My modern sliding door soffit cabinet install

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

I already installed my porcelain tile floor here

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=151789

Then I installed my blue Saber cabinets here.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=169972&highlight=saber

As I have a modern house, we have a flat roof and no attic. So overhead storage is necessary. In this thread, I will discuss installing a loft over those cabinets with sliding doors. So we'll go from this

to this

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

My soffit cabinets are about 17' long and 55" deep (which was dictated by my rafters. Construction is 2x4 bolted like crazy to the cinderblock walls with alligator toggler anchors and attached to rafters as well.

I started by boxing an 8" section on the floor. This was ultimately a mistake but wanted to see how it would go together before building on the wall. sorry for the fuzzy phone picture

Then I had to hoist that damn thing up into position (the part where i wished i had just built it on the wall.

After that, I continued construction on the wall

Note the top and bottom of the front 2x4s. I originally wanted to dado out the trenches for the tracks but found it too hard to get a clean 8' line on boards that aren't necessarily straight. I settled by notching out the 2x4 and then attaching a 1x4 to the back to make the trench for the sliding door tracks.

Here construction is basically done

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

I used 5/8" plywood for the decking. Note the tracks that I started to fit. I discuss that more in a minute

I bought bypass sliding door tracks from outwater plastics. I really like the tracks because they come with wheeled trucks for the doors to fit on so they slide smooth. I wish i had better pictures but I got lazy. Because one of the biggest expenses was custom cut plexiglass doors, I test fit a dummy balsa board to get it right.

The doors are 1/8 smoked plexiglass from rplastics.com. I ordered four 4x8 sheets and had them cut to size. Best prices and service I could find. I also had them drill holes for the finger pulls.

Here they are installed before sheet rock. Also note that I wired and test fit here recessed led lights from superbrightleds.com. More pictures of those later.

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

Then sheetrocked with 5/8 and installed trim around the edges. I'm not perfectly happy with the trim and may redo it but I just wanted my garage back. The next project is to rip out the water heater and replace it with a commercial stainless sink and a mini split.

Higgins · Feb 12, 2013

Nice Look! Lots' of storage, and you can take it with you should you move!!!

Dan in Pasadena · Feb 12, 2013

Higgins said:
... and you can take it with you should you move!!!

Huh? Well, the doors anyway. Speaking of doors that plexi had to be VERY spendy. Wouldn't filled/smoothed plywood painted gloss black have accomplished the same at a fraction of the cost? I mean they're out of direct line of sight. But it DOES look great.

Looking at it on my phone so I can't see detail. Are the LED's under this soffit or IN it to light the contents? Where is/are the switches?

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

Dan in Pasadena said:
Huh? Well, the doors anyway. Speaking of doors that plexi had to be VERY spendy. Wouldn't filled/smoothed plywood painted gloss black have accomplished the same at a fraction of the cost? I mean they're out of direct line of sight. But it DOES look great.

Looking at it on my phone so I can't see detail. Are the LED's under this soffit or IN it to light the contents? Where is/are the switches?

Plexi wasn't that bad (just checked $340). And that's what I wanted. They are not completely opaque so they help keep it more airy. And hard to tell in the pics but definitely not jet black in person.

The lights are below the soffit to combat the shadow that the soffit created. They are wired to the insteon switch by the workbench and are tied to the undercabinet leds there. No lights in the soffit cabinet--the overhead garage lights shine right in.

Dan in Pasadena · Feb 12, 2013

$300 isn't terrible (tho 1/8" plywood would have been way cheaper - and I'm a cheap *******! lol) and it certainly does look classy. I like it.

bdamico · Feb 12, 2013

Dan in Pasadena said:
$300 isn't terrible (tho 1/8" plywood would have been way cheaper - and I'm a cheap *******! lol) and it certainly does look classy. I like it.

