Advice on cabinet doors and shelving needed
Our new Eichler has all original cabinets. Yes, I plan to keep them.
I want to do two things
1. repaint all the sliders, which are currently a rather bilious blue,
2. have a carpenter build some shelving within some with none. Can you do rollouts? Drawers?
3. I'd also like to add a small storage unit.
How can we repaint? Oil or latex? I plan to do this painting myself. I'm OK if it requires spraying etc.
Any carpenter recommendations? We have a Greenmeadow Eichler in Palo Alto.
thanks
Sally (Please send recommendations directly to sallyha-at--pacbell-net)
My typing/spelling skills seem to have gone down the tubes today so please bear with me.
The only issue with repainting sliders is the thickness of the paintcoats already on the sliders themselves and in the grooves in which they slide. If there have been many coats over the years, you might repaint only to find they won't slide due to the paint buildup. So take a good look first. If you can't see any noticeable buildup, you might be OK to repaint but you will need to use a good primer (Zinsser 1-2-3) on the sliders first to reduce the number of color top coats needed.
As far as I know, no one was making replacements sliders on a commercial basis. However, renman recommended a cabinetmaker to me whose just installed newly constructed sliders for me. He has been excellent so far (skilled, professional, courteous, on time). I have one small item to follow up on with him and then I will forward his name to anyone interested.
He also made rollout shelves for me. They are well constructed but the standard installation (side tracks) loses a little more storage space than I'd like. I think I will discuss with him whether a bottomtrack design is possible--in case more Eichler owners want this done. BTW, he uses good quality maple plywood--not particleboard--which you can paint or stain.
Jake
