I started off in the kitchen remodeling business as a national cabinet refacing franchise in 1995. We were well trained in how to market the business. You say that cabinet refacing is half the cost of replacing, that it is less messy, and that it takes less time. All those assertions turned out to be false.
At first I believed it, but prospective customers started giving me their quotes for new cabinets for comparison. I wasn't that concerned because low grade particleboard cabinets are indeed cheap. I was using the best refacing materials available. It did make me suspicious, however.
After a couple of years in business, I became a Bishop Cabinets dealer. I wanted to be able to offer both refacing and new cabinets. As a thought exercise, I started pricing my refacing jobs as if they were complete remodels. To my surprise, I found that my cost of materials for refacing versus new cabinets was only about $800! I know that my customers would gladly pay $800 more to be able to change the layout of the kitchen or have interiors that looked as good as the refaced exteriors.
The second assertion is that cabinet refacing is less messy. This could not be further from the truth. It doesn't create a considerable mess just unscrewing countertops from base cabinets, nor unscrewing cabinets from the wall. My "tear-outs" are usually completed by noon of the first day, and there is a little dust and debris to sweep up, but it's pretty tidy overall. During the installation, all cutting on the table saw or miter saw is done outside. With the exception of drilling for the handles, there's virtually no sawdust.
With refacing, almost all sanding, cutting, and routering is done in the kitchen. When I got done routering all the edges and cabinet openings, I'd be covered in laminate or sawdust, the floors would be covered, the insides of the cabinets would be covered. It'd take me an hour of vacuuming to clean up the mess. I hated doing refacing!
The third assertion is the supposed time savings. I remember standing there in a customer's kitchen on my second full day of sanding getting the boxes ready for laminating, thinking to myself that I'd be halfway through installing new cabinets had my customer gone that route. Basically, a refacing job took me four or five days, and a complete remodel takes me four or five days (excluding the turn around for granite).
About the only time when refacing is a good option is when the customer updates their kitchen with a granite or quartz countertop, then later decides their cabinets are awful and need updating, too.
I used to tell my prospective customers that they had two options: 1) pay a granite company to remove and reinstall the granite after new cabinets are put in, or 2) go with cabinet refacing.
A few years ago, it finally dawned on me that I could leave the granite in place and replace the base cabinets one at a time. I'd collapse the old cabinet in on itself, trim a little off the bottom of the new cabinet, slide it into place, then jack it up using E-Z Levelers. I'd work my way around the kitchen removing and replacing one at at time until all the new base cabinets were set. I've completed three remodels this way. Now there's really no reason to buy cabinet refacing.
Which reminds me of this saying: You don't buy cabinet refacing; it is sold to you. That's not to say that refacing companies do not do a good job, but the product they're selling to you is way overpriced compared to the compromises you have to make.
Is cabinet refacing a scam? That's subjective, but I thought it was. That's why four years into being a Kitchen Solvers franchise, I cancelled the agreement and became a conventional kitchen remodeler: out with the old and in with the new. The last time I had a refacing quote that my customer got at my urging, there was only $1000 difference in cost. My kitchen remodel with plywood boxes, painted maple doors, all the bells and whistles, including granite was $11,000. The refacing quote, including granite, was $10,000. Now you can decide for yourself.
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