Thanks. I like them.

dubber · Feb 28, 2013

Wow, that looks phenomenal. Great design and layout.

cdecker · Mar 1, 2013

Do you have a link to the LED's you used from superbrightleds.com? I've been looking for some that will fit into the depth of a 2x4 like this...

akdiesel · Mar 1, 2013

Your project turned out great. Do the led lights add for your bench lighting or does it shadow.

bdamico · Mar 1, 2013

cdecker said:
Do you have a link to the LED's you used from superbrightleds.com? I've been looking for some that will fit into the depth of a 2x4 like this...

Here you go. They were pretty cheap and I'm happy with results

http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...ssed-light-fixture-aimable-and-dimmable/1269/

bdamico · Mar 1, 2013

akdiesel said:
Your project turned out great. Do the led lights add for your bench lighting or does it shadow.

Not sure I understand the ?

jmlcolorado · Mar 2, 2013

Very sharp looking!
How tall are your ceilings? How much height from the floor to the under side of your cabinets?
The only thing I don't like is the depth, but that's only because I'm picturing your setup in my garage. If I did it, I would probably only do them 24" deep. But for your space, they work very nice!

How did you attach the top plate to the joists above? I might be hesitant with just screws or nails and might opt for a piece of webbing plate similar to what you see on engineered trusses.

None the less, bravo!! :thumbup:

akdiesel · Mar 2, 2013

bdamico said:
Not sure I understand the ?

I was wondering if the new soffit lights aid in lighting the bench area or do they cast a shadow while at he bench.

bdamico · Mar 2, 2013

akdiesel said:
I was wondering if the new soffit lights aid in lighting the bench area or do they cast a shadow while at he bench.

The don't hurt the bench top and are necessary to prevent the soffit cabinet from casting a huge shadow on the blue cabinets underneath the soffit. Hope that makes sense.

bdamico · Mar 2, 2013

jmlcolorado said:
Very sharp looking!
How tall are your ceilings? How much height from the floor to the under side of your cabinets?
The only thing I don't like is the depth, but that's only because I'm picturing your setup in my garage. If I did it, I would probably only do them 24" deep. But for your space, they work very nice!

How did you attach the top plate to the joists above? I might be hesitant with just screws or nails and might opt for a piece of webbing plate similar to what you see on engineered trusses.

None the less, bravo!!

I can't recall height. I think 11ft or 12ft. Blue cabinets are like 80" and change without legs. Everything is lag bolted to ceiling but primary strength is coming from walls. I certainly wouldn't have nailed either. I really don't store heavy stuff up there. I need the depth. Frankly 24" is not very deep at all--that's the depth of my blue cabinets--it wouldn't have been worth even building for me at that depth.

fog32 · Mar 5, 2013

Nice handywork on the soffit. Very simple and clean and the lights add a really nice touch. Good inspiration for those of us just diving into new garage projects.

duneslider · May 10, 2013

Do you have any pictures of the track you used? Do you find the thin doors to be too flimsy? I am planning to do a similar type cabinet with sliding by-pass doors but just can't seem to convince myself that doors that thin would hold up well.

bdamico · Jun 27, 2013

duneslider said:
Do you have any pictures of the track you used? Do you find the thin doors to be too flimsy? I am planning to do a similar type cabinet with sliding by-pass doors but just can't seem to convince myself that doors that thin would hold up well.

Sorry for the delay. The track is at outwater plastic. It is gray. The doors are not too flimsy. They are just right. Out of another material might not be sufficient. But I'm glad I got that thickness. Remember that my doors don't have a lot of height. If they did, I might have a different opinion.

bglad · Jul 1, 2013

I'm also impressed, nice job

e-tek · Jul 1, 2013

Classy. Wish I had that kind of headroom! Love the cabinet set up too - What do you work on?

bdamico · Jul 1, 2013

e-tek said:
Classy. Wish I had that kind of headroom! Love the cabinet set up too - What do you work on?

According to my wife, I break things around the house so I can go in the garage and fix them. In all seriousness, still tweaking the house to where I want it. Just spent a month in spare time learning how to pull stains out of carrara marble and then grind and polish my counters, for example.

freedomgli · Jul 2, 2013

Beautiful garage man! The soffit cabinet looks very sleek and the recessed lighting is a bonus.

