Wood You Believe It? The Secrets to Perfect Cabinet Refinishing

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Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Thanks for joining us today.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley, Good to see you again, my friend.

What's happening, brother?

Another day, another day.

And I'm excited for this one because you and I talk about kitchen and bath remodeling a lot just because I think naturally you and I did a lot of those things together.

But there's other options out there, and this is one that I've actually used before.

And I think it's something that is a solid option for you, whether it's cabinetry or wood floors or anything else.

Chris Simmons from Enhanced Brother.

Great to have you on around the House today.

Hey, thanks for having me, Eric.

Thanks.

Thanks, Sean.

It's been good to be here, man.

You guys have saved so many projects out there.

And I'll give you an example.

I had a homeowner one time, their cleaning lady grabbed one of the magic erasers and decided she was going to take all the scuffs off the painted cabinetry out there.

Homeowner wasn't home many times when this is happening.

And something had to be done besides replace the kitchen.

And you guys saved the day.

That's what we come in to do.

That's the.

That that's more aligned with.

Really what we do is it's a design component and it's a repair component.

It can really save you a lot time and grief.

And that's really what we really try to show people that.

What's the middle ground between having your kitchen destroyed and having your kitchen re.

Yeah, it's great because again, it's one of those things that, man, I tell you what, if you have a system like you guys that makes it really easy.

And it just ends up looking like garbage because they're not using the right paint, the right prep.

And these people are great at doing drywall, but sometimes doing a kitchen, I hate it.

It's a lot of work.

It is.

And we spend a lot of time just.

There's multiple steps to doing these things right and there's multiple applications I don't think most people really even spend a lot of time thinking about.

But it's like, what is the difference between putting a coat of paint on and trying to get it back to a factory finish look and feel in really durability.

And I think that's a component that most people don't realize with the painting thing.

And having been in this industry for a long time, me and my wife, we moved into a house and we did the new house.

Kitchen looked awesome, but we didn't like the old builder's grade cabinet you're talking about.

So we had a company come in and do the whole paint thing.

And it looked good for about six months.

And then after that, I was like, oh my God, what did we do?

We're going to have to remodel this or how are we going to take care of it?

Not only have been not only on this side helping people out, I've been on the other side as a consumer, and I've seen what happens when you just don't get the right application on the product.

And it's because cabinets are not, like you said, they're not drywall.

Well, the other thing is too, is that grabbing that latex paint, that stuff, even if you can get it to cure, it's still sticky, it's still soft.

The first time you bump an edge of a cabinet door or drawer, it just peels off like it's some kind of plastic coating over the top of your refrigerator.

When you take the blue plastic off, it doesn't hold up that often compared to.

And the other thing, it takes so long to cure.

So it's just like a dust magnet with all the dust.

That's.

Our houses are dirty, even with the best cleaning system in them.

And if you've been sanding and prepping and doing stuff, painter comes in there, man, it's not a paint booth.

It's still going to do it.

And you have such a long time to cure, it seems like it just grabs everything floating in the air for the next 24 hours.

Yeah, and that's a big.

That's a big danger.

And I think you just nailed it right away.

But we try to look at the process and say, okay, how can I get a fast curing option?

And how can I get a durability plus an elasticity that gives you that kind of ability not to crack and break and all that kind of stuff.

And we specifically use what we call the light speed process.

And it really is just.

There's an additive to the coating of the clear coat, and then it comes in with a UV lighting.

And really, the whole.

The whole thing that kind of got me really impressed by it was, is we literally could wrap up at Friday at 4 o'.

Clock.

You could have the entire family, friends and neighbors over to checking out your new kitchen, having a happy hour.

Kids could be banging into the cabinets and they're as good as they're ever going to be, and they're not going to get impacted.

No damage, no cracking, no peeling.

And all the other things that really, you can experience going through a recoding of your cabinets.

That is the finish that if you look at the big.

I'm not going to drop any names, but if you go out to the home center and look at the big national brands in your home center, they're using that same kind of UV process as the factory finish.

And so now you're getting something about as close as you're going to get to it coming off their assembly line.

That's really the kind of the goal.

Whenever we do, we have an entire research and development department.

