RV Cabinet Repair, Refacing and Replacement in Yorba Linda

Three reasons, and none of them are about build quality. Weight, movement and fastening depth.

Weight forces manufacturers to use thin material. A residential upper cabinet uses three quarter inch sides and a half inch back. An RV upper commonly uses three eighths or half inch sides and a quarter inch or eighth inch back, sometimes stapled. That is a rational choice on a vehicle with a payload limit, but it produces a box with far less racking resistance, and the back panel is normally what resists racking in a cabinet.

Movement then loads that weaker box. A coach twists over driveway aprons and flexes at highway speed. A cabinet run screwed rigidly to a wall at both ends becomes a stress member spanning a flexing wall, and every cycle works the joints. Fastening depth is the third factor. The interior panel is often an eighth of an inch of vinyl faced lauan that holds nothing. A screw into that panel is a screw into nothing, and it will pull out.

• Thin carcass material with a stapled back has low racking resistance
• Cabinet runs fastened rigid at both ends become stress members in a flexing wall
• Screws into eighth inch interior panel pull out under road load
• Particleboard swells irreversibly at the first water contact
• Drawer slides rated for static residential load fail under road input
• Hidden hinges lose adjustment as the box racks and get blamed for the box

Repair when the boxes are sound and the problem is fastening, alignment, a broken hinge, a failed slide or localized water swelling in one component. This is the cheapest path and it covers a surprising share of what comes through the door. Typical repair work runs $500 to $2,000 at 4 to 10 hours.

Reface when the boxes are sound but the interior is dated. Refacing replaces doors and drawer fronts, applies new veneer or laminate to the exposed carcass faces and face frames, and updates hardware. It changes the entire look of a coach for a fraction of replacement cost and it adds almost no weight. Refacing typically runs $2,000 to $5,000 at 10 to 25 hours depending on door count.

Replace when the carcasses are racked beyond squaring, when particleboard has swelled, or when the layout itself is changing. Custom replacement is built in our shop in plywood with hardwood face frames, which is heavier per box than the factory item but lasts and holds fasteners. Replacement runs $3,000 to $7,500 at 20 to 35 hours for a typical galley and bath run.

Into framing, with allowance for movement. We locate the wall framing members before installation rather than trusting a factory screw pattern, because factory cabinets are frequently installed before the interior panel goes on and the original fasteners are not reachable or reusable.

A cabinet run is anchored solidly at one point and allowed to float at the far end through slotted brackets or oversized clearance holes. That single detail is why our boxes stay square through a decade of flex while a rigidly fastened run works itself apart. Uppers are additionally supported from the ceiling framing where the run is long, which takes the shear load off the wall attachment.

Backs are glued and screwed rather than stapled, because the back is the racking member. On a rebuild we add a plywood back even where the original had none, and the weight penalty is a few pounds per box against a cabinet that stays square.