Shimming An 1 1/2" For Base Cabinets...

D.Foster

Any of you guys have a good method for those old houses with a new kitchen goin in where the floor happens to be an 1 1/2" ( or close to it)out of level... I doubled up some 1x and screwed it to the floor as shims. Also i have stacked shims and siliconed them in place.
Any better ways?

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WarnerConstInc.

If I can't take it back to the floor joists and re-level, I rip long tapers out of 2x material.

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Gus Dering

The most important thing to keep in mind when you have a jacked up floor like that is to make sure your dishwasher and range is going to work.

If you get too tall at the DW you can always put a header over the opening but you can't let it go too low. That is baaaad.

The floor is never out in a nice perfect wedge shape. So at each cabinet I screw on pads to the bottom of the toe base that leave enough room for a shim, what ever that may be.

At the high end of the floor, we may need to cut some toe off so the DW is good. I cut a little more so I can still use shims. When adding pads I just add small ones where I want shims.

I think it's a good idea to at least pin the shims to the floor in the places you may not be screwing through them, like in the center section of the recessed toe.

Then the finished toe skin covers the whole mess.

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jrr02005

I will either do that, or if it's high like what you're talking about I will use a French Shim.

clinkard

french shim?

jrr02005

I'm not sure what you guys call it but I've heard it called a "French Shim". Basically lay some scrap 2x on the floor the tall way against the inside of the toe kick and secure that to the floor. You then screw into the 2x and then add additional shims as needed.

Cole82

Yep that is how we do it too...

Cole

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What is this "work" you speak of?

cabinet runner

When I encounter this type of scenario I cut some of the cabinets down on the high side and try and split the difference as to how much I have to shim on the low side .

1 1/2 inches out is really bad . IMO that is just going to be to obvious when you look at the toe kick .

I'd love to hear a good solution for when the designer decides to run the cabinet crown up to the ceiling in a 40 year old house and the ceiling is 1 inch out of level in 8 ft .

I gave the homeowner 2 options . Keep the crown level and they could have a drywall finsher try and build the ceiling down or let the crown follow the ceiling . They chose the latter . I was not happy with how it looked but as I told them I'm not a magician .

Had a long talk with the designer about this issue . Hopefully it won't happen again . It's hard to install $800 worth of cherry crown and have it look totally wacked . Also makes one wonder why someone would go to the expense of gutting a kitchen and not try and level out the ceiling . Oh well I had nothing to do with that part .

Leo G

Make a staggered countertop. Have a cabinet in the middle of the run that is lower than the rest. Now always an ideal situation and some clients may not go for it. You run about 5 feet of cabinet and then have a 32" tall cabinet and then start the run of 36" again. The two 36" countertops will not be level with each other, but will be 36" off the floor. I had done this in a kitchen that was out 4". The lower section was a bank of drawers and she used it as a dough pounding area, she liked to bake.

Not always an idea fix, but it will take a lot of the stress out of the design.

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72chevy4x4

I had a large patio door job and made shim blocks that were a god send-took a 2x4, stood high on the table saw and ripped it at about 25 degrees, then crosscut them into 4-5" long blocks. My issue was leveling a door with more than 1.5" out of level in 8' and these blocks worked nicely.

another option is to get some scrap plywood in a variety of thicknesses-3/4", 1/2", 1/4" and 1/8" paneling would be nice-rip it into a small 1x4 blocks-the plywood spacers don't split when screwing through but obviously don't allow for fine measurements than the thinnest piece.

Willie T

Clever thinking! I would love to see a photo or drawing of that.

Is this what you mean?

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jkfox624

Damn 4", thats alot. I have a feeling it would feel like a funhouse in there.

Leo G

Yes, exactly. You maintain approx 36" on the main countertop and as it goes along they are just not level with each other. The hardest thing is they usually want one continuous countertop. At that point I will usually scribe and shim so the center work area is normal. If the house is really bad you have to go with the flow of the floor. Front to back is level but left to right can be out of level. Otherwise it makes it look stupid because everything in the home is leaning except the kitchen. Sometime you just have to compromise. You can't always get what you want in a home with OHS [Old House Syndrome]

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JustaFramer

buy baseless cabinet boxes and build the base to fit. To break up the unevenness Use end panels.

jrr02005

I agree, 4" is really out of wack! I think at that point I would convince the HO to have me re-level their floors.

PA woodbutcher

I just did one last week. 0-3 3/16th was the worst one A friend stopped by and said he thought his wife would puke from vertigo if she had to deal with that. HO was ecstatic that her floor was level. It had at one time been a porch that was turned into a kitchen

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dnconstruction

wow I can't even complain about my floors if you guys have done some up to 4". thats insane!!! Just getting repetitive but yes best solution is to cut some off the high end try to split up the whole deal.

frankster

Some good things here. I have never set cabinets level in a completely unlevel kitchen floor. Level kitchen cab. make walls look goofy as hell. I usually split the difference between level and unlevel to get a happy medium. If the HO is not willing to have the floor leveled then they need to understand that if they want the cabinets level everything else will look goofy. Sometimes its just as well to set the cabinets to what the floor is doing just to keep everything looking uniform. Just dont set anything on the counter tops that could roll off lol.

Railman

I agree 100% with this. I was going to pass on this thread untill I read this. Level, plumb, & square are more for footers, foundations & framing. By the time you get to trim stage, your job is to make it all look as good as possible. Sometimes out of level, & or plumb looks better then level.
A true crafstman knows how to get the most out of the least.
Joe