All we work with is our product in different environmental conditions to try to get you to that factory finish.

That's our goal literally on everything we do.

Whether you just want a basic renewal, which is just taking you back to the initial color you have, or a complete color change, which we want it as you look into your new kitchen.

That's what we want you to feel like.

It's a new kitchen.

Yeah.

If I remember right, you guys also have some tinted clears, too.

Right.

So if you've got that natural maple kitchen that's turned yellow, you guys can throw in some tint in that and tone that back a little bit when you put a fresh finish on it.

Yeah, that's what.

Yeah, 100%, Eric.

And it's just really what is your standard of what you're looking for in your kitchen?

And you'll find there's a product out there and there's.

What we do is, you know, we're very proud of and we can do all those different things.

There's other options out there in the industry that.

That are in this professional segment and really highly recommend that you want that kitchen look.

You look for those segments first because what is your, what is your cabinet?

That person you're talking to should be able to take you back and say, here's what your cabinets experiencing.

Here's what the impact of the light and the heat and humidity has been on your cabinets.

And here's what we can take it to.

What do you want?

And they should be able to offer you the three or four different solutions that get you there.

And are you guys also dealing with the doors as well?

As far as the refacing side?

There's all those people with the 80s 90s kitchens out there that have these.

The white melamine front with the oak pool across the top.

Johnny, you're old enough to remember putting those in like I do, but I.

Don'T want to talk about it.

Yes.

And it's one of the shameful days when you look back style wise and go, that was not one of our best looking days.

It's tough to make melamine look good once it's not looking good.

Yeah.

And you know, the problem is if you're going to go back to the new kitchen look, even if we change the color or get the color back, it's still going to look like something from the 80s, 70s, wherever decade that you purchase them in, they can be reutilized.

I'm not saying they can't.

But you know, what we really do in that scenario for the majority of our customers is that we select the modern door style, modern door, hardware, hinges, handles, the whole works.

And we do those.

We do those in our shop and we'll just actually bring those and install those on your cabinet boxes, which are still in your kitchen.

And that way, a lot of the disruption that happens in the home when you're doing these types of projects, you just don't experience.

And you can go take that old cabinet box and make it pop and look brand new.

Well, Chris, I think that's one of the only ways to save that.

Because I tell you what, it always seems you buy that house, not a new house, but it's that one.

You're like, oh, this thing's awesome.

Guess what?

And now you're looking at it going, you mean I got to throw away $5,000 with the quartz countertops if I redo my kitchen and you're stuck in this thing of wow, that I love those countertops.

I bought the house because of these countertops and now I Got to throw them away.

And so that's about the only option you have to make that kitchen look better without just throwing the proverbial construction hand grenade in it and starting over.

Yeah, and I really hate to see that because that's.

You look at a lot of people who go into remodeling of their kitchen, and a lot of times it's not because they want to remodel.

It's just because the cabinets are a little outdated, the color's outdated, and they think that's their only option.

You get that new look and feel that they're looking for.

So you come in, you have the new countertops.

We're just going to remove all the doors, remove all the hardware.

We'll take those back to the shop.

We'll either refinish them or replace them.

The cabinet boxes, we can actually, we, we have worked over the last 20 years to develop an in home spray situation with a spray booth covering.

So to keep that, all of that done internally into the home.

Another big thing is like everybody who's doing this should be losing using the, the low voc, which is the odor aspect.

And so it shouldn't have an impact in your house while this is going on.

And then we should be able to get you all set, ready to roll.

You love those quartz countertops.

Let's keep them.

And we'll have you back up and running in two to five days, depending on how intricate you want.

Because there's all sorts of other stuff you could do.

You cabinet organizing, you get all this little inserts and all that kind of stuff.

To find out more about us, head to aroundthehouse online.com we will be right back with Chris from N Hance.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

If you want to find out more, follow on social media and head to aroundthehouse online.com Eric G. And John Dudley have been talking about cabinetry refinishing with Chris from Enhance.

Let's rejoin this conversation.

If you really want all that kind of stuff that can be done, but just the basic color change, new doors, new hardware stuff, two to three days.

And like I said, when we're done, you can invite the whole family over to have dinner, happy hour, whatever it is.

