EchoBlog

Q: Before I bought my 18-year-old townhouse, the previous owner apparently broke a kitchen drawer, disposed of the drawer box and just pasted the front of the drawer over the opening. That front face has now fallen off, and I’d love to replace the drawer using the existing front. How do I go about this? I don’t know how to get a drawer in the right size and how to attach the front face, which matches the cabinets. I tried calling a cabinet place, but I guess the job is too small and people who do smaller jobs say they don’t handle cabinets or drawers.

A: Quick-and-dirty home repairs sure come back to haunt someone, don’t they? Luckily, it should be fairly easy to find and install a new drawer. The biggest challenge might be removing the remnants of all that smeared glue.

To find a replacement drawer, first measure the height, width and depth of the opening. Subtract an inch from the width and height and at least half an inch from the depth to allow space for the drawer slides and easy fitting. Then, if you know someone who is handy with tools, get that person to make an open box for the drawer. Or you may be able to order one at a home center or lumberyard. There are also numerous online companies that make custom-size replacement drawers and allow you to order just one drawer. Cabinet Door World (cabinetdoorworld.com) has a particularly easy-to-use ordering system. There, a plywood drawer box 4 inches high, 18 inches wide and 20 inches deep is $34.59. Or, if you happen to find a drawer box at a store that sells used building materials, be aware that it's fine if the drawer is not as deep or as tall as your measurements, but the width is critical.

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You will also need to buy drawer slides matched to the depth of the drawer box. Home centers and lumberyards sell these. You don’t need anything fancy — the white, epoxy-coated type is fine. The bottom-mount style, which has a piece that wraps around the lower side edges of the drawer box, is easier to install than the side-mount type because it aligns the drawer box automatically. From the pictures you sent, it appears that the original drawer used the easier kind, so buy that. If it’s the right match, you might be able to reuse the parts attached to the cabinet box, saving you the hassle of removing those and then attaching replacement parts in the correct locations. But if the previous drawer had the other type of slides, just make the switch. Drawer slides are sold only in sets, so you will have all the parts you need.

Wait to attach the drawer front until you have installed the drawer box and know that it’s sliding in and out correctly. It’s tricky to align the drawer front correctly, so get some double-sided tape and use that to tack the pieces together. Take care to align the front so that gaps on the sides, top and bottom are even. Then screw through the drawer box from the inside, using at least two screws, to secure the drawer front to the drawer box.

And about that glue: It looks like construction adhesive, which is made in solvent-based and latex-based formulas. First use a sharp paint scraper to remove as much as you can. A scraper with a replaceable two-inch-wide carbide blade, such as the Bahco 650 Premium Ergonomic Carbide Scraper or Warner Manufacturing's 803 Carbide Scraper With Double-Edge Blade, works amazingly better than an inexpensive scraper with a built-in blade. Liquid Nails, a manufacturer of construction adhesives, suggests softening the adhesive so it's easier to scrape off. There are two methods: Heat the surface above 140 degrees with an electric heat gun or blow dryer, or coat the adhesive with petroleum jelly or mineral spirits for several hours to several days. But for your situation, both of these methods are likely to cause a mess, so you might just try scraping the adhesive as-is first.

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If you can get the surface smooth, white paint with primer first should be able to cover up what remains of the adhesive.

I own a solid birch kitchen dining table set that has held up over 15 years while I raised two kids. But the tabletop has taken a beating, and the finish in some areas is gone. The manufacturer’s website says the finish is “a catalyzed coating made of synthetic lacquers modified with nitrocellulose.” How do I find someone to refinish the table, and how much might it cost? I am open to a darker stain or the original honey-color stain.

Gaithersburg

Many people who restore or refinish furniture are set up to refinish tables, and they can usually match an existing stain or redo the table in a different color. However, you can save considerable money by having only the top refinished, and that would mean sticking with the existing color.

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Old-fashioned nitrocellulose lacquer was a finish that cured by having the solvent evaporate. This meant that if someone wanted to add another layer, they could just apply a fresh coat on top of the old and the solvent in the new layer would soften the underlying lacquer, allowing both layers to bond well. Catalyzed lacquer, though, cures because of a chemical process initiated by a catalyst that’s either mixed in at the factory (these finishes are called pre-catalyzed lacquers) or added minutes before the finish is sprayed (post-catalyzed lacquers). Catalyzed lacquer is more durable than old-fashioned lacquer, but new layers won’t meld with old ones; the old finish needs to be either removed or thoroughly scuffed up first to ensure a good mechanical bond.

Rebekka Hudson of Hudson Woodworking & Restoration in Chantilly (703-817-7741; hudsonwoodworking.com) and Bill Shotwell at Restorations Unlimited in Sterling (703-904-9575; virginiafurniturerefinishing.com) both recommended post-catalyzed lacquer as the most durable finish you can get on a dining room table. It's what both companies use.

Hudson said her company would need measurements to estimate a price. Shotwell said his shop’s prices start at $100 to $150 per foot of the table’s length (meaning $600 to $900 for a six-foot-long table) when the old finish just needs to be sanded and refinished. If the old finish needs to be removed, the price rises to $150 to $200 per linear foot, plus about $50 a linear foot if you want the wood stained. Shotwell said he works with a stain supplier who has a computerized stain-matching program that ensures a perfect match.

Schoenbauer Furniture Service in Charlotte Hall (800-955-7603; schoenbauer.com) lists prices on its website: $30 to $50 a square foot for a tabletop plus $150 to $300 if you want the base or legs refinished as well.

Have a problem in your home? Send questions to localliving@washpost.com . Put "How To" in the subject line, tell us where you live and try to include a photo.

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