kitchen cabinets on tiles

[silentC]

It's a small kitchen, so you're not looking at a HUGE job. The tiled splashback will need to be redone if you pull the cupboards out and lower them. Can't see any major problems though.

If you go for the high kicks, the first problem that stands out is what to do with the dishwasher. Some of them have an adjustable kick plate but I'll bet with 5cm kicks if this one has one, it's already stretched. The end of the bench on the left presents a problem as well because it doesn't have a kick, so you'll end up with a 2-3" gap under it that you'll have to do something with.

I think you can probably get away with doing it either way but pulling it out, digging up the floor and putting it back in gets my vote. I think it will look better and you'll be happier with the result.

[Jigsaw]

Knowing how much work is involved in putting in a kitchen, I would be thinking about removing the tiles and leaving the existing cupboards in place.
To see if the height is going to be too high, get a piece of chipboard or similar and sit it on phonebooks on top of the existing bench, (someting to raise it up to the level it would be without the tiles) and see if you can manage with this new height.

If this proves OK, you could remove the tiles and put drawers at the bottom in place of kickboards. This all depends on whether the tiles go underneath the cupboards (to the walls). If the tiles are underneath the cupboards you would have a step. In this case put in dummy drawers (only the fronts) in stead of kickboards.

[jane99]

Ok, so an update on the last four days.

We pulled the tiles out of the loungeroom on Friday, and then had to deal with the lino underneath on Saturday. Luckily it was on masonite, but it was really difficult to pull out, and then we had all the nails to pull out - I wish we'd counted them. After this effort we couldn't cope with the thought of the tiles in the kitchen, and the hire company had forgotten to collect the scaffolding so we thought we'd better make use of it and have primed 1/2 the house now. This weekend I'll do the tiles in the dining room which is on a concrete slab and is a nice small area for me to do on my own (well, with the help of a 9 yo!) and then we'll do the kitchen probably the weekend after. THe boards underneath look good. After much consideration, reading everyone's suggestions, I think we're going to leave the cabinets on the tiles for now.

Chris - my idea is to chip away at the tiles and the mortar so that we can either replace the kickboards or put new ones over the existing kickboards.

I like the idea of either putting a draw in, or even a fake draw - I've seen this done on kitchens in England but hadn't seen it done here.

I know that the end of the bench on the left, and also the surround for the fridge will be a problem - I think we'll either cut a piece of the laminate and attach it to the bottom (cheaper and not so nice option) or have new pieces of laminate to fit the new length (more expensive but nice option!).

We'll keep you informed.

BTW, the loungeroom looks amazing without the tiles - beautiful baltic pine that will polish up a treat!

[jackiew]

jane, there is an article on kitchen upgrades in the September 2003 American Woodworker which covers fitting drawers into kickboards. Rather than try and fit draw slides under the cupboards the article suggests making a "cradle" which fits under the cupboard and the drawer goes into the cradle.