Replacement kitchen doors in Teesside

A new kitchen face for a tenth of the price

Replacement doors are the entry-level version of a refurbishment: keep everything, change the doors and drawer fronts. A typical Teesside kitchen has twelve to twenty doors and fronts; made to measure in vinyl-wrapped, painted or gloss finishes, that runs £600 to £1,500 fitted, hinges and handles included, usually in one day. The transformation is disproportionate: visitors assume the kitchen was replaced.

What's involved

The survey measures every door and drawer front precisely, hinge positions included, and notes the carcass condition, because doors are only worth hanging on sound cabinets. Samples come to the house so colours are chosen in your light, not under showroom spots. The doors are made to order, two to three weeks typically, then fitted in a day: old fronts off, new hinges, new fronts, alignment, handles, done. Matching end panels, plinths and pelmets are the difference between 'new kitchen' and 'new doors on an old kitchen', and they're quoted on their own lines so the choice is yours.

Who it suits

Landlords across Middlesbrough, Stockton and Thornaby refreshing between tenancies. Sellers in Billingham and Redcar following the agent's 'modernise cheaply' advice. Owners of ten-to-fifteen-year-old kitchens in Ingleby Barwick and Wynyard whose foil doors are peeling but whose carcasses are perfectly sound. And anyone whose layout works but whose 2008 gloss-cream doors don't.

The honest limit

New doors do not fix a bad layout, failing carcasses or worktops that have swollen at the sink. Where the survey finds those, the quote says so and prices the right job, usually a full refurbishment rather than a rip-out.