Expert: Greg Scholl - 1/14/2010

Question
I have new raw maple kitchen cabinets that I will attempt to stain, glaze and poly. Questions questions...what will remove the watermarks that has been splashed on the sink base doors? I thought of wetting the entire door and possibly the splash marks will blend in and disappear??? Also, my stain is oil-based - can I use a water based poly as finish coat? Can you give advise on staining and glazing with a darker glaze color?

Answer
Hi Lonna, it depends on how bad the water marks are....but these cabinets should've had a finish right away...you may have to sand the marks out, and likely that means sanding everything to make it all look the same. Consumer grade waterborne Acrylic poly will not give you much durability as compared to more professional products, and if you've never finished cabinets before, you'll find these more difficult to work with to get a professional, smooth finish especially with a brush....glazes are used for certain effects, but typically over the stain and sealer coat, and then clear coated over the top for depth and durability.All of these techniques take some skill and knowledge to do, so if you're a novice, I would suggest starting with one single cabinet, and do it to completion to establish a finishing schedule that gets you where you want to be, and therefore you'll know where you're going and how to get there. These finishes are typically applied by spray equipment, and modern cabinet companies are capable of producing furniture grade finishes that are KCMA rated and will give one 20+ years of maintenance free life. The coatings technology includes the use of state of the art, crosslinking, catalyzed finishing materials.Trying to reproduce these high tech and super high quality finishes with consumer grade finishing products (Minwax, etc.) and without the knowledge or experience will likely be an exercise in frustration...as far as whether your chosen top coat is compatible with the stains, sealers, and glazing materials, you'll have to check that out with the product manufacturers...typically the newer generation of Acrylic clears perform well over oil stains...but it's important to make sure that proper drying times are heeded, and that you follow the manufacturers recommendations closely, so you don't have adhesion problems or one of the myriad of other problems one can run into....feel free to post back if need be, I don't mean to be negative in my response, I'm just a realist... and it's important to be aware that kitchen cabinet finishing is not easy, and it represents the cutting edge of finishing in the industry....regards- Greg