And the cabinets are going to be like right out of the factory, ready to use.

Yeah.

Nice.

It's really impressive.

That's just such a good, just a good solution for people.

Johnny.

I know.

How many times did you have to go in and do those kitchen upgrades where they were hoping to do the cabinets as A kitchen cabinet remodeler doing those projects.

And they get into it, they're like, oh, I got to fix all these things.

Now I want to just clean up what I have because I can't afford the.

Back then was 40,000 do a new kitchen, where now it's 90,000 to do that new kitchen.

But really, it's a good savings.

And you fought painters all the time on trying to paint cabinets.

It was just always a battle, no matter how good your subs were.

Yeah.

And even myself, I was a really good painter.

So if it was something that really needed it, we needed it done.

That was the only option because you just couldn't twist the homeowner's arm.

You're like, okay, but you understand this process.

And that's why, say, it's so impressive to hear a system that's so effective, so quick, so efficient and delivers such a good end product.

Because even at your best efforts, with all the knowledge I have as a contractor, this science of painting cabinetry and refinishing them and trying to get it, I've had to do plenty of rental places where they're like, just bomb the whole place with a bunch of latex and it's peeling off in two days.

But they don't care.

They're like, that's fine.

Paint over the plastic veneer.

You're like, dude, yeah, I've done a ton of really ugly things I'd rather not admit to.

But again, forced by the decision makers and the check writers, not by my own volition, to be honest.

Once you realize how to refinish correctly, the science of it and the types of woods you're dealing with and the prep and the millions of coats and the HVLP bit and the tarping everything off and the dust.

Like you're saying, Eric.

And you're just like, I'll tell you what, how about I just build you new cabinets instead?

Like, I just.

I always have hated the process, but I've always gotten stuck with it because you can't trust anybody else.

You're like.

And so that's the great thing, I think, Chris, with what you guys are doing there, because I tell you what, I had to on the last.

I finished my TV show up that I did for about two and a half years this last summer.

And one of the last ones, there was a couple girls that worked with us that had a house in Portland here, and they wanted to refinish their cabinets.

And I'm like, this is awesome.

You're going to paint it.

You want to do it all yourself.

Because they wanted to do this on a thousand dollar budget.

So it's like, all right, that's a DIY project.

I showed them the right way to do it and they were, it was like, it took them like six weekends to do this kitchen.

Because of course when they bought the house, somebody had taken the old cabinets and didn't just hit it with the, with the white latex semi gloss primer and paint in one.

And it was sticky, it was nasty.

The hand oils from it, there were no hardware and it was just a hot mess.

So they spent half the time getting that sticky mess off the cabinets and then getting it turned around.

Great.

But they were like, if we would have really known what this took.

Yep, that's what I'm saying.

There's no way I would have done this.

Yeah, it's.

It's amazing how much of our research and development goes into not the actual final coating, but prep product and all that stuff that we do to get the cabinets ready.

And it's one of those things that what we teach people is if you skip even one of these steps or you don't do that step to the full way it's supposed to be done, and then you're going to have all sorts of production issues down the line which is going to result in an unhappy customer.

And obviously when you do these types of things, it's what is the value to the consumer and that's that we came in here and we showed them a middle way.

It's not painting, it's not a full remodel and you're able to do this relatively affordable depending on what you want to do.

Most of our customers finish for less than 10 grand and that's some pretty big kitchens.

And it's because we, it's also because we cycle through so many of these in a year and that our technicians are not only do they have the training, it's just, you know how it is, guys.

When you're doing the same type of tasks all the time, you can have someone who's really good at in the trades and they come in, they do the same thing, they take two, three times as long just because they just don't have all those systems and processes built into their day to day and they're not used to the different challenges that arise because all these products, which I think more relevant to kitchen cabinets, you put a little heat or humidity onto it.

It's unusual.

Portland, all of a sudden it's 90.

When you know it's normally in the 70s that it's going to have a difference in how you apply the product.

If you don't know that, next thing you know you got peeling and cracking.

And it doesn't matter if it's a paint off the shelf or the big box store.

I just reminded me all the stickiness once you.

