Doing a bathroom and small kitchen renovation and the contractor has included painting the exterior of the new vanities and cabinetry, but is now telling me they did not include a clear coat on the interior and that they don't typically do any finish on the interior.

Is that normal to not finish the interior of a bathroom vanity, linen cabinet, or kitchen cabinet? Is it unreasonable to assume that an interior clear coat is included when they are painting the exterior?

I'd say it's normal for inside the cabinet. The inside of the doors should be painted though.

I don't think that is normal at all. At least not in my market. Own a lumberyard and am about to move into a new build. Have never seen cabinets that weren't finished on inside.

I'd paint the inside doors, interior boxes, and shelves the same as the exterior. You could keep the interior drawers/slide outs a natural wood finish, but would definitely have them sprayed with a clear coat.

If exterior of the cabinet is painted/stained, the lip of all gaps for doors and drawers should be painted along with the inside of the door or drawer face. The rest of the cabinet interior should be clear coated.

That what our carpenter sees as standard.

hillcountryag86 said:

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I don't think that is normal at all. At least not in my market. Own a lumberyard and am about to move into a new build. Have never seen cabinets that weren't finished on inside.

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Typically the carcasses are just made with prefinished plywood, so they don't have to worry about finishing the inside at all. I would argue that finishing the interior of the cabinets would be implied based on that.

If they used unfinished plywood, they should be clear coating the interior, especially in a bathroom. A little bit of extra protection from moisture can be a big deal.

TMoney2007 said:

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hillcountryag86 said:

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I don't think that is normal at all. At least not in my market. Own a lumberyard and am about to move into a new build. Have never seen cabinets that weren't finished on inside.

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Typically the carcasses are just made with prefinished plywood, so they don't have to worry about finishing the inside at all. I would argue that finishing the interior of the cabinets would be implied based on that.

If they used unfinished plywood, they should be clear coating the interior, especially in a bathroom. A little bit of extra protection from moisture can be a big deal.

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Agree some coating needs to be on for protection.

Our market is all custom - $450,000 - $1 mil. Pretty much everything I see is entire cabinet finished with same coating throughout.

Thank you all for the input

As TMoney said, prefinished plywoods have been around for decades. It comes in all thicknesses, species most common are maple or birch. How or why a cabinet guy would not use it is a bit of mystery?

But too late for that now. If you clear finish the interiors, the edge of the shelves is poplar which when clear finished is going to have a green tone. Plus you have nail holes. The rest of the interior is maple or birch which will be very yellow by comparison. Not sure if you are okay with that color variation? You could paint the shelf edge, then clear the rest? I am not a fan of painted interiors, and it still takes a long time to do.

Finishing the interior of a cabinet after installation is a pain. Spraying it is nearly impossible, even a brush-on finish will take a long time, two coats likely. Might I recommend a wipe-on finish like Osmo or Rubio Monocote? Both good products, Rubio is expensive but goes a long way. You would only need their smallest container. You can get a nice finish in one coat. Maybe coat below the sink a second time?

Good luck.

Id say with anything new to prime and paint it out. Here at Guaranteed Painting if we are doing any new cabinets for a customer we will do both interior and exterior portion. Anything that is previously painted or stained it is up to the customer to have both interior and exterior painted. If you have any questions or want us to come look at it please give us a call at 979-575-4683.

Like you've seen in the replies, it varies.

I would go back to the original proposal/contract and see what that says regarding interior finish. If it's silent, I think this is a lesson learned. If it speaks to finish without specifying that it is exterior only, I would argue that the millworker owes a finish to you or at least a concession on the cost to pick it up.