Installing Kitchens

[RenoGirl82]

Hi All,
I'm new here so my apologies if i'm not doing things by the book.
I noticed in some other topics people have purchased and installed IKEA kitchens.
I would like to know what you used to attach your cabinets to the wall (silly me didnt realise that wasnt included in the package). Or does anyone have any advice what length, etc screws i would need to do this. If it helps at all, i will be attaching to plasterboard.

Also, with the benchtops i am purchasing from a laminate manufacturer so unfortunately no instructions come with them. My cousin mentioned about if my walls arent square and cutting them back.....Could someone give me some advice or confirm whether this is true, i'm now feeling a little bit lost with my project that i thought even i couldnt mess up!

[namtrak]

Photos!

To attach to the plasterboard you looking for the noggins/studs behind the plasterboard. A bit of tapping on the board should get you started.

Trimming a laminate top can take a bit ( a router bit). Depends on how out of square the walls are. Do you have a carpenters square?

More photos are handy.

mainly though don't panic, you'll figure it out.

Cheers

[Border boy]

A stud finder is a very handy & cheap tool. The guys that installed our kitchen used the "tap & drill" method to find studs. Thankfully the cabinets hid most of their exploratory attempts to find a stud. In frustration I left my $30.00 stud finder in clear view for them. They didn't use it. A few test drill holes are still visible if you know where to look.

[renomart]

I use 40mm head hole screws for base cabinets and a bit longer for wall cabinets (going into gyprock wall over studs). My base and wall units have 16mm solid backs.

Do IKEA kitchens have a 3mm thick back?

Headhole means just that. There is a hole in the head of the screw so you can fasten screw caps to cover the screw head.

[RenoGirl82]

Yes, all the cabinets have 3mm backs. They also have pre-drilled holes in the top 2 corners and they supply a little keyhole template which goes in between the back of the cabinet and the screw that fixes into the wall. (hope that makes sense) Because everything is pre-drilled i'm guessing i wont be having much choice whether the screws are going into studs or not, so i need to use wall plugs. I guess i'm still a little worried that 2 screws are gonna be responsible for holding a cabinet full of glasses onto a wall!
I dont have a carpenters square, but i may be able to borrow one from my builder. If it's not square what is my next step with the benchtops?
What exactly do i need photos of?

[Honorary Bloke]

By no means should you attach the cabinets using wall plugs in plasterboard! :eek: Two screws can hold the cabinet, but only into studs.

[Sybarite]

I dont have a carpenters square, but i may be able to borrow one from my builder. If it's not square what is my next step with the benchtops?

The "cutting back" your cousin mentioned is probably the technique of removing material from the "back" edge of the tops to get them to meet the wall evenly - also referred to as "scribing".

Since you seem to be getting tops from a post former any joins/ends they machine should be very square - so further checking for square should not be essential.

What happens next is that you place your tops against the wall and "scribe" a line along the back of the top that matches the wall irregularities; this can be done in a number of ways, one of which is to use a drawing compass - run the sharp end along the wall and the marking end will draw a similar line on the top.
The top then gets cut back (preferably with a plane) to the line.

Technically this will mean that your bench will now fit snugly up to the wall.
In practice this can be a bit tricky, and is a bit hard to completely describe in words only, but by no means should it be beyond your capabilities.

If you are really not feeling certain about this process it may be worth asking your builder (or cousin) for a bit of help on this one - removing too much material from the back of your tops can really ruin your day.

As for hanging wall units - 3mm backs only? Yikes!
Like the others have said, you definitely need to anchor these in something structural.
If you can't find a stud or noggin behind the hole then put the hole somewhere else (and cap the old ones with some of those little plastic plugs)...I personally would not be happy relying on the 3mm...like Renomart says, 16mm solid backs are best preference.
Don't those units at least have a solid top and bottom rail that can be screwed through?

Most importantly, don't panic - just take your time and don't be afraid to get someone who has done it before to help you.
Even if you have to pay them a bit for it, it will still probably be cheaper than having to get a new set of tops, and while they are doing it you can get them to clearly explain all the processes to you for when you do your next install.

Cheers,

[renomart]

I think IKEA use a hanging rail system for the wall cabinets. Check out this guy's site for installing IKEA cabinets.

[RenoGirl82]

http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_AU/complet...llation_1.html

Just did a search and found this. The rail system you're talking about must be an american/overseas product as i looked up the eastern Aus Ikea site and there is no mention of it. I like the way it looks easy on there, but there is no mention of finding studs, etc to make sure your cabinets hold up.
I am almost to the point of contemplating paying someone else to install this for me (the people Ikea recommend charge $85 a cabinet and thats just to put them on the wall, it's another $45 or so for them to put the cabinets together - which i have done) but im not sure where you find kitchen installers, tried the yellow pages under 'kitchen installers' but came back with nothing. I dont particularly want to pay $1300 just to install the kitchen when the kitchen only cost me twice that amount!

[Sybarite]

I haven't dealt with these people before, but if they can't help you they might be able to point you in the right direction.

KITchens
39 Township Road, MARION, SA
(08) 8377 3233
[email protected]

Cheers,

[arms]

hi,sounds silly but i have found that in all the other states that i send flat packed kitchens to customers i recommend "hire a hubby" for the job of installation ,they have never let me or the customer down in regards to a good job and the customer being happy as well as a fair price ,$85 is well and truly up there on the installation cost ,i do know that i wish i could get $85 per cabinet ,who would have to worry hey sybarite and renomart

[renomart]

I could only get $50 max per cabinet. So yes, I would love to get $85.

Try these guys Aussemble

[RenoGirl82]

Aussemble were the company i'm talking about! I used their estimate online and it came back with a ridiculous amount of $1300 or something. Which is why i decided to attempt it myself.
When i shopped around for a kitchen i contacted a lot of flat pack kitchen places for quotes so i wasnt sure how politically correct it would be to turn around and say no i dont want your kitchen but can you give me the number of your kitchen installer....
I will ring hire a hubby tomorrow, i think i'm willing to part with 500 bucks just to get the damn thing installed before xmas~

[renomart]

Good luck RenoGirl. This is the busiest time of year for kitchen installers. If you find one that doesn't have much work on I would be very worried...:eek:

[Metal Head]

Hi,

I know you can get the odd rotten apple in companies the size of HAH (Hire A Hubby). However, I got the one here in Melbourne who had 5 attempts at stopping an S bend pipe from leaking - after that I got rid of him and finished off the job myself. That wasn't before he had charged me top $$$ for a poor job of installing my cabinets. A month later I had to go back and redo most of the job as the tenant nearly lost his arm from a unit falling on him.

On a personal note I generally use Ramset Wall Mates for attaching items to a wall but maybe not in this case. I would phone Ramset and ask them if it was OK to use them, if not what would they suggest?.

Regards
David