Built in Cabinet advice needed

[John]

Hi,

I know this should be posted on alt.home.repair (and it was) but since woodworking is definately involved and from what I can tell, a number of people who participate in this group are cabinet building pros, I though I'd place it here also.

I'm planning to build a couple of floor to ceiling cabinets for my family room. Right now the room is carpeted but we are pulling out the carpet and putting in a hardwood floor. We have plans to live here for about ten more years (if that matters). Building the cabinets is no problem as I have built furniture in the past. What I can't decide on is whether the cabinets should sit on the flooring material or not. My two thought are as follows:

1. Pull up the carpeting and build the cabinets on the subfloor. Then install the hardwood floor up to the cabinet bases and trim it out as you would any wall. My concern is what if it's decided in the future to remove the cabinets, you now have spaces with no flooring.

1. Pull up the carpet and install the floor. Build the cabinets on the hardwood floor. My concern here is what if it's decided in the future to replace the flooring material, do the cabinets have to removed or do they somehow cut around them.

Thanks in advance, Jo

[Bob Gramza]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

There are ways to cut around them. Odds are, you'd want to redecorate and remove or change the built-ins before you'd change the flooring.

[Swingman]

I'd build them on top of the new hardwood floor. I built a set recently by building the cabinets stand-alone, slightly shorter than ceiling height (by the height of the crown molding), and then used French cleats to hold them flush to the wall. Once the cabinets were in place and the crown molding attached, all that is necessary to remove them is to take off the crown molding and lift the cabinets up and away from the wall.

Only "gotcha" is to be careful that the diagonal distance from the bottom front, to the top back of the cabinets does not exceed the height of the ceiling, otherwise you won't be able to tip them into place. Tall and/ or creative moldings for the interface between the ceiling and top front/sides of the cabinets can generally be finesses to look stunning, still allowing for easy removal.

Future flexibility was a necessity in this particular instance and these, for all practical purposes, look, and act, like built-ins.

[Scott Brownell]

do ) and you decide to

that allows you to cut

you cut the flooring. OK

Are you thinking of a toe-kick saw Bob?

Scott

[Renata]

Or build 'em in two sections. If you have an 8' ceiling, you gotta lose just under 3" on the diagonal measurement in order to be able to tip it into place. Depending on the style of cabinet, that may or may not be too much. In my kitchen, I didn't want to use a "heavy" crown, so I built the pantry units in two sections and slid one ot top of the other without a glitch.

BTW, I concur with building them on top of the finished flooring.

Renata

--snip--

[Ken K]

Build cabinet 3 1/2-4 inches shorter then ceiling height. Attach adjustable legs , sold for cabinets , which are adjustable from 3-4 1/2 inches. Adjust legs full extension or level to ceiling then trim top and bottom of cabinet.

Ken