Once I start talking about humidity and latex paint and the horror show that can be if you try to get some of your cabinets open under that scenario, I was just gonna speak.

And then, you know, depending how people use that kitchen, depending on the culture too, a lot of people don't deep fry.

But if you get into people that are culturally wok cookers trying to get those upper cabinets clean up there that have literally been soaked in peanut oil for their 10 years of their life, I'm sure you guys really have to come up with systems to get that, because a lot of people, it's really clean.

A lot of people that's just had this exposure to the elements of cooking.

And the more the cook, the more cleaning there is.

I think the weird part about kitchens that people don't even really realize is that we all have tons of oils in our fingers and all of that oil transfers to the surface.

And it is something you.

Can we do again in our lab.

We're breaking down the impact of that human touch.

Just humanoids.

What do you think about that?

Because they're not cooked, they're not heated, all the kind of standard stuff, and what damage they can do to latex paints and other types of coatings, and even our own coating if it's not sealed correctly.

And then you go on to the different frying situations, the oil situations and the heat mixed in with those types of oils.

If you can get the right coating on it before you start doing all that stuff, it's going to make your cleanup easier and your cabinets last longer.

Absolutely.

And then you guys have gotten into.

And I didn't even know about this until recently, you guys have gotten into the hardwood floor space.

Because I tell you what, there is not a project I dislike more than refinishing my own hardwood floors.

Yeah, I think you talk most enhanced owners and you'd say the same thing.

It's it.

But the basic idea of enhance.

Actually, if you want to go back to our entire history, our first start was hardwood floors.

What we did is we renewed hardwood floors.

And what happened is the.

The prevalence of EV and lvt, all that vinyl plank.

The price point of that has dropped so significantly over the last 15 years.

And the quality's improved so much that your cost per square foot to reinstall that stuff versus refinishing your stuff.

The floor renewal component started shrinking and we do wood.

So that's how we got into cabinets is just in the renewal side.

And it took us another couple years to get into the color changes.

I'm talking way deck and the dawn of the brand.

But yeah, it's one of those things that you really, once you get wood, we can do any wood surface, railings, doors, everything and get them renewed back to whatever color you want.

Or like you said with the tints and things like that, we could change slightly how you want it to look in the the final presentation.

But yeah, yeah, we really live in the cabinet space just because that's what those customers are looking for.

But yeah, any wood renewal project that's out there, we have a product and equipment to do it.

I think it's smart.

And Johnny, you've dealt with this before.

We've got all those aluminum oxide finishes that are a disaster to sand down that are on the pre finished engineered floor that you really can't sand much because you've got just at best probably a 316 top veneer layer on it or less.

And then you've got this ultra hard semi toxic finish that they put on it from the factory.

If I remember, you guys have a sandless option for refrigerant refreshing that without having to get the big sander out and creep the dusty mess.

To find out more about us, head to aroundthe house online.com now let's let John and Eric's band Dudley take us out to break.

We will be right back with Chris from Enhance.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

If you want to find out more, follow on social media and head to aroundthehouse online.com Eric G and John Dudley have been talking about cabinetry refinishing with Chris from Enhance.

Let's rejoin this conversation and it's a.

It'S one of those things, if you even look at how we renew cabinets and I just go back and how all this stuff blends together that once we started doing that we learned that on the cabinets, our sanding and cabinets, it's a grit sand designed to create an adhesion level.

It's not a, we don't sand it down to base wood.

And using that same knowledge you're able to take those kind of floors and get them a renewed look.

Because what happens is it's usually like a sun exposure type fade or things along those lines.

And by Using the tints that you talked about earlier, using that in a clean.

You clean it, you get a light grit to it and then that allows you to come in here and match the colors and get everything kind of seamless looking again and it really makes it pop.

Yeah, that's cool.

I've seen so many beautiful black walnut floors that had non UV coated windows.

And you could sure see where the area rug was.

When these people go up to move and then they panic because they're moving out.

And what happened to the floors because there's two different colors and it's almost like they did a wood.

Wood change and did an insert in the middle of it for where that area floor was.

Area rug was maybe in the living room or the dining room and stuff.

And any of those light sensitive woods.

I bet that's always a challenge for you guys with that.

