Cabinet Installation 101

Introduction

Cabinet installation is probably one of the most overlooked items when thinking about doing your new kitchen cabinets. We will discuss all the necessary items needed and procedures when installing your new kitchen.

Planning

Before you jump right into cabinet installation, start by looking over your space and determine where certain obstacles lie that will determine some locations of components of the kitchen without adding extra cost and labor to achieve your kitchen design. Accurate measurements are crucial for ensuring that everything fits properly.

First, you need to determine where your plumbing and electricals are in the kitchen. This will allow you to make sure your sink and appliances will fit where you would like them to be.

Second, all door and window openings need to be identified and measured to allow cabinets to fit properly.

Third, make sure your new layout will cover the existing floor so that no additional cost will be needed to either replace or repair floors where old cabinets were.

Tools

Make sure you have the necessary tools required for your cabinet installation, below is a list of tools that are required for installing cabinets:

• Tape Measure
• Level
• Drill
• Drill Bits
• Hammer
• Stud Finder

Here are some additional time saving tools that will help ease the installation:

• Table Saw
• Miter Saw
• Finish Nailer
• Laser Level
• Separate drill with screw tip

Materials

Here is a list of materials needed to complete your cabinet installation:

• Cabinets (base, wall, and tall)
• Screws
• Finish nails (either hand or for nail gun)
• Shims
• Fillers
• Trim

Cabinet Selection

Types of cabinets

There are a few different types of cabinets to choose from. Let’s go over them below.

First you must decide if you want framed cabinets or frameless cabinets:

• Framed cabinets have a solid wood face frame around the front of the cabinet that is usually 1 ½” tall x ¾” thick with ½” plywood sides, back, and bottom. This helps to make the cabinets a little stronger, and helps keeps things square and level. Framed cabinets are easier to install especially on older homes.
• Frameless (or full access) do not have a front frame and use ¾” plywood sides, back and bottom. This allows for a larger opening on cabinets and a little more interior depth in the cabinet. This is a much harder installation because everything needs to be perfectly square or your doors and drawers will not line up perfectly when complete. Please allow extra time when installing frameless cabinets.

Second, what type of kitchen cabinets do you want to use? Below are the common types.

RTA Cabinets (ready to assemble)

These are premanufactured (stock cabinets) that come flat packed (in a box) that need to be assembled on site. These are very well made and are an affordable option when someone wants to save some money. They come in set sizes so you can’t easily modify them. Usually they start at 9” wide and come in 3” increments after not usually going above 42” wide. The heights of the base cabinets are usually 34 ½” tall, the wall cabinets usually come in multiple heights starting at 12” high through 42” tall, and tall cabinets usually come in heights of 84”,90” and 96”.

RTA cabinets also only come in certain styles and colors, but usually they are the most popular styles and colors.

Semi-Custom Cabinets

They come in a wide variety of door styles and colors, and they usually have many more SKUs to choose from. You can also modify a cabinet more easily because these cabinets are made for your project. So, if you would like a base cabinet 14” wide, then you can order it that way, which will allow you to have more flexibility in designing your kitchen. This is the mid-tier when choosing cabinets for your kitchen.

Custom Cabinets

These are tailor made to fit your project, you can have any door style, color or option you would like. This is the most expensive way to do your kitchen.

STEPS

1. Measuring for Cabinets – If you would like to get a copy of our measurement guide, click here. Accurate measurements are the most crucial part of the process.
   • Take a piece a paper and sketch out your walls in your kitchen. Make sure you put in openings (doors and windows) that will be where you will be installing cabinets.
   • Measure any wall that you are going to have cabinets on and document on your drawings. Also make sure you note measurements where doors and windows are along with plumbing and electrical locations.
   • You can watch our video on how to measure a kitchen by clicking here.
2. Removing Your Old Cabinets
   • First make sure you shut off any power going to appliances or fixtures you might be removing.
   • Next, we highly recommend that you shut water off to your house while working in sink area.
   • Start removing appliances and setting them aside (if reusing) so they do not get damaged during installation of cabinets.
   • Take your countertops off and then start removing your cabinets one at a time until they all have been removed. Sometimes it is easier to remove all doors and drawers first to make the cabinets lighter and not have anything getting in your way.
3. Disposal – Contact your local Habitat for Humanity. Sometimes they will repurpose the cabinets for someone in need. You can also find someone you know that would want to use in a shop or their garage. If not, you will need to contact your local municipality to see the best way to dispose of them.
4. Prepare the Wall for Installation – Start by making sure surface area is clean and ready to accept cabinets. If there are any holes that will not be behind cabinets, it would be easier to repair now.
5. Leveling Cabinets – This is probably the most important part when it comes to installing cabinets. It is very important that you make cabinets level and plumb. Start by drawing a level line at 54” off the floor. That is where most upper cabinets are installed today. Here is a little nugget to help installing upper cabinets:
   • Install a board even with the line you drew which will allow you to support cabinet while you secure it to the wall.
   • Next use your stud finder and mark where the studs are on the wall. Then go and mark out your walls where the cabinets are going to be placed to make sure everything fits.
   • Always start from corners when marking out the cabinets. If everything looks like it will fit, then you can start installing your cabinets.
   • Start with your wall cabinets first, and make sure you have an additional person to help you because cabinets can be heavy and hard to move around by yourself. Hold up on level line you drew and secure to the studs you have marked out. Make sure you use shims to keep plumb off back of wall.
   • Next, predrill 2-3 holes in face frame so you can attach the face frames together with 2 ½” screws. Hold up the cabinet you drilled out, make sure face frames are lined up bottom and front to back and screw in the 2 ½” screws into the other cabinet. Then shim cabinet if needed and screw into studs.
   • Continue this until all the upper cabinets are installed.
   • On your base cabinets – using the level line you already drew, find your highest point on the floor. That is where you need to make sure that you level all your base cabinets to. So come off the high point and make a level line across at 34 ½” where base cabinets will be, that will be the top of all your base cabinets.
   • Start installing base cabinets just like the uppers making sure to use shims to level cabinets off the floor. Also make sure your openings for appliances align with the upper cabinets above.
6. Trim and Molding – After the cabinets are installed level, you will need to install all your trim and moldings to really dress up your cabinets. If your base cabinets do not sit on floor evenly, use a quarter round or shoe molding to hide the space that is left from leveling cabinets.
7. Touch Up – Go through the job using a touch up kit to fill and nail holes or minor scratches that happened during installation of the cabinets.

Adjustments

After you finish touching up you might need to go through and adjust door and drawer fronts. This is done by either using adjustment screws on hinges or moving hinges up or down to align doors. If drawer fronts are not even, you will either need to loosen drawer front and reset them or some drawer hardware allow you to adjust them from underneath.

Hardware

The last item for installing your kitchen cabinets is marking out your hardware (knobs and handles) where you want them. This is important to measure twice before you drill the holes, because it is very hard to fix if you drill incorrectly. Sometimes it is smart to either buy a jig or make one out of wood block. After you drill out all the hardware go ahead and install them.

You have now installed your kitchen completely, I hope this has helped you in starting your kitchen project with us, if you have any more questions please email us at [email protected].