Getting an Austin Kitchen Ready for Cabinet Day
Cabinet day goes faster when the room is ready for it. A crew that arrives to find a cluttered kitchen, a half-finished floor or boxes stacked in a hot garage loses hours before the first level line is drawn. The questions below come up on nearly every Austin kitchen, from a small bungalow in Bouldin Creek to a larger remodel off Mount Bonnell Road, and the answers explain what the room needs before the crew shows up.
What should be out of the kitchen before the crew arrives?
Everything that is not part of the install. Old cabinets, countertops and appliances that are being replaced need to be gone, because the crew cannot find the high point of a floor with a refrigerator parked on it. Loose items in adjacent rooms should be moved too, since cabinet boxes travel through the house on their way to the kitchen and a hallway full of boxes slows everyone.
The crew needs clear access to every wall that will carry cabinets, and a clear stretch of floor along each one. A wall with furniture pushed against it cannot be marked for studs or checked for plumb. A few feet of open floor in front of the wall makes room for the long level to sit flat while the crew reads the slab.
Does the flooring go in before or after the cabinets?
This question starts more arguments than any other, and the answer depends on the floor. Tile, hardwood and vinyl plank are handled differently.
- Tile usually goes in under the cabinets only if the cabinets are not yet ordered or if the tile is the same level throughout. Many crews prefer to set the base cabinets first, then tile up to the toe kick, because a tile floor that is not dead level makes shimming harder and buries the high point under thin set.
- Hardwood often goes in last. Oak flooring is nailed down after the base cabinets are set, then trimmed with a quarter round against the toe kick. The floor can also run under the cabinets if the room is being refinished at the same time, though that raises the cabinet height and changes the countertop line.
- Vinyl plank is a floating floor and should not be pinned under heavy cabinets. It stops at the toe kick, and the crew installs the cabinets on the subfloor.
Whichever order is chosen, the decision should be made before ordering, because a floor that adds half an inch changes how every cabinet sits against the wall.
Why does the subfloor matter so much?
The cabinets sit on whatever is under them. On an Austin slab, that means concrete that may have a shallow dip or a hump where the original pour was not perfectly flat. Over pier and beam foundations in Hyde Park or Clarksville, it means a wood subfloor that may bounce or sag between joists.
A crew checks the subfloor before anything else. A slab gets a long level and a straightedge. A wood subfloor gets walked across to feel for soft spots. If a floor flexes under foot, a heavy base cabinet with a stone countertop will sit on a surface that moves, and the doors will drift out of alignment over the first few months. Fixing a soft subfloor before the cabinets go in is a few hours of work. Fixing it afterward means pulling the run apart.
What do plumbing and electrical need to look like?
Rough plumbing and electrical should be finished before the cabinets arrive, and the openings should match the cabinet plan. A drain stub that sits two inches off the sink base will force the crew to cut the back of the cabinet in an awkward place. A supply line that comes out of the wall at the wrong height can be hidden inside a base cabinet, but only if it lands inside the cabinet footprint.
Outlets matter too. The ones above the countertop should be marked and boxed before the wall is closed, and the ones inside cabinets, for a microwave shelf or a charging drawer, should be planned with the cabinet maker. A crew can drill through a cabinet side for a cord, but a box that was not positioned for it makes the job clumsy.
Where should the cabinet boxes wait?
Inside the house, in a room with air conditioning, stacked on spacers and kept away from the kitchen walls until the crew is ready. Austin summer heat and humidity move wood, and a garage near Lady Bird Lake can swing from damp morning to hot afternoon in a single day. A face frame that swells in the garage and then dries inside the house will shift its reveals.
Boxes should stay in their packaging until the crew opens them, with the labels visible. Each carton usually matches a position on the plan, and a crew that can read the labels can stage the run in order. A pile of unlabeled boxes costs an hour of sorting.
How clean does the room need to be?
Swept, with the floor free of debris. Drywall dust and sawdust sit under shims and keep a box from resting flat, and a stray screw under a base cabinet becomes a bump in the countertop later. If the walls have just been painted, the paint should be dry enough that a shim or a clamp will not mark it.
Dust control also protects the finished cabinets. Sanding a filler strip or sawing crown molding throws fine dust, and the crew works better in a room where the floor is clear and the doors to other rooms can be closed.
What about pets, kids and a busy house?
A crew carries long boards, power tools and heavy boxes through the house, so the path from the front door to the kitchen needs to be clear of people and animals. Dogs are the usual problem, because an open door during a delivery lets one out. A closed room or a crate for the day removes the risk.
Noise is a factor as well. Cabinet work is loud, with a miter saw, a drill driver and a nail gun running through the morning. A household that works from home can plan around it, and a crew that knows the schedule can leave the loudest cuts for an hour when the house is quiet.
Should the walls be painted first?
Usually yes, at least a first coat. A wall painted before the cabinets go up needs only touch-up around the face frame and the filler strips afterward. A wall painted after the cabinets requires careful taping at every edge, and paint along a scribed strip can fill the fine gap the crew worked to close.
Old plaster walls in Travis Heights and Tarrytown sometimes need patching before paint, and the patch should be sanded and sealed so it does not flake behind the cabinets. A wall that sheds dust behind a cabinet is a wall that was not ready.
What if the walls turn out worse than expected?
It happens, especially behind old cabinets. A crew that removes a run of cabinets from a 1940s house may find that the plaster behind them was never finished, or that a section of wall was patched with a different material. The crew adjusts by scribing wider fillers, furring out a section, or adding blocking for the new cabinets to screw into.
The homeowner can help by letting the crew see the walls early. A walk through the empty kitchen a few days before the install, with a level and a stud finder, lets everyone spot the problems while there is still time to plan for them.
How long should the whole thing take?
A typical kitchen takes a crew a couple of days for the boxes, with trim, crown molding and hardware stretching into a third. A kitchen in a house with crooked walls, a dipping slab or a long ceiling run can take longer, and a crew that plans extra time at the start avoids the rush that causes mistakes.
A kitchen that is ready before the crew arrives gets finished sooner, with tighter joints and fewer callbacks.