Yeah, you have to get.

It's a little bit of art.

It's not just the science we have testing materials to say, okay, here's the lightness of the wood, darkness of the wood.

You test in a little area and you're learning how to blend those tints just a little bit better.

Our locations have their own tinting machines.

They go back in and they do a bunch.

Usually you're doing little tiny samples of them and going out there and learning to blend them in and getting that look what you know, the consumer wants.

And it, it's fascinating how you do it and it's like how you can take, you can steer there just by playing with those tents and those avenues of how it already interacts with light and wood surface.

Because the type of wood impacts adhesion and everything along that as well.

So I getting into this having been more about let's bang up new sheets of drywall and clean up, clean up rooms that way.

It's just amazing how much science that you apply to this.

And then you just mix in just enough art and then that you get the specialist that the community is really looking for.

Handful of Q tips and a really good attitude.

Go to it, boys.

I love the attitude part, John, because you know that's going to drive your success in so many areas of life anyways.

But this is something that at the end of the day, we're talking floors right now.

The kitchen is such a center focal point of the home.

And if you're, you're going to know instantly.

And so you got to have a little bit of that art in you and that little bit of that positivity activity that you're Going to make it happen.

Yep.

No question, man.

And no question.

And if you think about it, if you're using a similar finish on those floors that you are the cabinets, clearly it's a durable product.

It's, it's, it's.

I always say the little thing that we do, that this is a trade show gimmick.

And you guys have been enough home garden shows.

Yeah.

Stupid stuff to do to try to keep people entertained.

But we'll actually, we'll have, we'll have doors done in the shop.

We'll bring them to the show.

And then as one of our demonstrations, we take a hammer out and we just.

Now, will that dent the door?

Of course it does.

But all the coating and everything else perfectly covers it still because it has enough elasticity, strength and durability to rock through that.

And if I can hit it with a full blown hammer, I think you can knock with a pot and pan occasionally.

Your kid roll his big wheel over the floor, it'll be all right.

How did I know it was going to be a hammer test?

It's.

I guess we probably could come up with something cooler, more unique.

But people still aren't pretty impressed once they see that.

Absolutely.

And it's safe, it's easy, it's light, people can do it.

It's not like you're gonna give them a cast iron pan and say break it on this and do something like that.

No sense getting people hurt.

But yeah, in gosh, I so many memories of the trade show days of doing that.

I'm so happy I'm not doing that stuff as far as the home show stuff because, oh, those are tough.

Those are long, tough days.

Standing there talking to people saying the same things a thousand times.

Yeah.

I love those ones in the north in the spring that last for 14 days.

That's just spectacular.

That's something to look forward to every single day.

I always wondered, I'm going to dive into this for just a second.

But I was a business owner in Seattle and the home show was 14 days.

And I'm like, I have to shut my business down for 14 days to manpower this thing up and then I'm going to be behind and then I got to follow up on leads.

It's not the beautiful situation for business owners because you're just overloading your whole entire system.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

I always think it's when you get up and running and you got a full staff, it's still draining, don't get me wrong.

And then it's hard to follow up on all your leads and all that work that goes along with it.

But at least if you have a full staff, you can get the production going still.

But you're brand new and you're.

Or you're launching and you're there by yourself.

And like you said, it's like everything's on pause until you get that home show done.

I much prefer the ones that are like Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Yeah.

And I think you make a good point.

I think you've got to be set up for that.

I think a lot of young contractors go to those or get involved in those.

Looking for the promised land.

Right?

Yeah.

Land in the big bounty and this is all going to pay off.

And it A, doesn't a lot of times, especially if it's just you and B, you pay the price.

You just talked about Eric, like now you're behind and you spend money on the show and.

Yeah, yeah.

I do think that's one of the things that you.

If you're a young contractor and you're looking to go into business for yourself, it's really the customer acquisition components.

The most confusing.

They're usually good at doing the work.

But even for everyone I've ever interacted with, going to trade shows over the last 25 years, just teaching people how to be interactive with the customers instead of, you know, those people in the trades and do the contracting work, it's just to stand there behind the counter waiting for people to come say hi to us and talk to us.

