Would you cut a Formica cabinet?

acemom

Mon, Feb 20 2023, 2:37 pm

We need to replace our kitchen refrigerator/freezer. We currently have a top freezer but would replace it with a bottom freezer.
Of all the units we looked at with the dimensions we have available, most are a little too tall. There is a large cabinet, that we use for storage, right above the area where the appliance would go.
The kitchen has Formica cabinets that are minium 25 years old, if that makes a difference.

Does it make sense to cut the cabinet?
Has anyone done so successfully?
Any recommendation for a handyman etc that does something like this, in Brooklyn?

zaq

Mon, Feb 20 2023, 3:03 pm

You need to know what's under the Formica. Formica is a synthetic laminate that may be covering solid wood, plywood or particle board. If it's particle board, fuhgeddaboudit, you may as well replace the whole gesheft because a. particle board is garbage, and 25-year-old particle-board-and-formica is perilously close to its end-of-service-life, especially if it's been in living in a warm spot like above a fridge. and b. once you cut particle board, the whole thing may disintegrate even if it's not that old. Also, if your contractor doesn't know what he's doing, he may break the laminate and you'll need to replace that, too. In any case he'll need to re-laminate the cut ends. Solid wood and plywood can be safely trimmed, but again, the laminate may not survive the surgery. The lowest shelf will obviously have to be raised. The cabinet doors may have to be replaced; for certain the lower hinges will have to be moved up even if you can keep the doors.

What? you say. So much $ to trim three inches off the bottom? What you need to understand is that the labor is the same whether they trim off an inch or a foot. Given the labor involved, and the risk of damage to the cabinet, you may be better off replacing the whole cabinet with a shorter one, or removing the cabinet entirely and foregoing the storage space.