Hanging cabinets???

[tolken4]

What is the best, most efficient way to hang these cabinets. Metal uppers onto a wood studded wall skinned with drywall. 16" OC.

1. Peel off the drywall and put in blocking?
a. If so, any tricks on removing the least amount possible and the propper way to attach the blocking? Meaning do I just toe them in? Do I use screws from the other side of the stud?

2. run a strip of 1x as blocking on the outside on the wall? then cover the 1" gap I will have around the cabinets somehow?

3. Some other magical answer as yet unmentioned.

I am leaning towards option 1, but could really use some tricks/details from someone who has done it to make sure I do not do any uneeded work.


Thanks!

 

[mtwaterguy]

why not just screw them to the studs? Isn't that the normal procedure?

 

[Tscott]

Thats the way I have always done it. Even heavy duty cabinets should need only 4 screws a piece

Tom

 

[Killer95Stang]

I'm with you on this one...

Step #1 Measure twice

Step #2 Call buddy over to hold up cabinet

Step #3 Screw directly into stud, securing cabinet flat against drywall.

Step #4 Make good on promise of cold beer to now exhausted buddy.

My cabinets weigh in at 75 pounds per cabinet and have load capacity of 150-200 pounds per directions. Unless yours weigh in at 500 pounds each, I would just drive in at least four screws (#12 or 1/4 lags if you are worried) and call it a day

 

[flesburg]

The easy way is to use a stud finder to locate the studs and then nail a temporary 1x4 cleat to the wall even with what will be the bottom of the cabinet.

Mark the stud locations with a big magic marker.

Get a helper to help you set the cabinets on the cleat. Have your helper hold the cabinet against the wall. All of the weight should be held by the cleat.

Measure location of studs from right or left edge of cabinet. Screw the cabinet to the studs. Two or four screws, what ever you can get. Once you have a second cabinet up, screw the cabinets together with four screws. Once you have several up it will not matter if say one of the cabinets is only screwed to one stud (or if they all are) because it will be one cabinet screwed to every stud.

Take the cleat down and patch the drywall with some spackle.

 

[flesburg]

Ps. Since the cabinets are metal, you will have to drill a hole where you are going to screw them to the studs, and then use bolts to bolt them together. I have always fastened my upper cabinets together with four fasteners, one at each of the corners.

 

[64merc]

The easy way is to use a stud finder to locate the studs and then nail a temporary 1x4 cleat to the wall even with what will be the bottom of the cabinet.

Mark the stud locations with a big magic marker.

Get a helper to help you set the cabinets on the cleat. Have your helper hold the cabinet against the wall. All of the weight should be held by the cleat.

Measure location of studs from right or left edge of cabinet. Screw the cabinet to the studs. Two or four screws, what ever you can get. Once you have a second cabinet up, screw the cabinets together with four screws. Once you have several up it will not matter if say one of the cabinets is only screwed to one stud (or if they all are) because it will be one cabinet screwed to every stud.
Take the cleat down and patch the drywall with some spackle.

If I had to guess, I would say that this was the OP's main concern (edge of the cabinet falling between studs)

 

[Steve in Mi]

flesburg has a good handle on the process. I often don't have a helper handy so I used this little Lab Jack (but your hydraulic or scissors car jack should work well too) to set my upper metal cabinets. The lab jack is shown in the picture here where it is helping me hang a lite fixture. I set my base cabinets first and then with some blocking (plastic crate upside down) and the lab jack to make the fine lift adjustment of the upper cabinets to the 'hang line'.

 

[daw53]

I saw a TV show where they cut out a 4" wide or so section of drywall almost the entire width of where they were hanging the cabinets and then put a matching piece of plywood in it's place. They used 1/2" plywood, so that it would be flush with the drywall, and it was hidden once the cabinets were hung. Apparently the 1/2" plywood was thick enough to hold the cabinet screws.

- David

 

[tolken4]

Ok, thank you for all the replys. Seems I was making it harder than needed. So, no one has any concerns with...

1. Punching possibly four new holes in the METAL cabinets.
2. Missing studs as mentioned before or having the screws not proportionately spaced.

Thanks again for all the input, it would be great if I can get away without ripping out drywall.