And when you spend that much money in that much time and you got to get out there and you got to talk to people and you got to exit the booth and drag people over and get them interested and have a, have your stupid gimmicks with a hammer in the wood or whatever it is.

And it's a lot of work and.

Put a raccoon on the table.

So people.

It's funny, you got to do the gimmick thing because I was at a home show a few years ago and I was like, where's their person?

And I asked the person who I knew next to him, I go, hey, where are they at?

And they go, she's walking around playing Pokemon in the trade show.

And she was walking around playing that walk around Pokemon game, whatever that was.

And I'm just like, okay, I'm so happy.

I'm not dealing with that.

They're grinds.

But you just got to get through it and have the right training and have the right attitude.

Because so many people walk by the booth and Go.

Oh, that's interesting.

Oh, they're on their phone.

Yeah.

I talk to people in the trades all the time, and I think it's the one thing that I wish we could do a better job helping the younger guys out.

Is this a customer service business?

That's what's going to really get you your clients?

Because, yes, you could spend a ton of money on advertising.

We had marketing plans and all that kind of stuff.

But it's referrals, man.

That's what drives things.

That's what kept me busy for 30 years, man.

Never had to advertise, never ran any ads, Never had that.

If you look the contracting business hard enough.

Right.

We all know it's hard to find good ones.

Just like any trade, any profession, really, if you're actually somebody that shows up when they say they're going to and does what you're supposed to do that you told them you would do, and you do it on time and you do it with a smile and you don't act like an idiot.

It's amazing how much work comes in.

You're like, whoa, Suddenly I need 10 guys and four trucks on the road.

And how did that happen?

I was just a nice guy cleaning gutters for a minute or building a fence.

I just started building the fence and.

Yeah, no, it's everything.

Personality is everything.

I think you're spot on with that.

You could be the best, flashiest guy in town with the nicest truck, but that doesn't win if you're a jerk.

Yeah.

It's such a great industry for a young guy to get going in, and I'd really like to see him get the tools to be successful.

And there's just so much opportunity.

And like you said, John, just because people.

Everyone's either a jerk or they don't think showing up on time's important, or, hey, I'll get to it when I get to it.

And it's those kind of things that rule in these small businesses, that maybe they can do good work.

At the end of the day, no one's going to talk about you because you really ruined.

You ruin the experience for them.

And it gives us the reputation sometimes of not being trustworthy.

And we get the people educated to do this.

There's a lot of stuff being replaced by AI, but they're not going to fix your plumbing, they're not going to fix your electrical, not going to bang out a new kitchen for you.

Yeah.

And they're not going to poke and they're not going to apply two coatings of lightspeed on your cabinets to make sure that they're good for the next.

Next cycle of your.

Your desire on that cabinet.

So.

Just because you get to be your own boss doesn't mean you should act like it.

But you bring up a good point.

Chris and Erica, Eric and I have touched on this a couple of different episodes about the interest in the trades coming back.

We talk about what AI is going to replace and a lot of these kids are going.

They don't need a social media marketer anymore.

They're not going to need a graphic Designer that makes 100k a year.

And they're.

They're paying attention.

You we're starting to see it and they're going I could go be an H vac guy and make 100k a year and.

Or a carpenter or a cabinet refinisher.

And that I think we're gonna see hopefully.

Right.

A lot of younger people getting back into the trades and finding that it really is a rewarding thing to do and losing the notion that I gotta be a tech kid to be cool.

You can actually be a carpenter and be really cool.

I was to find out more about us, head to aroundthe house online.com we will be right back with Chris from Enhance.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

If you want to find out more, follow on social media and head to aroundthehouse online.com Eric G and John Dudley have been talking about cabinetry refinishing with Chris from N Hance.

Let's rejoin this conversation.

We're still able to knock that out.

The doors come to us in three to five days.

As long as ship time I think is five days for most of our manufacturer as that we utilize has multiple distribution points across the United States.

I think the furthest part in the United States, three days.

You want a backorder something crazy.

It might take a couple weeks that they manufacture in house.

So us made gonna be beautiful.

And we've done some crazy boxes that going back into some of that weird stuff they did.

