Spray Painting in South London

What Affects the Cost?

• •Number of doors, drawer fronts and carcasses being sprayed
• •Condition of the existing surface, from sound paint to raw MDF, laminate or melamine
• •Whether units are sprayed on site or removed to a booth
• •Two-pack lacquer versus a standard sprayed finish
• •Extra items sprayed in the same colour, such as banisters, radiators or built-in joinery
• •Access and the masking needed to seal off the room

Areas We Cover

Frequently Asked Questions

How durable is a sprayed kitchen finish?

A sprayed kitchen finished in two-pack lacquer is far harder than a brushed satinwood, which is the point of doing it this way. Two-pack is the same chemistry used on car bodywork and shop fittings. Two components cross-link as they cure into a dense, scratch-resistant film. On a kitchen used every day that holds up to fingernails, cleaning products and the wipe-downs around a hob and sink that wear ordinary paint thin within a year. The durability comes from the preparation as much as the lacquer. We degrease every door and carcass to lift the cooking grease that stops paint gripping, then key the surface so the primer bonds, then build the colour and lacquer in even coats. Skip the degrease and the finish peels at the handle edges first. Done properly it stays sound for years of normal kitchen use.

Can you spray over laminate, melamine and MDF kitchen units?

Yes, and each one takes a different primer, which is where most failed resprays go wrong. Laminate and melamine doors are smooth and non-porous, so paint has nothing to grip until we key the surface and lay down an adhesion primer made for those plastics. Raw or routed MDF drinks primer on the cut edges, so we seal it before the colour goes on or the finish sinks and looks patchy. Solid timber and veneered doors take a standard key and prime. At the site visit I check what your doors are actually made of, because a kitchen that looks like painted wood is often vinyl-wrapped MDF underneath, and that changes the primer. Get the primer right for the substrate and the sprayed finish bonds for the long term. Get it wrong and it chips off in sheets.

Do I have to leave the kitchen unusable while you spray it?

No. We work to keep the kitchen running. The doors and drawer fronts come off and get sprayed away from the worktops, often in a sealed area or a booth, so you keep use of the sink, hob and fridge through most of the job. The carcasses, the fixed boxes the doors hang on, are sprayed in place, so the room is masked and sealed off for dust while that happens, usually a day. We hang the finished doors back on once the lacquer has cured hard rather than rushing them back tacky, because a soft finish marks where the bumpers touch. Across a typical kitchen the whole respray runs about a week. I set the order out at the survey so you know which days the room is sealed and which days you have it back.

Is respraying my kitchen better than replacing the units?

If the carcasses are sound it usually is, because a respray keeps the kitchen you already laid out and changes only the look. The boxes, hinges and runners in most kitchens outlast the look of the doors by years. What dates a kitchen is the colour and the tired door fronts, not the structure behind them. Spraying gives a factory-flat finish a brush and roller cannot reach, so the result reads as a new fitted kitchen rather than a painted one, without the strip-out, the new worktops or the replumbing. It makes less sense when the carcasses are water-damaged, the hinges are failing or the layout does not work, because then you are spraying a kitchen you will want to rip out anyway. I will tell you which case you are in at the site visit rather than spray a kitchen that needs replacing.

Will the sprayed finish hold up around a period staircase that gets daily use?

It does, and on a busy staircase that is exactly where a sprayed coat earns its place. Handrails and spindles take constant hand contact and knocks from shoes and bags, so a brushed finish wears thin and shows brush lines as it goes. We mask the treads, walls and carpet, then spray the strings, spindles and handrail in even passes so the whole balustrade reads as a single even coat. On a period staircase with turned spindles the spray reaches into every profile a brush would skip or flood. The prep matters as much as on a kitchen. We key and prime the timber so the colour bonds, then build it up in thin coats and let each one cure before the next, so the finish stays hard where hands and feet meet it day after day.

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