Thread: Installing Kitchens

Forget using the plasterboard. It cannot be done safely.

You must find a stud.

The Wall mates have specific weight loadings - about a tonne from memory?
You may getaway with them for base cabinets but it would be way too risky on a wall unit.
As boban said find a stud it, is will be easier than trying to line up a screw to a wall plug

Ok - so this is going to sound messy but this is the solution I had to use in a similar situation (I'm a 2 kitchen Ikea veteran).
Mark the spots on the wall where in a ideal world the cabinet hanging holes would be drilled based on the metal ikea hanging brackets.
Mark & cut away (with a jigsaw or hand saw) the plasterboard horizontally 30mm above and below the marked spots but NOT extending past the width of the cupboards. Be really careful about not cutting through electrical cable in the wall cavity. You should be left with long horizontal hole 60mm high exposing the wall studs.
Cut a piece of timber to just short of the length of the cabinets and cut rebates in the studs to fit this length so that the timber sits flush with the wall surface.
Firmly glue and screw the timber into the wall studs. You now have a structurally solid fastening point
Use large wood screws with 3/8 washers to pin the cabinet to the timber through the two metal brackets in the ikea cabinet (predrill all the holes for all the cabinets though so you can check they are all at the same level)
If you are really careful when cutting the plaster board you won't have to do any patching as the cabinets will completely cover your work.
Good Luck!

Originally Posted by RenoGirl82

Also, with the benchtops i am purchasing from a laminate manufacturer so unfortunately no instructions come with them. My cousin mentioned about if my walls arent square and cutting them back.....Could someone give me some advice or confirm whether this is true, i'm now feeling a little bit lost with my project that i thought even i couldnt mess up!

Most people tile the wall above the bench tops and this gives you a fair bit of leeway with a not-so-square wall. The benchtop manufacturers I've queried will recommend that they themselves do the measurement for the benchtops so see if you can find this service as they work with whatever is there - it's not an umcommon situation! I like the ikea oak laminate benchtops and have trimmed the join between the bench and pre existing tiles in my lastest effort with Tassie oak quarter round (the first kitchen I did I tiled the wall after installing the benchtop but this time I wanted to keep the original tile work) and that came out looking awesome.

I dont know whether this is going to matter, but i was just thinking about it and thought it's worth a mention.
My wall cabinets are going to be flush with the ceiling. Is there a possibility that there will be a beam wide enough from the ceiling for the cabinets to be attached to? The pre drilled holes in the cabinet backs are about 65mm from the top of the cabinet.
I will be investing in a stud finder, and if all else fails, or if i dont come up with anything better Toodles, i think i am capable of your idea.

Originally Posted by RenoGirl82

My Father purchased some of those ramset wall mates that you're talking about. I was wondering what they'd be like, but unsure as well if they would hold something as big as a kitchen cabinet.
I will def keep your bad experience in mind of that HAH, are they help responsible for instances like that, or is there some fine print dismissing them of it all?

So why didn't you contact Ramset as I suggested and find out what they were capable of - and if they were no good they could have suggested something to get you out of the mess you are in. It appears to me that this job is unfortunately beyond your skill level and you should get someone in who is competent to do it. Otherwise it sounds like your roof could collapse and your insurance will not be worth the paper it is written on.

Sorry Renogirl if I sound a bit harsh but we all must be aware of our limitations when doing any type of DIY work.

In regard to the HAH, I settled the bill at a lower price than quoted, as I threatened to take the guy to VCAT for impersonating a tradesperson.

Regards
Metal Head

Flush with the ceiling?

Be careful that you can open your doors if you do this.

The doors on those wall units are most likely the same size as the carcasses, which means there is no allowance for anything above them.

Normally at least a small cornice moulding or bulkhead would be used between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling to allow for any deviation from level of either cabinet or ceiling.

When units are specified for underbench or for under a capping mould a gap of 2 - 3 mm is provided between door and the board so that the doors don't rub and to allow for any variance/ movement that is either present or might occur over time.

I will also suggest that now is the time to get someone to at least have a look at your project to confirm what is and isn't possible before something unfortunate happens that ends up costing you physically as well as financially.

Cheers,

Metal Head:
I had a look at the range of Ramset products both online and in the hardware store and the heaviest load that they were capable of was 10kg. After this a few other people commented on the importance of finding a stud, and not to even think about attaching a cabinet to plasterboard alone so i thought that maybe a different approach was needed.
The reason why i started this post was to find out advice on how to go about this project. I have not attempted fixing cabinets yet and will not do so unless i feel confident that i can undertake the project safely and I would not risk the quality of my kitchen to save a few bucks.

Sybarite:
After i typed that post i realised about the cornice/bulkhead. Luckily i am not attempting this project on my own and have my cousin who is very cluey when it comes to these sorts of things to assist me (or perhaps me to assist him )

RenoGirl82 said - After this a few other people commented on the importance of finding a stud

I think you will find there are quite a few around here who fancy their chances as one .

Photos!

Namtrak:
What photos would you like to see? The cabinets, walls....

We repaired some of the gyprock on tues which came off with the tiles and saw that the studs are 600 apart on one side of the kitchen and 450 on the other side, which doesnt help at all, so we are planning on cutting out a small length of gyprock across the wall at the height needed to fix in the cabinets, putting noggins in where we need them, re gyprocking over again and then attaching wall cabinets to noggins. (Similar to toodles idea, but we are not going to cut rebates into the studs as it may weaken them) All we need to work out now is what type of screws we need to use and it's all good.

Maybe some pics of the walls and the cupboards and fittings. That way there can be no ambiguity about the advice your getting



Cheers

illogical ,why plaster over a hole/space/appeture that you have created to alleviate a problem when you are going to cover the fixing with a cabinet,no installer that i have ever known has ever worried about what the client cant see, to get the job done and finished in a tradesman like way ,bang holes in the wall put in what is needed for the job ,get it finished ,move on to the next problem,
i mean dont get drowned by the finer details that people cant see

Originally Posted by namtrak

Photos!

Originally Posted by namtrak

Photos!

Originally Posted by arms

illogical ,why plaster over a hole/space/appeture that you have created to alleviate a problem when you are going to cover the fixing with a cabinet,no installer that i have ever known has ever worried about what the client cant see, to get the job done and finished in a tradesman like way ,bang holes in the wall put in what is needed for the job ,get it finished ,move on to the next problem,
i mean dont get drowned by the finer details that people cant see

arms: the fixing point on the ikea cabinet (two per cabinet) are in the very top corners of the carcass. If the wall behind isn't flush then when you tighten the screws the cabinet will tilt back into the hole, and it's important to get hanging cabinets tightly fastenned.

Renogirl: Great solution! When we did mine we had a length of 15x50mm jarrah and we figured to use what we had as at 15mm we weren't going far into the stud (about 5mm with the jarrah sitting flush to the wall). Your solution is much better, completely structurally sound and much more professional.

One more suggestion (from my dad this time): when you nail the noggins in - a nail nailed from the top of the noggin angled sideways into the stud provides the strongest result against downward force (you predrill the angled hole in the noggin to make it easier to attach without a nailgun).

Good on you for persisting with doing the job yourself and coming to your own superior solution using the input of others: for me that's what this site is all about (& make sure you add some WIP (work in progress) pictures of the job to this thread to show off your handy work).