Even in the 50s we're still able to salvage those boxes and just get new doors on and new hinges and rock and roll and get you looking good.

And it's not the massive remodel that some people think they need because I think we get trapped into that mentality and it's like maybe one day you want to remodel it.

When it comes to remodeling we really say is it the layout or is it the cabinet?

If it's the layout, you want a completely different look and feel to your house.

Let's talk to some good remodelers because there's great ones out there and that's what they're for.

But if you love your layout and you just need a.

You need to look in the boxes to look good, then that's what we do.

We're the middle path and we get you there and we get you high quality.

We really want to focus on that high quality, high value product and something that you know is going to last for a very long time.

And will you have children or dogs or whatever, the product's going to hold up.

And that's what matters to us because that's the value we're propositioning back to people.

And I can tell you, weirdly, we have customers who use their same kitchens and have us back out every four to five years because they love their kitchen.

They just want a new color because it's always a new color trend.

You know, what does everyone want?

Blue and white right now?

And here we go different of five years ago.

So they can have the new blue and white cabinets, but they don't have to change a thing.

Man, that's crazy.

But yeah, I've seen that.

I had a referral one time, a guy in Seattle that was working with my design team up there.

That Guy gave me 11 remodels in one year.

Because he was a, this guy was a serious banker and he had financial guys.

He had Friday cocktail party at his house with his clients and new clients, and that was his get to know people.

And I would come by his house once a month and drop off a big stack of business cards on his front porch because he go, getting low on cards.

Be there this afternoon.

And it was one of those things that, that finally when he came up and goes, hey, Eric, I need some media cabinets for my house.

I went through the process and I'm like, we got it signed.

He goes, hey, what's it going to cost?

I'm like, dude, I can't charge you for $2,000 for the cabinets.

I just can't.

As a matter of principle, I got to say thank you.

You've made me nearly six figures this last year.

I can't sit there and say, here's $2,200 for the boxes.

100 markup, we'll do 4,400.

No, exactly.

Just one of those things.

And.

But that's where you know you're on the right track with people when that project is so great, so beautiful, and they tell their friends about it and you guys just get busy based off of the product and what you guys.

Are doing for service, driving those referrals.

Like they say, absolutely.

Great communication and just giving people what they need and taking them above and beyond and just keep focusing on those things, you're going to be successful.

Yeah.

And Chris, one thing too, I just want to say too is just on the refacing side of things, this is not a DIY friendly project unless you have, and I say this, unless you have the right drill press to bore hinge holes in the new doors.

Some companies will do that.

But you have got to be a detailed cabinet person to understand this because you have to one know the mechanical side of it, but the finish side of it as well is not DIY friendly.

Like we were talking earlier, you really need to work with experts on this.

I, I'm going to highly encourage people to take a look.

And something I said earlier today was, is when we do from the cleaning to the prep to the application, any one of those steps gets done wrong and then the project, the entire project is going to fall back apart.

It's going to be need to be redone from scratch.

And so we look at that to get that factory finished product.

Yeah, it's really there.

When you, when you're talking DIY projects, you're really talking about going to go find a cabinet paint, sit on a shelf at one of the big box stores and yeah, you can change your color and you could change your life for a few months.

And I always hate to be disparaging of diy, but you want that true factory finished project.

Our technicians on average go through six months of training and these are people with application experience before they even get hired in with us, before we let them alone on a project.

And it's just because each step is so critical to what we do.

And yes, it's.

The final code is a final two coats.

The UV has to be done correctly.

We have to make sure that everything is set so the adhesion level works on the, the cabinet side as well as the paint side so that we're the sorry, the coating side so we can get that final hard coat on it.

And yeah, I would, I love that.

But it does take that extra step and if you don't try to do it on your own for your first time, it's pretty wild what it takes to get that done right.

Otherwise cabinet paint and you're going to get what's made.

Yeah.

I've got my auto body, so I'm used to working on old hot Rods.

And that finishing part of it is the hard part.

Yeah, you prep because you got to make it look good and it'll show every mistake you make.

Yeah, you're not just going back to that.

You're not just slapping down a coat and then putting a clear coat on top of it and hoping it's going to look good.

There's fillers, there's all sorts of other situations.

