Repairing Water Damage to a Cabinet

[Frosty]

Everyone:

I'm looking for a way to repair some water damage to the bottom of my cabinet.  A small flood a while back has caused the wood at the base to crack and expand.  It's not critical--the structural integrity of the cabinet has been repaired--but it's something that needs to be fixed.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks...

[brained]

That doesn't seem too bad, but here's the thing, most people use three methods to fix it:

1) saw that piece off and replace it with another piece of wood. It's pretty simple once you cut the damaged part just cut another one the same size glue it, screw it then paint it!! voila.

2) Get some low grit sand paper, about 40 grit, and get your sander, smooth them out and the refill with bondo. Sand it back and paint it!! pretty nice!! This is how I fixed my cab!!

3) Dump the cab get a new one!!

Hope this helps you out!.

[daywane]

option 2 is what I am doing

[clanggedin]

I'm doing option 2 also on a POW

[Lilwolf]

The other is just paint over it and put it in a room with shag carpet.  And hope nobody notices...  Thats what I did

[chablis97]

I'm in the process of renovating my second cabinet with water damage, both MDF based, which hates water.  I am continuing to try various things, but the first thing I have found is that there is no substitute to striping the cabinet down to the individual wooden panels before attemping the repairs, and then rebuilding the cabinet again when the damage is repaired.  Sounds brutal, but the results are worth it.  Trying to fix this type of problem with the cabinet in one piece compromises the standard of the result, in my experience (limited, I know).

I am then getting good success by painting watered down PVA glue (about 50%/50%) liberally onto the damages edges (it really gets sucked into the damaged areas easily) then immediately clamping the hell out of this damaged edge from both sides using two straight edges and a number of G-clamps.  See the attached picture.  I covered the wooden straight edges with aluminium foil, this stops them bonding to the damaged panel edges and causing more damage by having to force them apart!

Removing the clamps after 24hrs leaves a solid edge which can be sanded and worked with easily. 

Works for me . . .

[Frosty]

Thanks for the responses, boys...

If there's enough wood left for me to work with, I'll probably try the 'Bondo' solution at first, simply because taking her apart at this point is a long-shot at best.

[IG-88]

I'm in the process of renovating my second cabinet with water damage, both MDF based, which hates water.

[chablis97]

Standard white wood glue.  I'm Australian, maybe its called something else in the US?

[Dire Radiant]

IG-88: Elmer's carpenter's glue or similar.

[Stobe]

Sorry to dig up this old post, but were you able to fix your damage, Frosty?  Which way worked best for you?

Thanks,
Stobe

[Frosty]

Stobe:

I did actually, and it was a combination of a few things here.

[BUCKETHEAD]

BONDO

Use it all the time!