Ikea Kitchen

[Timbo's Shed]

I am going to be installng an Kiea kitchen end of next week. I know a lot of people bag them out etc, but we have decided to go with one.

Just after any tips on putting the cabinet together and installing the thing. I read on one thread about sealing the edges of the cabinet??? and have also read about some of the difficulties attaching the wall cabinets due to the thing back on them.

I am sure there are plenty of people who have had experience with them and any tips to make it run smoothly would be great.

Thanks Tim.

[Jimmy]

the ikea kitchen are great

tip 1 - make sure you put the backs on the cupboards with the white on the inside!!

tip 2 - we used the glue from carbotec to consolidate the joins - excellent and dries in 10 minutes...

tip 3 - for the floor based cupboards you only need to attach the cupboards at the top right and bottom left (or vice se versa) to the wall as the benchtop will hold it all together, and attach each cupboard to each other (doh!).

tip 4 - for the wall cupboards we attached some old floor boards we had to the wall to attach the cupboards, top and bottom as ikea only has top attachments but on the display they attach them top and bottom - each unit weighs about 17 kg plus crockery - 60kg!! and the cover panels will cove the excess ( 15mm) a fienmd of ours has had one fall off the wall whoopsie!!

tip 4 - when constructing the cupboards make sure you knock the little wooden pegs full in on the edge with depth otherwise they will " burst" out of the shallow side - think about it............

tip 5 - customer support at ikea know diddly squat ???? about anything but they are very very nice just asj for teh backine team and they will call you nback within 24 hours...

tip 6 have petrol in your car you will be going back to ikea at least twice....

tip 7 - if you want some practise come over to our place.. LOL!!!!! we are still going!!! two weeks and counting.......

[renomart]

If you are not sure about the installation you can download an ebook about installing IKEA kitchens.

[Timbo's Shed]

Thanks for the info, good tips, floors being done next wk, then its kitchen time. Hopefully it will run smootly, Cheers Tim.

[renomart]

Good luck!

[Timbo's Shed]

What type of sealer should I use on the joins? Do they all need to be done, or just the sink cabinet?
Thanks again Tim.

[arms]

you shouldnt have to seal ANY of the joins on the cabinets ,the carcasses should be constructed from hmr particle board any thing less will swell just by different humidity ,if you mean tops then a good quality brand of plumbers silicone will do the job ,just make sure that it is plumbers silicone, standard silicone goes hard and doesnt flex

[Timbo's Shed]

Thanks Arms, I thought I had read somewhere that the join of the cabinets required sealing? anyway, should be right to go, the tops are going to be cesar stone, so they should be right

Thanks Tim.

[Timbo's Shed]

We have 9ft ceilings, and have got the 920mm tall wall cabinets, how high off the bench top should they be attached? I don't want them too tall as the wife is short. Is there a standard height???

[Sybarite]

We most commonly mount the wall units at the splashback height that matches the bottom of the range hood - although other people often drop them lower for the reason you have mentioned.
There are not really any industry standards dictating the minimum height a wall unit can be above a bench - except for those pertaining to cooktops.

Minimum splashback heights for rangehoods are 600mm for electric hobs and 650mm for gas.

An important thing to consider when deciding what height to hang your wall units is the ability for the person standing at the bench to easily and safely look at the entire top up to where it meets the wall.
This should also be considered in realtion to lighting.
If the wall units are mounted too low you might find your ease of viewing and comfort of lighting more limited than you would like.

920mm is a pretty high cabinet, so there is definitely going to be shelves which are not considered easy access - we refer to these as "long term storeage areas..."

My suggestion is if you can, either make a cardboard mock up or place an assembled wall unit on some temporary supports at a height you think will work for you and see how it goes.

Cheers,

Earl

[encino_]

If you are not sure about the installation you can download an ebook about installing IKEA kitchens.

Is that Australian based?

Because I've been looking up info on the web, and there are some easily available American stuff... only catch is they don't sell exactly the same stuff.
For instance they have a neat wall mount rail system for mounting the wall cupboards, but we don't have that here.
Actually I'm kind of at a loss how I'll mount their wall cabinets, as they only have the option to screw into their brackets at the corner.. but obviously my studs aren't going to be exactly there are they!?

[renomart]

Is that Australian based?

No, it is US...

[Ray153]

I know what you mean Encino. I am halfway through my kitchen reno and solved the studs in the wrong place problem this way. I simply put in new noggins at the required points for both wall and base cabinets. Relatively easy for me as I had gone back to bare studs in the reno.

If you are not going to the extreme that I did, ie back to the stud wall renovation, then you could mark out exactly where your wall cabinets will hang, mark the top line, measure down 45mm and cut away the plaster and screw in new noggins. Use the 45mm point as the centre line for the noggins and away you go. They will be hidden behind the cabinets so unless you plan on renovating every 5 years, should not be too much of a problem.

Ray

[encino_]

Thanks Ray... that's pretty much the solution I was thinking about last night... remive a strip of plaster, place noggins, then put a strip of plaster over.
Or maybe I could check out the studs and place a complete noggin all the way across.. might be stronger.. Will see when I remove it.

One question though, do the base cabinets have similar sort of things? The video I saw required base cabinets to be hung the same way... as well as feet and a wall strip.
Does this mean I need noggins for the top of the wall cabinet too? I guess they need to fix to the wall somehow!
Might have to remove all the plaster on the walls and replace.. I only just put it up too doh!


Cheers!

[Timbo's Shed]

I ended up hanging mine using a peice of hard wood screwed to the studs in the wall behind the cabinets then screwed the cabinets into that. Basically a home made version of there rail system, worked great. Only thing to be careful of is that the cabinets will now sit out a bit further and it may require you to change your cover panels.