I mounted my kitchen cabinets into 100+ yr old brick using a masonry bit, and wall anchors. I also used canned air to blow out all the dust from the hole and then dampened the inside of the hole, then inserted Gorilla glue and then tapped in the anchor and attached the cabinets. I've had 2 cabinets fail and begin pulling out of the wall (one quite suddenly and dangerously) and am now truly perplexed as to how to mount them to safely stay put. I've read about some folks using a French cleat on these types of walls, but am unclear as to the advantage? Am also thinking I might need to add some kind of reinforcement to those which haven't failed -- yet! Any additional advice would be greatly appreciated.
Personally, I *always* start by mounting a batten on the wall underneath kitchen wall cabinets. That way you define an accurate level for all of them, and they become very easy to fix. Assuming you have work surfaces under, once you have fixed the batten you can then rest the cupboards on the batten one at a time, propped up at the front on a stack of books or some other suitable objects. Then, you can drill through the fixing battens or brackets inside the cabinets to mark the exact spot on the wall that needs to be drilled and plugged. Once you have done that you will be able to fit the cupboards single-handed, with a bit of practice.
Do this before fitting the doors of course, or if the doors are already on then remove them first (normally easy if they are on standard cabinet hinges).
The batten is doing the main work of holding up the weight, so it needs to be fixed securely. You only need a couple of sufficiently secure screws at the top of each cabinet to stop them tipping away at the top. In some cabinets, you are fixing through a length of 18mm chipboard behind the hardboar panel. In better ones there will be a concealed metal bracket.
If you want, you can put a couple of vertical screws down through the bottom shelf into the batten.
You can also fit connecting bolts between adjacent cabinets to keep them together and make the whole structure more solid.
You should not need to use gorilla glue with wall anchors. What type are you using? In dodgy walls it is worth using good quality plastic plugs, rather than shed cheapies. Plasplugs are OK, Fischer are probably the best. Try not to drill too oversize or the plug won't grip well. Only if the wall is *very* rough might it be necessary to use polyester anchor material. You can use this to fit various types of wall plug, or just set in a length of studding (lined up with holes in the cabinet), and then secure the cabinet with nuts and penny washers once the resin has set. Use excess studding (for ease of fitting) and trim to length after fitting.
I would strongly recommend using the wall hanging bar, which means you can put in multiple fixings along the row of cabinets, and also ensures all the cabinets are level.
Yep, the B&Q cabinets come with two pissing little 2" pieces of that bar per cabinet, which inevitably need screws where screws don't want to go, fitting a whole length of bar is much easier.
With cabinets, most of the load is on the fixing in shear. So long fixings (4" screw into wall plugs) with the hole drilled at a slight downward angle will make the fixing almost impossible to pull out with a shear load.
Fixing all the cabinets together will also help resist movement of any one cabinet in isolation,
Lastly a fixing batten under the base of all the cabinets will also help take the load.
The advantage of a French cleat is that it can be quite a wide bit of timber, that allows many fixing spread over a reasonable area. So again reducing the stress on any individual fastening.
Owain Lastname snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
That would be my absolute favourite after watching a builder arsing around with lots of individual ones. Needs a small cutout in the rear of the sides of the cabinets.
Arguably an even better idea than a batten underneath, apart from the fiddle of notching the uprights. The other thing I like about "my" battens is that it's easy to put screw hooks into them for hanging utensils. I also have mini strip lights mounted on some of mine. (These are not visible from the front in my case because I have "home-made" doors that stretch down a couple of inches below the bottom shelf).
Gorilla Glue would not have been my choice. a chemical resin or epoxy resin filler would have been better. Much talk about french cleats but if the wall is not flat the french cleat may not function correctly and adjustment of cabinet is difficult. Blum, or similar, wall hanging brackets are ideal . The brackets have a minimum of three slots for screws increasing chances of getting a good fixing or a fixing rail can be used. One bracket in each if the cupboards top corners and levelling is easy. Fischer do any excellent selection of different plugs. I'd be surprised if a suitable one could not be found in their range If going to the trouble of fixing a wood batten under the cupboards then just use a top wood batten as well. Set tight to the top of the cabinet with screws securing the cabinet to it . This will stop the cabinet tilting outwards and maintain the weight vertical to the fixings
But a top batten above the cupboards is much more difficult to fit, because you have to do it with the cupboards in place but still prevented from tilting. And a vertical screw into the chipboard top (or even sides) will not be particularly secure, as well as being difficult to fix since it has to be driven parallel to the wall and there may not be much vertical clearance. Can't see what advantage it provides.
The bracket is set back in the cupboard to allow the cabinet sit flush, The brackets include adjustment to pull the cabinet into the wall and adjust cabinet height to allow adjacent cabinets line up
Yup. Not that impressed with any hanging methods given the weight of stuff that can be stored in wall cupboards.
Since mine had to fit between a chimney breast and end wall, I ended up making them using spur shelving uprights with brackets. Multiple fixings and can take any practical load. And no sagging of the middle shelf.
Despite this there must be 100,000s of cabinets fixed to the walls with the supplied fixings and very little reported evidence that they are falling off walls.
I don't say they're likely to fall off, just that the longer lengths are easier to fit and get a whole run straight and/or level, and avoid needing to drill for screws/plugs in inconvenient places.
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