# Painting over Melamine cabinets



## RP Mike

Got a call today from a couple who painted over top of some of their cabinets & cupboards a few years ago and it looks like crap. And from the sounds of it, they don't want the melamine any more.

I don't think they're looking to spend too much, so I'm wondering if grabbing a deglosser and sanding them down then priming them with a heavy duty oil primer would do the trick? Is sandblasting ideal? Or should I just try and persuade them on going with more melamine product


----------



## straight_lines

Replace the doors and drawer faces and remove the laminate from the boxes. Re-lamiate and paint.


----------



## stelzerpaintinginc.

I would pass on that job for sure. We don't have to paint em just cuz they called us for a bid. You'd be setting yourself up for failure IMO. 

Guaranteed they didn't prep the melamine properly before painting, so it's all gonna fail in the future. If they don't wanna spend the money to replace, then I'd politely decline. No fix, short of a complete strip, will suffice, and stripping could easily cost much more than replacing.


----------



## matt19422

Risk Vs Reward, 

Ever price out new cabinets with demo & installation?

It's very expensive, refinishing is 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost.....

When there not looking to spend much means "walk", Melamine means "walk fast", fixing a bad paint job on cabinets....."RUN"!


----------



## RP Mike

Thanks for the advice guys!

Suggested refacing them - I directed them to a good and affordable guy that I've worked for in the past to do them (and he's good for setting up a finder's fee or trading leads ). They informed me they'll be doing a whole interior on a house they're buying early next year and that they'll come to me when that time comes, so that's a positive!


----------



## PACman

I had a painter customer that painted 400 apartments worth of melamine very successfully once. Followed my spec, and ten years on the maintenance guy said they were fine. No peeling, no flaking off, no nothing.


----------



## PRC

PACman said:


> I had a painter customer that painted 400 apartments worth of melamine very successfully once. Followed my spec, and ten years on the maintenance guy said they were fine. No peeling, no flaking off, no nothing.


What did you spec?


----------



## Painter One

*Belated Comments, for what its worth--*

Hello-

Years ago, I was a bathtub refinisher. They use extroidinary two part primers which will stick to melamine if you clean it and sand it with 100 grit. Once I did this on a set which was not peeling and then used conventional primers on top of that then latex paint then a decorative glaze, a clear coat, then a all over the door stencil from Melanie Royals--seems the name was Gingko, and it held up without any dings or chips for the five more years that the customer lived there and then she sold the condo. But I think that some of the new super waterbased primers will do just as good of a job nowadays, especially if you clear coat.

Since then, I have run across several other doors which had thermofoil but many people will call this melamine. This stuff always comes off with some deft pulling with a tool and running a flat blade around the edges of the door. The backs are painted and once sanded and primed are good for paint. The MDF or OSB side generally does not have anything but a dried flat glue so you want to use a oil based primer on that first, then paint with a good waterbased paint like ProClassic. Since a coat of clear really helps here, you might want to ask them to tint only with the old tints because sometimes when you clearcoat a paint with the new tints, they will created funny little spots. Our regional brand uses the old tints but their paint is not as good as the ProClassic.

Sometimes you need a heat gun to get some thermofoil off, but try mechanical means first.


----------



## Wolfgang

RP Mike said:


> Got a call today from a couple who painted over top of some of their cabinets & cupboards a few years ago and it looks like crap. And from the sounds of it, they don't want the melamine any more.
> 
> I don't think they're looking to spend too much, so I'm wondering if grabbing a deglosser and sanding them down then priming them with a heavy duty oil primer would do the trick? Is sandblasting ideal? Or should I just try and persuade them on going with more melamine product


Sandblast in a house??? Even media blasting would be a mess. I've had brick and stone soda blasted. You're really looking at a mess and dust all over.


----------



## RP Mike

Wolfgang said:


> Sandblast in a house??? Even media blasting would be a mess. I've had brick and stone soda blasted. You're really looking at a mess and dust all over.


Er, the idea was to take the faces off and do them in my shop or theirs.

Either way, they opted to buy new cabinetry


----------

