cabinet refacer messed up my cabinets, what do I do?

I've put a lot of time and effort into my kitchen, but I was spent and out of time, so I decided to get an experience cabinet refacer to do my cabinets. It was a pretty straight forward job, "oak cabinets in good condition need experienced cabinet refacer to install new alder veneer." I would supply the veneer, the 3M-90 glue and the money. I found a cabinet refacer on Craigslist. He sounded experienced and confident in his abilities. Well now I'm stuck with a crappy job and I'm out $200. I noticed, as he was laying the veneer on the fronts, that he wasn't taking the time to sand the old surface. He would spray the glue on the cabinets then on the veneer and wait about 3 minutes before applying. The underside of the cabinets is terrible. The veneer is starting to bubble and pull away from the cabinet. I'm at a loss here. Do I have to yank all this out and start over or is any of this repairable? any other tips would be great

Public Comments

1. Did you have a contract with this person? You could take them to court to have them re-do the cabinets or for them to pay for the damages to be repaiered by someone else. Your best bet is to contact the BBB and ask for advice or call a lawyer. Some sites about veneer: http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Removing_Veneer_from_Backer.html http://members.aol.com/woodinfo1/removen.htm If you get to re-do it yourself: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_design_bathroom/article/0,,HGTV_3365_1382377,00.html
2. Never hire someone without a license. If that's the job he did he isn't going to do any better the second time around. So, go to small claims court to get your money back
3. Forget the other answers, BBB recommendation is nonsense from an old guy and small claims court cost you more in time than the $200 you would never be able to collect because the guy would never show and pay. So: 1) Sorry, but the veneer is going to have to be removed by someone. 2) No, not by the idiot that was clearly incompetent. 3) $200 was never gonna do it for this kind of job, $1000 probally woulda got it done right. You may be able to find someone to remove the veneer, then sand the faces, remove all the old glue and then properly resurface the face with new veneer. If you don't have enough veneer to redo, then I would spend the money on hiring a real cabinet face refinisher. Thier are millions of them out thier, based on the number of ads I get in the mailbox for this. Good Luck.
4. Two things I learned from past experience is to ask for names and phone numbers of former customers and photos of jobs he has done.Even if he is licensed. You should go to small claims court, but you must make documentation of how he did the job and have photos of all the crappy spots.You might want to wait a while as more places will show up. Then you have a lot of photos to show the Judge. Ask the Judge for more than $200.00 because you will have to pay someone extra to remove it and do it right. You might have to pay double. It would be good to have an actual estimate to have it re-done, to show the Judge.You might ask Friends, co-workers and Family for names of qualified refacer.Cabinet shops are good places to find a reliable refacer. Good Luck