I have water damage on my kitchen cabinets at the bottom.

Hi Ann, If you want to paint your cupboards, I would sand them first, then give it a coat of primer/sealer like "Kilz Max, then your top coat. Water damage can lead to mold and that's not healthy, and may seep through your paint.

Good luck!

If they are warped or permanently damaged, you will need to replace that section before painting.

If you've had a floor I would be wanting to rip them up to ensure I wasn't having mold growing underneath or in the bottom of the cabinet. This should be covered by your homeowner's insurance.

Your cabinets look like they are made of wood and that's a good thing. If you can, remove whatever is on the bottom front of the cabinets (toe kick). Make sure every thing is clean and dry. Depending on what the flood water was (supply line, sewage, or rain) disinfect the area. Let every thing dry out and you should be good to go on priming and painting. If your boxes warped you can sand, but wooden cabinets are made of plywood and the layers are thin. If everything works (drawers and doors), and if you can live with it, I wouldn't do much sanding, except to remove old finish and get the surface ready for paint..

I would want to know that the wood (?) is totally dry. Water damage to my CHEAP particleboard ( bathroom sink overflow problem) caused the particle board part to 1) warp and 2) disintegrate. Checking for mold is also smart.

In my kitchen - a similar plumbing leak - I coverd up the raw sections with contact paper inside the cabinet and on the strip where the facing of the particle board fell off. Is working well so far.

There is a sort of plastic/ rubber- ish floor molding that would be/could be used to cover up the joint between cabinet and flooring. Black stuff sold by the foot or roll I think and glued on?

If I was dealing with this, I would be thinking of Staining (not painting) and try out some 'polyshades' ( which is stain mixed with polyurethane) to pick a color that is a good compromise between the two areas.

I love wood and hate to see it painted if there is pretty grain that you might show off. Also - I have never wanted to bother removing paint to go back to the wood. I think it woud be easier to paint over the polyurethane than to remove paint and try to reclaim the wood surface.

You could, if you wanted to, use a border.

Are you covered by Insurance (Building Insurance)? Flood Damage? If so you could get it all done for you......

No not enough insurance to bother with...I'm going to hire locally or DIY. Thanks!!

You're very welcome- I am just happy to share my trials and errors, and hope it helps. I like to find the straight to the point advice here- but also the stories and commonalities - ( in this case check for mold and proceed when clean and dry). I have an additional suggestion- if you go with some sort of baseboard molding could be wood, could be that vinyl / rubber stuff that would be easy to just cover the warped/ stained area.

But if the spirit moves you you might deliberately. try to " draw" with slightly different polyshades.. eg: create a darkish border on purpose and make the inner area lighter or whatever you like.

My kitchen cabinet doors ARE solid wood so I could sand them down until the cows come home if I really wanted to. But it is true some are made with just a veneer which is extremely thin these days with modern 20th/ 21st century techniques. So if you have a veneer you do need to know you could sand right through it. The cheap particle board shelving is inside my kitchen cabinets (like the cheap stuff in my bathroom vanity).