Thread: Kitchen Doors from floorboards??

Hi Mudpete,

Sounds like a great idea. I don't think the doors will be too heavy for the hinges.

When I use floorboards to make panels I cut off the tongue and groove and joint the plain edges.

I wouldn't worry about the horizontal pieces top & bottom as you may create a problem with expansion & contraction, and endgrain looks fine.

I recently saw a kitchen with doors made from vertically jointed boards and it looked good-- let the timber do the talking.

I'm no expert, just my two bobs worth. Good luck with it.

Why not? Bog standard IKEA is too bloody boring.

Great idea, Pete.

I have a stack of 19mm Sydney Red Gum left over and have been wondering how I could use it.

Mick

Thanks for the replies!

Hey 3 toed sloth,

You say that when you make panels from T&G boards, you cut the T&G off first (?). I kinda thought that having the T&G was a bonus for strength etc... what advantages have you found for squaring them up?

Also, do you use bracing behind the boards? I am worried that they wont be dead flat.. though, like my floors of the same material, I can always sand them flat.

Any more advice ($0.02 worth or not) is greatly appreciated!!

Cheers,

Pete.

Trouble with the T&G are that they are not a good fit for gluing. Better off without them and simply glue and cramp, or perhaps use biscuits if in doubt.

I fitted out a complete kitchen using T&G boards; didn't want to butt joint them as then they'd be thinner than the floor-boards... and the whole idea was a semi-seamless merge.

For the doors, I ripped down some scrap T&G for bracing in a Z-pattern, much like a rural wooden gate. The first time I thicknessed the braces to 7 or 8mm so they wouldn't look so... "industrial" but after the kitchen saw a few months of use - lot's of steam & moisture - they started bowing like you wouldn't believe. When shut, they were still ajar by an inch or two!

The owner liked the look though, so I simply removed the bracing and used pieces near full thickness (about 18mm) in lieu and only screwed not glued. They've been OK like that for several years now. (Thank God! I wouldn't want to have to rebuild them yet again.)

My advice is don't do it even once although I must admit that they do look good if nothing goes wrong.

So Skew! Had you glued the bracing to the back as well? I was contemplating doors from floorboards too and thought you'd have to have scews in slots somehow on the back to account for the wood moving.

Originally Posted by tea lady

So Skew! Had you glued the bracing to the back as well? I was contemplating doors from floorboards too and thought you'd have to have scews in slots somehow on the back to account for the wood moving.

Originally - on the doors that bowed - yeah, they were glued. Stupid of me, I know.

The replacement braces were only screwed on, no slots, but I did pre-drill the holes over-size to cater for some degree of movement. I worked on the principle that the boards had already expanded as far as they were going to (due to the moisture in an operating kitchen) so if there'd be any problems it'd be their shrinking back and gaps opening between.

Fortuitously, it has worked out well. I don't know what'll happen if they vacate the house for a 6 month holiday or similar though.... perhaps then the gaps will open up. Until they start cooking again, anyway.

(Edit: I have some really crappy pix taken of it during the install, but they were happy snaps taken by his missus, so don't really show anything of note... and thus won't be posted. )

So did you have the support frame bracing build quite strongly so it woiuld stay in shape without the boards on it, then screw the boards on? Are the boards screwed on separately? Or glued to each other then screwwed to the bracing?

(Hope you don't mind ny questions Mudpete. Its something I've been pondering too. )

Hi again Mudpete,

As Artme said the T&G is not a good fit for gluing. The T&G seems to be designed to ensure the boards meet flush on top while the underside has a slight gap when the boards are nailed down.

This works well for floorboards but when gluing up a panel and you clamp up the boards edge to edge the panel tends to cup upwards due to the slight gap on the underside of the T&G.

I also like to joint the edges to get a nice straight edge. Of course, as Skew points out, you do lose some width from the board.

Originally Posted by tea lady

So did you have the support frame bracing build quite strongly so it woiuld stay in shape without the boards on it, then screw the boards on? Are the boards screwed on separately? Or glued to each other then screwwed to the bracing?

No support frame. Just 3 braces in a Z-pattern like an old wooden gate.

I simply cut the T&G boards slightly overlength and laid them face down on a flat surface to form the panel, using a pair of sash clamps to hold them alltogether. But not tight enough to cause the boards to concertina off the surface, if you know what I mean? No glue whatsoever.

The top and bottom rails were also cut slightly over length, then laid in position so I could work out the length of the diagonal brace by holding it there and marking in situ.

(I did it this way rather than try to draw up plans 'cos there were doors of different sizes. Overhead cabinet, under bench and side cabinets. 'Twas quicker to just test-fit one of each size to determine the lengths I needed per door than waste time trying to do maths. )

Once The diagonal brace was cut to size, I'd lay it back in place so I could scribe the cut-outs in the top and bottom braces to the diagonal's ends. All 3 braces were used as templates for the rest of the doors of that particular size. ie. I could clamp several braces together and cut 'em all at once.

Then it was just a case of replacing the bottom brace and screwing it onto the boards... using two screws per board because of the cupping 3-toe mentions. And finally sat the diagonal and top braces in place and screwed both of them down.

The end result was pretty solid and I could then run the whole panel through the TS to bring it to final dimension and clean up the edges. I later used a tenon saw to trim the ends of the braces a cm or so short of the sides of the doors, simply 'cos that's the best tool I had to hand at the time. And because of the above construction method it was easier to do later than try to cut them to right length before assembly.

Heh. It sounds like a lot of fiddling around, but it's really quite simple. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes per door on average?

I took a LOT of screws and looks fairly "tin-shed type rustic" on the inside, but the customer was happy and that's what counts. [phew!]