Any suggestions on how to replace the bottom of cabinets?

Question

In one of the bathrooms of my rental, the floor of the cabinet became wet and ultimately warped. The rest of the cabinet is in good shape, but I would like to just cut out and replace the floor section. Any advice on how to cut out the existing warped flooring and what material to replace it with?

Thank you for your experienced advice.

Steven

Thank you for your experienced advice.

Steven

Mindy Jensen · Answer

Is it just the bottom, like the inside bottom? Can you just put something over it like a piece of painted plywood, screwed into the original bottom?

Steven Anderson · Answer

@Jeff Gatesthat's what I think I will do. It's an older cabinet and it's not worth disassembling it. Thanks for all the advice.

JD Martin · Answer

It really depends on what part of the cabinet you are talking about. The toe kick - the panel you see in front - that is easy to just swap out and paint. If you are talking about the bottom of either of the sides, those are usually a single cut piece of MDF/OSB/Presswood, and once those have disintegrated from water it would be difficult to splice a replacement piece in at just the damaged area - but you could disassemble the cabinet, use the side panel as a template to cut a new panel from plywood, put it back together and paint it.

Jeff Gates · Answer

This is the best suggestion. One of my homes has this issue. The bottoms of the cabinets are part of the structure that holds it together. Removing them may be big trouble unless you are a experienced cabinet maker.

Frank S. · Answer

After the repair, consider providing adhesive tiles at the bottom of your bathroom sink cabinet and kitchen sink cabinet to avoid this. People pack those with tons of stuff and the p-traps come loose creating leaks.

Don't use a cabinet in the bathroom, use a pedestal sink instead and provide a wall hung cabinet above the toilet to avoid water damage.

Steven Anderson · Answer

@Mindy Jensenyes it's just the bottom. I thought about just adding a board on top but was concerned about appearance and reducing the clearance under the drawers above and plumbing.

Any suggestions on how to replace the bottom of cabinets?

Any suggestions on how to replace the bottom of cabinets?

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