Can You Fix Warped Cabinet Doors? Here's What We Know

If your cabinet doors are warped, you probably have a lost cause on your hands. The internet may offer you many ideas for how to fix those warped doors, including laying a heavy object on top of them. However, Bob Beacham, House Digest's expert carpenter and remodeler, isn't buying it. "I'm afraid that's absolute nonsense," he says exclusively to House Digest about quick fixes for this problem. While there may be some DIY ways to fix your kitchen cabinets, simply throwing a sandbag on top of a warped door isn't one of them.

There may be some other methods you can try for bowed doors that involve more work, but there is no guarantee of success. If you've found yourself at the point where you have a truly warped door, the best option may simply be replacing it. The good news — if there is any in this scenario — is that warped cabinet doors are extremely unlikely, according to Beacham. As long as you take reasonably good care of your cabinets and don't "...chop vegetables with a chainsaw," Beacham jokes, your doors should be more than capable of standing up to normal conditions.

"Even in high humidity, a kitchen cabinet door is only going to be a problem if the surface has been damaged and moisture can get into the core," says Bob Beacham. Even this scenario mostly applies to cabinets that are not solid wood. "Most laminate/formica doors have a chipboard or MDF core...," Beacham says, exclusively to House Digest. If, he says, "...the door has swollen, and the fibers have pushed apart," there's no fix that can put your cabinet doors back the way they should be. In other words, this is a worst case scenario and it's time to think about replacing them. Now may be a good time to learn about the quality materials to look for when purchasing new kitchen cabinets.

Of course, we would not even be talking about how to fix a warped cabinet door if there was no chance of it happening. Perhaps you've had a leak or flood that impacted the cabinet doors. Or, sometimes, the door itself is the problem and there are no external factors acting on it at all. For instance, twisted rails or stiles could cause a door to warp. It's unlikely, but not impossible.

In the unlikely event that you end up with a warped cabinet door, and you want to put in a bit of extra effort before replacing it, you can certainly find options. These methods can range from quick fixes to lots of messing around in the shop with circular saws, but Bob Beacham warns these methods still may not work and could just cause other problems. One unhelpful method advocates for creating many small cuts in the door, making it easier to bend back into alignment. Not only have you put your time and effort into fixing the door, but "...now it's weak because you sawed nearly through it, and moisture can get in that will make the fibers swell, making the situation worse," says Beacham.

If you have solid wood cabinets, warping is still unlikely, but if it happens, Beacham says it could be worth taking them to a professional. Generally, wood cabinets are built to allow for expansion and contraction, which prevents warping, but if it happens, "...it would need to be disassembled, and any warped sections replaced with new wood," Beacham says, exclusively to House Digest. "Not a DIY task," he adds. So, if you find yourself with warped doors it's probably time to face the music and think about replacing them. This could be the perfect time to learn how to build your own cabinet doors, which could provide an economical way to give your cabinets a facelift.