For 32 years White Oak Construction has been known for Quality Custom Construction and in the last decade has established an excellent reputation for insurance restoration services.

We now have focused on perfecting a system of high quality cabinet restoration services.

The Problem: Only a few cabinets in a kitchen are damaged.

Present Insurance Company Solution: Replace the whole kitchen.

Almost every time there is a water loss that effects the kitchen in a home, the Insurance Company ends up spending between four to seven thousand dollars replacing cabinets.

Sometimes thousands more. History has shown it is virtually impossible to replace only a few of the cabinets and have anything close to a reasonable match.

Every wood changes its tone over time. An example of this is seen when you remove a picture from a wooden wall.

Wood and the wood’s finish oxidizes giving each piece of wood its special “patina”. The patina is created from the amount of exposure to light, the age of the wood and the finish used originally on the wood.

Add to these diverse conditions, the grain of the wood and the grade of the wood and it is virtually impossible to get a match that is close enough to be acceptable.

If one were to replace only a few damaged cabinets, the only solution would be to salvage the original frames, drawers and doors on the cabinets and reconstruct that portion of the cabinets that are damaged. By doing this the owner of the home gets exactly what they had prior to the loss and the insurance company only pays for those cabinets actually damaged.

The design of modular factory cabinets does not allow this type of repair for several reasons. The first reason is the factory construction process is to use a composite board and hot glue assembly.

Cabinet and millworks shops have learned there is no way to remove the glued composite board from the dado joint without damaging or splitting the thin edge of the cabinet.

When this edge splits it becomes very noticeable on the front of the cabinet frame.

Various tools including saws, dremels and routers have been tried, but the materials used in the construction of the composite board ultimately cause enough pressure on this thin strip of wood during the removal effort to cause the wood to crack or split.

No matter how slow or careful you are, ultimately you hit a hard spot or irregular consistency within the composite board. This will either split or pull out a chunk of this thin strip of wood.

Once one cabinet is damaged the entire kitchen needs to be replaced and we are right back to where we started.

Various efforts other than saws or power tools have been tried to defeat this glued joint.

Letting the cabinet get wet will cause the composite board to disintegrate. The problem with this is it will swell usually over a ¼ of an inch often causing this strip of wood to split. If water is kept on the frame and composite board long enough it will cause white milky spots under the cabinet’s finish, ruining the finish.

Non-hydro products have been tried in an effort to defeat this glue joint, but these products often destroy the cabinets finish. Refinishing becomes necessary, the wood’s patina is lost and the cabinet will no longer match the rest of the kitchen.

And again we are back to replacing the entire kitchen.

The White Oak Solution

The White Oak Team decided the only solution to defeat this glue joint would be if the composite board were removed without the violent action of a power tool or the negative effects of water or solvents on the cabinets.

The solution clearly became that one would need to defeat the material that holds the composite board together and remove the de-laminating composite board a layer at a time. Once the composite board was gone from the dado joint, the remaining glue in the dado joint can be easily removed without damage to the cabinet frame.

Chemists contracted by White Oak perfected a unique proprietary three step chemical process to accomplish this task.

By using a liquid compound and catalyst to defeat the integrity of the material used in the manufacturing process of composite board, White Oak craftsmen were able to gently remove the composite board a layer at a time without damaging the cabinet frame.

Once removed the chemical process is stopped with the application of a neutralizer and then the frame is ready for the next step in the process.

Once removed the chemical process is stopped with the application of a neutralizer and then the frame is ready for the next step in the process.

White Oak’s new proprietary process allows the insurance industry the option of repairing a few cabinets instead of replacing the entire kitchen.

Skilled craftsmen carefully recreate the original cabinet box to fit the reclaimed cabinet front. All wood is professionally joined and glue and the original doors and drawers are re-attached to the new cabinets.

Careful, time proven techniques of reconditioning the existing finish without effecting the wood’s patina are used by our expert craftsmen. Once installed in the home all the remaining cabinets are reconditioned for a perfect match. This cost saving option allows the insurance industry to save huge sums of money that are being lost under the present guidelines and protocols.

Replacement vs. Cabinet Restoration:

Below is an example of an actual loss that occurred in a West Knoxville home in July 2010. The cabinets shown above were the ones reflected in the below summary.

White Oak Cabinet Restoration Mission Statement:

We will provide a repair and restoration process that guarantees the repaired cabinets will exactly match the cabinets' fronts as originally installed in the kitchen. All restored and repaired cabinets will meet the following standards:

1. The front of the cabinet will have the exact color and finish of the original cabinet.

2. That all door frames and drawers will have the exact wood type as the original cabinet.

3. All hardware will be exactly the same type, age and condition as the original cabinet hardware.

4. The wood grain pattern will be exactly the same as the original cabinet front on the frame, doors and drawers.

5. The cabinet will be equal to or greater in strength than the original cabinet.

6. The wood's natural patina that develops over time will be exactly the same as the original cabinet.

7. We will provide new toe kick that is reasonably close in color and is an acceptable match to the previous toe kick under the base cabinetry.

General Guidelines:

Upon being called to assess a loss involving kitchen cabinets the White Oak personnel will determine the following:

1. Are the cabinets at least average grade?

2. Are the front faces of the cabinets real wood and undamaged from the loss?

3. Other than the front face, is the box of the cabinet manufactured with composite board or wood?

If the cabinets meet these guidelines then they are candidates for the program.

Xactimate Price List: