- Institutional - Education
Everglades University
Project Details
Location
Boca Raton, FL
Applications
Casework
Finishes Used
Gray Oak
Cost Savings
$180,000
Time Saved
2-3 months
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How It Works
STEP 1
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STEP 2
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STEP 3
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STEP 4
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Why millwork is usually the long pole on a renovation
On a construction or renovation project, casework and millwork are rarely the biggest line item, but they are very often the one that sets the finish date. Architectural millwork is built to order. Shop drawings have to be produced and approved, the package goes into a fabrication queue behind whatever the shop has already committed to, and then it ships and gets installed. None of that compresses well when the schedule slips elsewhere.
That is the position Everglades University was in on a renovation at its Boca Raton campus. The area was closed off and out of use for construction, and the classroom casework needed to come out of the job looking new.
What we did
Resurface Wraps refinished the classroom casework in a gray oak architectural film as part of the construction project, working in the closed off area while it was already out of service. The refinish stood in for a new millwork package, which took both the cost of that package and its fabrication lead time out of the job.
| Scope | Classroom casework refinishing |
|---|---|
| Location | Boca Raton, Florida |
| Application | Casework and millwork |
| Finish | Gray oak |
| Saving vs a new millwork package | $180,000 |
| Time taken out of the schedule | 2 to 3 months |
| Context | Area closed for construction, not in use |
The part that was actually difficult
Sequencing against the other trades
Film goes on near the end. Anything that generates dust, anything wet, and anything that involves moving material through the space has to be finished first, because a surface that gets contaminated after prep has to be prepped again. On an active site that means the film installer is dependent on trades they do not control, and the window can move more than once.
Prep decides the outcome, not installation
Architectural film bonds to whatever is on the surface, not to what is underneath it. A bond that fails in eighteen months almost always traces back to preparation rather than to the film. Cleaning, deglossing and edge preparation are the majority of the labor and none of the visible work, which is why a low bid on a casework refinish is usually a bid that has shortened the prep.
Edges, end panels and returns
Flat cabinet faces are the straightforward part. What separates a refinish that reads as new casework from one that reads as a wrap is the treatment at edges, end panels, reveals and the returns around hardware. Those are the details a facilities director puts their hand on, and they are the reason this is a trade rather than a task.
Why the numbers look like that
The $180,000 is the difference between refinishing and buying a new millwork package for the same scope. A millwork number is not just cabinetry. Shop drawings, fabrication, finishing, freight, installation and the coordination time that comes with a long lead package all sit inside it.
The 2 to 3 months is fabrication and scheduling rather than installation time. Built to order casework queues behind a shop's existing commitments, and on a renovation with a fixed reopening date that queue is what pushes the whole job. Refinishing removes the queue, because there is nothing to fabricate.
Where this approach fits
Refinishing is the right answer when the casework is structurally sound and the requirement is a finish rather than a rebuild: a renovation that has to hit a date, a budget that will not carry a full millwork package, or a scope that covers more rooms than a replacement number can reach.
Refinishing is the wrong answer when the casework is failing rather than dated. Water damaged substrate, delaminating particleboard, doors that no longer hang square, or a room whose layout has to change are all replacement problems, and film applied over any of them buys a year at most. Refinishing is also unsuitable where the surface cannot be properly prepared, which usually means heavy texture or a surface that has been painted over more than once.
We will tell you which of those situations you are in before you spend anything, including when the honest answer is that you should buy the millwork.
For the wider campus approach, see our institutional and education solutions. The technical side is covered on casework and millwork resurfacing, and other completed projects are on our case studies page. To talk about a specific building or a phased backlog, get in touch.