Kitchen cabinet paint problems

[DanAl]

The paint on our kitchen cabinets, which are mdf with a tulip wood centre panel, has begun to come away around the centre panels as the photos show.
The kitchen's only 9 months old, so firstly is this usual and secondly, what can we do to resolve theis, as it makes the cabinets look shoddy?
The paint on the cabinet which houses our built-in dishwasher has also begun to separate, as you can also see in the photos. We had been leaving the dishwasher open to ventilate, so that may have been the cause, but I'm not sure. We now always leave the door closed.
Is there anything we should do now to protect the paint or the cabinet in this area please?
Thanks for reading.

 

[KenGMac]

Did that kitchen come from "Tesco" or one of its suppliers??

Ken.

 

[Lower]

The paint on a hand made, hand painted kitchen is nowhere near as hard wearing as a mass produced b&q type kitchen.

Looks like you have a bit of shrinkage and general wear. Just touch it up or get the supplier back to do it for you.

 

[DanAl]

The paint on a hand made, hand painted kitchen is nowhere near as hard wearing as a mass produced b&q type kitchen.

Looks like you have a bit of shrinkage and general wear. Just touch it up or get the supplier back to do it for you.

Thanks Lower. It is a hand made kitchen, but the doors and panels were spray painted. Is this a relatively common occurrence in your opinion?

 

[DanAl]

Did that kitchen come from "Tesco" or one of its suppliers??

Ken.

Tesco do kitchens?

 

[Lower]

Thanks Lower. It is a hand made kitchen, but the doors and panels were spray painted. Is this a relatively common occurrence in your opinion?

Looks like the end panel and the doors have a bit of shrinkage and the panel next to the dishwasher has wear where the paint is very thin.

I can't comment on how common it is, but a hand made kitchen is always going to be at risk of shrinkage etc because its made by hand and not mass produced by machine where they've designed out as many possible faults as possible with the manufacturing process.

Spray painting gives a better finish than hand painting, but also means that the paint will be thinner. As the kitchen is less than a year old, i'd ask whoever made the kitchen for you to come back and touch it up. They might argue that the paint loss next to the dishwasher is wear and tear, but elsewhere its clearly shrinkage and if they take pride in their work i'm sure they will address it for you.

Make sure you get some paint to touch it up with in the future though. You will need it.

 

[opps]

I have sprayed a number of kitchen cabinets. Frankly I am not impressed by the quality of work but I appreciate that the quality of finish should be a function of the cost.

Image 1, you can see a dent in the lower rail of the upper panel.

Image 2, on the style where it meets the inner panel you can see a lump. That makes me think it was there before the inner panel started moving. I can also see a gap where the styles and rails meet.

Image 3- it is not the fault of the person that sprayed the units the the inner panel has moved but to date I cannot recall seeing that happen in a kitchen.

Image 4- I have seen the steam from diswashers cause problems but the way you describe it almost makes it sound like the paint is de-laminating, which I don't quite understand. I suspect that they might have used regular MDF and not moisture resistant MDF, and that the surface is blowing/swelling.

I can't be sure from the quality of the images but I think they have used a waterbased paint. WB paints are far less durable than the 2 pack paints (aka 2K, aka Acid-Cat). WB paints however are much safer for the sprayer to work with.

Removing doors and respraying them is fairly trivial. End panels will be more difficult. The panel cracks can be filled with a MS polymer but it will be difficult to do so without a visible rounding off and although they are far more flexible than regular caulk there is no guarantee that it wont split in time.

If it were my kitchen, I would be pointing the proverbial finger at the cabinet maker rather than the painters.

Sorry, I haven't been of much help but I want you to be aware that restoring it to the finish that you had on day one will not be cheap.

Best of luck.

 

[DanAl]

I have sprayed a number of kitchen cabinets. Frankly I am not impressed by the quality of work but I appreciate that the quality of finish should be a function of the cost.

Image 1, you can see a dent in the lower rail of the upper panel.

Image 2, on the style where it meets the inner panel you can see a lump. That makes me think it was there before the inner panel started moving. I can also see a gap where the styles and rails meet.

Image 3- it is not the fault of the person that sprayed the units the the inner panel has moved but to date I cannot recall seeing that happen in a kitchen.

Image 4- I have seen the steam from diswashers cause problems but the way you describe it almost makes it sound like the paint is de-laminating, which I don't quite understand. I suspect that they might have used regular MDF and not moisture resistant MDF, and that the surface is blowing/swelling.

I can't be sure from the quality of the images but I think they have used a waterbased paint. WB paints are far less durable than the 2 pack paints (aka 2K, aka Acid-Cat). WB paints however are much safer for the sprayer to work with.

Removing doors and respraying them is fairly trivial. End panels will be more difficult. The panel cracks can be filled with a MS polymer but it will be difficult to do so without a visible rounding off and although they are far more flexible than regular caulk there is no guarantee that it wont split in time.

If it were my kitchen, I would be pointing the proverbial finger at the cabinet maker rather than the painters.

Sorry, I haven't been of much help but I want you to be aware that restoring it to the finish that you had on day one will not be cheap.

Best of luck.

Thanks opps, I appreciate your advice.