Installing Floor Cabinets

An uneven floor will lead to uneven base cabinets and you won t appreciate how crooked they appear.

Installing floor cabinets.

Use 2x2s to secure cabinets to the floor for kitchen island installation. Take your time and get it right. Identify the highest point on the floor where you will be installing base cabinets. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick.

A floating floor should be installed after the cabinetry but the cabinetry must be raised to a height just above the flooring. Typically cabinets come before flooring. Install 2 x 2 support. Cabinets that make up islands and peninsulas need to be secured to the floor.

Floor covering or finish flooring is the surface that you see and walk on not the subfloor under the underlayment or underlayment between subfloor and finished layer. Otherwise you ll have trouble installing appliances later. In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. Shim beneath the cabinet to align it with the top of cabinet line you drew on the wall.

Kitchen floor cabinets photo 10. If the floor isn t level find the highest point in the floor along the wall where the cabinets will be installed. The first step in how to install kitchen cabinets is finding the highest point on the floor. To begin kitchen island installation first trace an outline of the cabinets on the floor.

Screw the cabinet to the blocking with two. Lower the cabinet over the blocking. Shim clamp and screw the frames together. Kitchen floors especially those in older homes are often not perfectly level and flat.

Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. Draw a second line to mark the thickness of the cabinet base then screw 2x2s to the floor along the inner line. Mark the layout of the cabinets and all floor based appliances. If you re installing a new floor this is the best time to do so since you can run it under the cabinetry unless you re installing a floating floor.

Join the island cabinets and set them in place. Kitchen floor cabinets photo 11. It s best to try to start the base cabinet installation as close to this high point as possible it s easier to shim under the cabinets on the lower spots to make them level with this first one rather than starting on a low point and having to trim the bottoms of the cabinets. Install plywood in remaining area to exact height of tile floor to finish cabinet install.

But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described. The corner base cabinet sets the trend for all of your other base cabinets so take the time to do this step well.