Durability of satin cabinet lacquer?

[Dylan Borcoli]

Our new kitchen cabinets are painted with an off-white Mohawk lacquer, 20% sheen (satin). The interior of the glass cabinets are also lacquered, and I am concerned about the inside of these cabinets being hard to clean. Is it easy to scrub these cabinets clean without harming the satin lacquer finish? We didn't want a high gloss finish to look plastic, we love that it looks almost matte. I was able to find info on the web regarding the high gloss lacquer cabinet finish durability, but I can't find much regarding how satin sheen affects the durability. Does this change as the lacquer continues to cure over time? One woodworker told me that water is bad for lacquer, but on the web I'm reading that lacquer is cleaned with soapy water. So I am confused.

[Steve Schoene]

The flatting agents only have a modest impact on durability, mostly because the rougher surface won't let potential abrasives slide off so readily. The roughness does make cleaning a bit more difficult. If I were happy with the gloss version I wouldn't avoid the satin versions of the same finish.

Lacquer doesn't really cure over time, being an evaporative finish, though it can deteriorate over matters of years.

Mohawk has a number of coatings, some being considerably more durable than standard nitrocellulose lacquer. Which product exactly are you using.

[Dylan Borcoli]

The best I could determine is that it is one of the lower VOC Mohawk lacquers (California compliant) and it is a standard pre-cat lacquer (not the water based variety). I am also wondering how hard I can scrub it, and what would be the ideal cleaning agent, if I come across a tough stain on this kind of lacquer.

[John TenEyck]

Murphy's Oil Soap and warm water works well to clean all kinds of woodwork. Harsher chemical cleaners should be avoided as they can cause damage very quickly. Water won't harm lacquer or any other common finish if the exposure is brief, seconds or minutes. Long term exposure, like hours or days, is what causes damage to lacquer and many other finishes.

John

[Ryan Myers]

I just repainted my kitchen cabinets with ML Campbell's pre-cat lacquer satin finish. A damp rag has proved to wipe off almost all stains and foreign material. I blue scotch brite pad with light rubbing hasn't left scratches either. Water will not hurt these finishes unless you submerge the piece in water