What do you have, push to open latches?

The door has grooves

But irrespective, was hoping for solution on the staining

I used a magic scrubber and thats only made things worse since l now the polist has come out!

Stop doing everything youre doing. You can scrub or sand through your veneer, and once you do you’ll have to replace it.

If the cabinet guy seems too expensive, get a quote from someone else.

The door has grooves

But irrespective, was hoping for solution on the staining

I believe the question was asked as it could be possible that how the cabinet is handled could be contributing to the stains, such as hand oils - natural or otherwise, staining the cabinets.

Did you sign any kind of contract with him that warrantees the work? One of the reasons we went with our cabinet maker is their shop had such a great warrantee.

What did he say was the reason for the staining?

Did he give you any guidance when he delivered them on how they should be cleaned?

thanks all. Definitely learnt the hard way on the Magic Eraser. It actually wasnt me- it was the cleaning lady - but irrespective. The outcome is terribly sad.

Yes, the original stains were from oil and dirty hands, since the doors dont have grab bars. But even where we do have handles, we have managed to have oily hands on them. I wish there was some wood polish I could use that would uniformly stain the cabinets so I didnt have to deal with any of this.

Kendrah, I dont have any warranty unfortunately. Even if I was to look for some one else who can do this, what should I be looking for ? Would they be refinishing the wood ? staining it ?

Thanks much again for all your help!

" Would they be refinishing the wood ? staining it ? "

Stripped and refinished would most likely be the way to "fix" the issue. Even then the finger/hand oils may be in the wood and never come out.

Let me say I feel your pain. These cabinets are gorgeous wood and this must really, really suck.

I have zero wood finishing expertise. For these kinds of technical questions, I post on Houzz, but I also post on reddit forums and I try to find old school online forum full of woodworking pros. They can get super technical and deeply educate you. Start with https://www.reddit.com/r/finishing/ and then also google search to find places like this https://www.woodworkingtalk.com/forums/wood-finishing.8/

$6k for refinishing an entire kitchen's worth of cabinets is a more than reasonable price. I'd be surprised if you could find a good person to do it for anywhere near that price. I'm not saying you should be liable for these costs, I don't know enough about the background story of what happened here.

Has he said what he would refinish with so that staining doesn't happen again? The answer to this question would beg the reply - why wasn't this used the first time around?

Is part of him having you eat the cost because magic eraser was used on the cabinets? I can fully understand a cabinet maker not eating the cost of that really big customer mistake. (I know it wasn't you, it was your cleaning person. I'm now making a note to myself to ask my cleaning person to never use magic erase of scrubbies on my cabinets - which are painted so much more protected.)

I'd also ask if he will warrantee the work this time around and if not, why not. Is there something particular to what he is doing or what you are wanting that is prone to damage? His answer will be revealing. It would be worth posting in a wood finishing forum to see if he knows what he is talking about.

If whatever was used on the wood as a topcoat was the correct product applied properly this shouldn't have happened in years let alone months. We have always put in factory finished kitchen cabinets because the finish is tough, durable and cleanable.

6,000 is a lot to have to put into a new kitchen but finding out his methods, product used, and will he guarantee his work it may be worth it.

You ruined your cabinets. Not the cabinet maker. You. You either pay for a full sand and refinish, and 6K is incredibly LOW for that, or you buy new cabinets and never touch them with your hands or any magic eraser sandpaper. Hand oils RUIN finishes. Even factory finished and UV cured will not stand up to repeated oily hand use. You've also sanded off the finish with the magic erasers, and made everything worse with the oils now down in the wood.. A full refinish should be more in the 10-14K cost. It's really difficult to sand veneer without burning through it. You really should have the doors replaced, without the wood J channel type thing. Those are bad news and should never be done, ever. Even factory built and finished cabinets have the disclaimer that "decorative hardware must be used" in order to have a warranty.

@Minardi - None of what you said accounts for why this staining occured so quickly. There are plenty of high end walnut cabinet kitchen with push release doors. Do those all stain within months too? Plenty of slab cabinets have tiny modern pull tabs where I imagine lots of hand oils get on the wood. Is there no finish that should be used to prevent this kindnof staining within months?

What does a factory finish consist of is you are getting handmade cabinets from a local carpenter? What products and processes does factory finish consist of?