Just a follow-up.....

I bought some TSP at Home Depot and some ammonia at a supermarket (As
someone mentioned, Home Depot and Lowes don't sell ammonia -- duh).

My plan was to clean the cabinets first with TSP (which I never used before)
and then do a final cleaning with ammonia to get the TSP residue off before
painting with the shellac-based Zinsser B-I-N primer.

Well, after cleaning with the TSP, I couldn't believe how good the cabinets
look. They look so good that I don't even need to paint them, so I can skip
that altogether. The "before" cabinets were covered with grease and crud
and looked awful. But, the "after" cabinets look fine as is.

I had no idea that TSP would work so well. It just seemed to dissolve the
grease and crud like it was a perfect solvent for both. Amazing.


"Jay-T" wrote in message
...
I am going to be painting some laminate kitchen cabinets. They are in a
home that I own that I will be renting out.

My plan is to clean the cabinets, probably lightly sand the surface, then
prime with Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer. After that, paint with
either latex-based or oil-based paint.

The Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer says to not clean the cabinets with
TSP. One website I found suggested cleaning them with Xylol. Any
suggestions on what to use for the cleaning part?

I assume that oil-based paint would be better and would result in a harder
and more durable finish than latex-based paint. Is that correct?

Any other suggestions or thoughts on how to go about doing this?