I think I know the answer to this but until you ask it, you never know. I want to remodel my kitchen and use the existing kitchen cabinets in a basement remodel. Is there anything I should look out for in doing such?
Thoughts, as always, are appreciated.
Be very careful removing them.... Remove the doors first... Have someone with you to help support the wall cabinets... Hopefully, yours will be attached using screws... Mine weren't. I was able to only salvage 50% of the old cabinets.
Oh yeah, empty them first
Rick
Depends on how they were built and installed.
Today, cabinets are boxes screwed to the studs behind the wall. Generally, four screws (two top, two bottom). Often these are hidden by small plastic "buttons" -- just pop the button off and voila, there's the screw. Sometimes they are hidden by fillers -- probe gentle with an awl or the point of a utility knife -- scoop out the filler and vioila --
Cabinets are also joined to each other ... by screws through the face frame -- again, look around till you find them.
If yours were built that way ...put some support under the uppers ... and pop them out.
In older homes, cabinets were sometimes built right on the wall. These are dificult to get off -- most often, we end up removing them gently with an axe and a reciprocating saw. Nothing except the doors are salvageable.
For the lowers --- your countertop should be screwed down from underneath with one inch screws .. should be easily salvageable if you want it. Again .. there are always some that were installed with no thought as to how they would be taken off --- screwed from the top and laminated over --- various glues -- all kinds of nutty things.
Hope yours were done by a pro.
Ken
I removed mine from a 1969 home recently. They were built in place, and installed with (thankfully) double headed 8 penny nails. I remove all of the upper cabinets over the peninsula in one piece, 10 feet. I ended up with
7 separated pieces in all. Some damage occurred. Most of the cabinets when into the garage and I sprayed them white. Have a few friends over for the demo party. You may need the help.
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