Repairing kitchen cabinet carcasses?

We're selling soon and are therefore tidying up the place. The kitchen is looking good except for the carcasses.

They're late 1980s/early 1990s board (not sure what the correct term is (melamine faced chipboard?), but it's the sort that blows when water gets in behind the facing material). Guess what? Steam has got in above the hob where the facing strip on the bottom of the side board of the carcass has peeled away a bit.

This has led to:

(a) A raised ridge of ~5mm along the full length of the unit (b) A 10*3mm chip in that ridge

Does anyone know how to fix this? My current plan is to fill the chip with woodfiller. Prime the filler and then, to get everything to blend in, paint with International melamine kitchen cupboard paint.

I thought about sanding the ridge down level with the rest of the carcass, but I can just see that going pear shaped. Am I wrong there? I'd like to do a decent job, or at least as decent as you can without replacing.

Thanks.

See if you can swap the carcases around so the bad bit is hidden and a good bit replaces it. Might be be easy to do if they were flat-pack ones and ends can be removed and switched around.

If you mean the wood has swollen, you cant. Painting the exposed chipboard gap with a colour close to the finish colour will help a lot, but nothing will cure it.

One can sometimes turn the piece of wood around so the damage isnt readily visible. Fitting a new sheet is also poss if the unit is plain white melamine, but theyre often not.

This is the price of buying chipboard tat. Regrettably if you want anything better you have to make it or pay for a custom job.

NT

The only way to fix swollen chipboard is to replace it. Easy enough to make a new panel if you have the correct tools. But have a look in the sheds - a complete new carcass won't cost much and you might well find an identical one.

Well, you can. I've in the past repaired a little bit of damage, by excavating using a dremel the swolen 'wood', filled it to excess, clamped it flat while the filler sets.

Not quite recommended.

Actually yoo can gouge it out, and use car body filler to repair,sand and paint, but its a heck of a job.

If you are selling chances are that a swift tidy up will be enough - the new owners will probably rip it all out anyway.

The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

Always bothers me, that. People put in a new kitchen to help sell a house - which the new owners promptly rip out and throw away. Great if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, but I've seen it happen several times and not always been in a position to trawl the skip.