Raising Cabinets - Part 2
Step #2- Preparing Doors for Paint!
Well this was definitely the step that was the most challenging. I had no idea that our cabinet doors had so much invisible grease on them! Our house was built in late 90's and I'm pretty sure these were the original cabinets. If so, then that means there was almost 20 years of grease built up on these doors that had to be removed before painting! Looking back, I should have tried using TSP to remove the grease as it may have worked better than what I chose, but in the end everything worked out just fine. Depending on how many doors you have will obviously determine how long this step will take (I had 19 doors). Either way, take the time needed to do this right and you will not regret it when it is all said and done!
See previous steps:
After building the boxes for the top (See previous post), I then moved on to removing all of the cabinet doors. (Yikes! - who knew we had all of that in our cabinets?)
After marking and removing all the doors I did a visible inspection of each door and began laying them out in a way I could remember where they go. I did the uppers and bottoms separately.
At this point I began the slow and tedious process of getting these doors ready for primer. I first thought sanding would be my first step, however there was a film of invisible grease build up that started "gumming up" as I sanded. So I moved on to trying to tackle this invisible grease.
I ended up using a little bit of this product and a small razor blade to scrape off the built up grease. Looking back I would have tried TSP as it may have saved me from having to use the razor blade.
After everything dried I did a light sanding and then sprayed and wiped down all the doors with this product to get it ready for primer. I had never used it before but I just followed the directions on the bottle and it worked just fine.
Well the tedious task was over! I was so thankful. After everything was dry and clean I was ready to move on to priming.