Also, I thought about the plywood approach, anyone know if that would be enough of an anchor?

 

[rickairmedic]

Tolken I have all metal kitchen cabinets in my garage and they are all simply screwed to the studs inside the wall through the drywall best bet get yourself a stud finder or youcanalways go the cheap route if you have an electric shaver/trimmer turn it on and place the backside of it against the wall when the tone changes you have found your stud . I always knowed all those hours watching DIY channel would pay off LOL.


Rick

 

[Northstar9126]

I have never hung metal cabinets. Lots of wood ones though. I would just screw them to the studs. If a cabinet doesn't line up on the studs the way you might prefer it doesn't really matter because you screw each cabinet to the cabinet next to it.

 

[Steve in Mi]

Ok, thank you for all the replys. Seems I was making it harder than needed. So, no one has any concerns with...

1. Punching possibly four new holes in the METAL cabinets.
2. Missing studs as mentioned before or having the screws not proportionately spaced.

Thanks again for all the input, it would be great if I can get away without ripping out drywall.

Also, I thought about the plywood approach, anyone know if that would be enough of an anchor?

4 new holes - often it is necessary and sometimes it will only be necessary to drill 2 new holes as the cabinet only straddles a single stud. Definately bolt the cabinets together where possible to spread the load making up for an uneven attachment pattern.


Actually the particular design of the cabinet back panel would be of concern. If it is flush against the wall then direct screw attachment should be fine. I added fender washers to spread the load so the cabinet wouldn't pull from the screw heads. However, if the back panel is recessed from the cabinet outline then solid blocking (equal to the thickness of the recess) should be employed so the loading on the screws is nearly all shear with very little bending. The blocking can be fairly localized (maybe 2" X 2" blocks - bigger is probably better over soft drywall) and once you have located and drilled your mounting holes in the cabinet, 2 sided tape can be used to hold the blocks in place on the back of the cabinet.

 

[1320stang]

Okay, are the cabinets sporatically spaced or are they all in a row?

Are the sides of the cabinets flush with the back or do they extend past the back?

(I may have a solution based on your answers, pictures or a drawing of your layout will help).

 

[Tscott]

Ok, thank you for all the replys. Seems I was making it harder than needed. So, no one has any concerns with...

1. Punching possibly four new holes in the METAL cabinets.
2. Missing studs as mentioned before or having the screws not proportionately spaced.

Thanks again for all the input, it would be great if I can get away without ripping out drywall.

Also, I thought about the plywood approach, anyone know if that would be enough of an anchor?

In my limited experience, where you want your cabinets is generally in the worst possible place in relation to how they line up with the existing studs. For me this usually means that most cabinets have screws in different locations. The truth is that most of the time even with the cabinets empty your eyes pass right by the screws supporting the cabinet. When they are full of ****, as usually occurs as soon as they are mounted to the wall, the screws become virtually invisible. Just do your best to make the spacing even, and if you miss a stud, I leave the screw in place and try and get a second into the stud as far from the first as I can.

Just my .02

Tom

 

[PAToyota]

As discussed before - http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5209 - use a french cleat system.

The cleats will be nailed into the studs so you don't have to peel off the drywall and you have the added advantage of being able to move things around. Paint the cleat a different color and use it as an accent strip.

 

[logical]

If i was to go to the trouble of carving out 4" of drywall, I'd go ahead and nail in 2x4 bracing between the studs that I've exposed. If you use the plywood deal, I thing you want to use some type of expanding anchor in a predrilled hole. A normal screw through just 1/2 " of plywood will not give you the strength you want.
If you think your fastening might be a little shakey, just attach a 1x4 flat aganst the wall under the cabinets, use it as you install as a support and then just paint it pretty and leave it in place forever.

 

[1320stang]

As discussed before - http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5209 - use a french cleat system.

The cleats will be nailed into the studs so you don't have to peel off the drywall and you have the added advantage of being able to move things around. Paint the cleat a different color and use it as an accent strip.

Damn, that's where I was going. I didn't know it had a name for it.

 

[Jaguar Fan]

As discussed before - http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5209 - use a french cleat system...

Shouldn't that be renamed a "freedom cleat"?