Hinges, pulls and soft-close conversions

Cabinet Installation

When a run has reached the end of its life

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FAQ

Cabinet Repair — questions people ask

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Can water-damaged cabinets be repaired?

It depends on what the box is made of. Solid wood and good plywood can often be dried, cut back and repaired, because both retain their structure once the moisture leaves. Particleboard and MDF cannot: the board swells irreversibly and never regains the density a screw needs to hold. If a cabinet floor gives under hand pressure, the honest answer is usually to replace that cabinet — and to fix the leak first either way.

Why do my cabinet doors keep going out of alignment?

A properly adjusted hinge holds its setting for years, so a door that drifts back is telling you something else. The usual causes are a fixing that has lost its grip in the face frame or box side, a cabinet racked slightly out of square, or a warped door — most often solid timber beside a dishwasher or an oven. Adjusting it again treats the symptom.

Is it worth repairing cabinets or should I replace them?

The test is the carcase, not the doors. Sound boxes with individual mechanical faults are worth repairing almost every time, because the expensive structural part is still good. Boxes that are failing — swollen at the sink, fixings that will not hold, shelves bowed throughout — have reached the end, and repairs on them buy months. Where the boxes are sound but the kitchen looks tired, the comparison you want is against refacing and painting.

Who repairs kitchen cabinets?

There is no single trade. Adjustments, hardware and runner work are handyman or kitchen-fitter territory. New drawer boxes, replacement carcase parts and matching a moulding profile need a cabinet maker with a workshop. Invisible repair to a damaged finish is a finisher's skill and the one most often underestimated — a perfect structural repair with a visible colour patch reads as worse than the original damage.

Can sagging cabinet shelves be fixed permanently?

Yes, but not by replacing them like for like — the same board over the same span with the same load bows again on the same timescale. Permanent answers change one variable: a thicker shelf, a solid edge strip along the front, a mid-span support, or moving the heavy items down to a base cabinet. Adjustable shelves in wide cabinets are the usual victims, because they carry the load on four small pins.