We go to make the cabinets look pristine.

And once you get those kind of expertise and that knowledge, it's just like getting that hot rod looking shiny for the car show.

People will know instantly when they walk in your kitchen now, Don, they're going to think you bought all new cabinets.

And it's pretty wild.

I've been so impressed by with the final product and the way the customers react to it.

And that's why we get to live in the world we do today with a ton of referral.

Our big thing is just continue to remind people that there's a middle path you don't have to spend.

I think we supported earlier $90,000 to get a new kitchen look and feel.

We had I.

We had a local gentleman right here who was just got his remodeling quote back.

It was.

He wanted to do it.

If he did it, he couldn't get the new appliances because he was running out of money.

And then he was talking to his wife and found out that the reason she wanted a new kitchen was a simple thing, that the cabinets were old, and that was it.

We went in there and he was able to not only get the new cabinets, the new door front, the new look.

Sorry, they're not.

The cabinet boxes stay the same.

That new cabinet box look and feel, new doors.

And then he was able out and go buy those appliances that his wife really wanted.

And his whole project came in, I think less than $14,000 with all new appliances.

That's impressive.

The old adage, stick to what you're good at, really holds true with something like this.

And I say that because as a contractor with 30 years experience, I wouldn't attempt to do it unless I was forced to.

Again, it is something that is so hard to get right.

It requires folks like you guys that specifically do that one thing day in, day out.

Like you say, your guys are well trained.

You're in the lab with products.

You're figuring out what works, what gets hurt, what doesn't work.

It's just one of those aspects of construction where you can't do it right unless you're that deep into it.

You want a diy?

You can mess up some drywall.

It's not going to hurt you.

Try to paint your bedroom.

Hit a baseboard, not all that kind of stuff.

Try to hang a door.

Fun.

Okay.

But no, you're talking about.

And it's a great comparison, Eric.

It's.

You're gonna go out and paint your own car.

Like it's of that caliber expertise you need to be at to make those cabinets really come out right and last, not just look good for three weeks, for 10 years.

Yeah, absolutely.

And by the way, I have spray painted an entire 74 blazer when in my youth.

Just.

Yep.

Full transparency.

Yep.

I was like, yeah, I'll paint this thing up, man.

Yeah.

Look, I told you.

In a bad attitude.

We've all done it.

We've all done it.

Chris, we're running out of time here.

I want to get in before we run out of time here on the radio side of things to make sure and let people know how to find you guys.

Because you guys have such a great network across the US with so many locations.

It's.

And you've been around for a while.

You're not the new kids in town.

Yeah.

We've been doing wood renewals for over 25 years.

And part of our history and everything that we do is we can take any of your cabinets and make them look new.

And that's really our pitch.

But the thing is, we're here to design, to give you a higher quality application, but don't have to make the full investment of a remodel.

You can find us now anywhere you want to go.

The simplest way is obviously website, and that's enhance.com and it's spelled N H-A-N C E.com and it's with an n and there's phone number on there.

If you want to call someone directly from there and they will take care of you and get you lined up with a location that can come out to your home and give you the solution that's customized to you in your kitchen.

Chris, thanks for coming on today.

I love what you guys do.

I've dealt with you.

So, you know it's one of your franchisees.

It turned out really well.

So I can just tip my hat and say nice work out there to you guys.

And it's a really great way.

If you're looking at that new kitchen model going, I don't have six figures for a kitchen model, but I got 10.

This might be a great answer for you.

Give us a call.

We'll take care of you.

And just thank.

Thanks to you guys.

I appreciate the time.

And shout out to our franchisees.

We got guys been doing this for 20 something years, and I'm more impressed every day working with them, just what they're able to do out there.

So thanks, Eric.

Thanks, John.

Really appreciate the time.

Yeah, thank you, Chris.

Good time.

Thanks for coming on, man.

All right, guys.

Appreciate it all.

John Dudley, great to have you on again today.

And for John, I'm Eric G. You've been listening to around the House.

Thanks for catching the first of this weekend's episodes of around the House.

If you want to contact us, head to aroundthehouse online dot com.

Now let's close out the show with a little more from the band.

Dudley.

We will see you next hour.