Resizing solid timber kitchen cupboard doors in Melbourne

[Dengue]

A cousin of mine from Ivanhoe, a NE suburb of Melbourne, is modifying his kitchen to take a much wider oven unit, which must be fitted centrally under the rangehood. This means replacing existing cabinets on either side of the new oven unit with narrower cabinets, with matching timber doors to the original. The doors, he thinks, are made of Vic Ash, with a framed panel and are shown in the attached pics.

The hinges on the double door connecting the door to the right hand cabinet are broken, and he cannot find a replacement. Can anyone please suggest what these hinges might be and where he might get them?

Can anyone please suggest the name of a reputable and experienced woodworker or furniture restorer who could reduce these two doors to a specified size, or make two new doors to match? The left hand door will end up about 250 -300mm wide.

20210806_085454.jpgdoor.jpg

[ian]

Dengy
I don't think the arrangement of the stove and bench tops is in accord with the Building Code of Australia.
You can see where the front right gas burner has scorched the edge of the Laminex (?) bench top.
At a minimum, your cousin will need to lift the existing stove so that the enamel top (under the burners) is level with the adjacent bench surfaces. This is important as, in the event of a kitchen fire, the mismatch in height is grounds for the insurance company to deny any claim.

I also think that the BCA requires that the range hood extend across the full width of the burner surface. I could be wrong, but I don't recall seeing a narrow range hood mounted over a wide oven. It is something your cousin really should check.




Also, along with modifying the bench tops and cupboard doors, your cousin will require new cupboard boxes either side of the new (wider) oven.
If a new wider oven is a must, then unfortunately, bodgy fixes to the edge of the existing counter top and under bench cupboards will likely not be sufficient.

[rustynail]

Stove top should be 10mm higher than bench top. A plinth under the stove would solve the problem. The doors are easy to reduce in size. Different matter if you want them bigger.

[Dengue]

Anyone know of where he can get the doors modified please?

[ian]

Stove top should be 10mm higher than bench top. A plinth under the stove would solve the problem. The doors are easy to reduce in size. Different matter if you want them bigger.

Rusty,
does the BCA require that a range hood cover the full width of the (gas) stove top?
If it does, Dengy's cousin will need a new, wider range hood plus a new wider centre overhead cabinet to hold it. Lowering the range hood (by inserting a filler piece) will likely breach the vertical clearance requirements above the stove burners.
(Raising the existing stove (which is a must) by inserting a plinth, might also result in a breach the required vertical clearance requirements.)


I'm reluctant to recommend a person to do the door modifications given that the whole width of the kitchen might need rebuilding.

[rustynail]

50 Litres / second is the BCA ventilation requirement. No stipulation as to dimension. Could just be an extraction fan. Height of range hood is determined by the manufacturer. They all should have enough variance to alllow for a plinth under the stove.

[double.d]

The tops either side will need to be trimmed as well so that whole wall of units needs to come out.

I would be getting a cabinet maker in for the job.

[Dengue]

Thanks double.d. He is getting cabinet makers for the cabinets, but they will not touch the existing doors, and cannot match them. The doors are the problem. He is looking for someone who can modify the existing doors in Melbourne

[aldav]

Not much help here, hey Dengy. Ask a simple question and get dragged off in every direction, other than where you want to go, because everybody feels the need to manage the whole project for you even though you already have that in hand.

Surely someone in Melbourne can help with this.

[chambezio]

When I was working in Kitchen manufacture we would have this scenario come up mainly when people wanted a dishwasher fitted to an existing kitchen. Yes to make new doors that match is a big ask. To get around this we would pull out the carcases and either make new or cut down the old. With the doors we would get creative and make cuts to the styles and panels, then dowel the pieces together. Its hard to describe the process in words here but the end result was not noticeable at all. It can be done easily but its a little fiddly.