James E · Jul 2, 2013

Man, that's exactly what I want to do over my cabinets in my garage. Thanks for the pics. The plexi doors and recessed LED lighting is especially nice.

bdamico · Jul 2, 2013

freedomgli said:
Beautiful garage man! The soffit cabinet looks very sleek and the recessed lighting is a bonus.

Thank you but I just want to be clear that the recessed lights are really not a bonus (at least in my situation). The soffit casts a wicked shadow on the bench and blue cabinets--so they were very necessary. But, yep, I love them. Thanks,

TravisT · Feb 20, 2014

bdamico,

Great build. I think I stumbled across this at some point before building my soffits. Mine are still in-progress but I'm trying to figure out the lighting. I was originally going to go recessed LEDs like yours, but had trouble finding lights that could mount in a 3.5" depth (like yours do). Glad I found the link again - I may go this route.

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. How did you wire the recessed lights and where did you put the LED driver? Is the wiring in a box of some sort, or is it just loose in the cavity between the plywood and sheetrock?

2. My cabinets are in a "U" shape, and are 36" deep and 30" in height. I have 7' of length on each side wall and 20' on the back wall of the garage (including overlap of the sides, if that makes sense). How many of the LED lights would you recommend installing recessed in an area that large? I was thinking one in each side and three along the back, but not sure how much spread you get on each of the LED lights.

I had recently decided on installing outlets where you installed your lights, with one plug of each outlet switched and the other constant on. This would allow me to plug surface mount lights into the switched side and have additional outlets for chargers, etc. After seeing your build again, I'm considering the recessed again.

ddawg16 · Feb 20, 2014

Outstanding job.

I was looking at those LED lights....SuperBright is one of my go to web sites for lights...

I agree that the Plexi looks better than plywood (yea Dan, we know your cheap). About the only other option would have maybe been metal doors. That would give you less issues with dust sticking to them. I'm sure by now you have found out the plexi is pretty much like a Swiffer....

bdamico · Feb 20, 2014

TravisT said:
bdamico,

Great build. I think I stumbled across this at some point before building my soffits. Mine are still in-progress but I'm trying to figure out the lighting. I was originally going to go recessed LEDs like yours, but had trouble finding lights that could mount in a 3.5" depth (like yours do). Glad I found the link again - I may go this route.

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. How did you wire the recessed lights and where did you put the LED driver? Is the wiring in a box of some sort, or is it just loose in the cavity between the plywood and sheetrock?

2. My cabinets are in a "U" shape, and are 36" deep and 30" in height. I have 7' of length on each side wall and 20' on the back wall of the garage (including overlap of the sides, if that makes sense). How many of the LED lights would you recommend installing recessed in an area that large? I was thinking one in each side and three along the back, but not sure how much spread you get on each of the LED lights.

I had recently decided on installing outlets where you installed your lights, with one plug of each outlet switched and the other constant on. This would allow me to plug surface mount lights into the switched side and have additional outlets for chargers, etc. After seeing your build again, I'm considering the recessed again.

(1) Those particular lights are straight up 110 so no separate driver required, if I recall (unlike the undercabinet lights, which required one).

(2) This is kind of silly but I just bought enough to line up with center of my cabinets. So that's 1 every 30", which throws off pretty good light even at the reduced height. So decide if there is anything you want to line up the lights with and go from there. I think the website has a diagram showing the spread of the light at different heights. Maybe that will help.

(3) For the cleanest look, surface mount *****. Recess if you can.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

bdamico · Feb 20, 2014

ddawg16 said:
Outstanding job.

I was looking at those LED lights....SuperBright is one of my go to web sites for lights...

I agree that the Plexi looks better than plywood (yea Dan, we know your cheap). About the only other option would have maybe been metal doors. That would give you less issues with dust sticking to them. I'm sure by now you have found out the plexi is pretty much like a Swiffer....

I thought about metal but didn't pursue it very far. Might have been cool. I haven't cleaned my doors since I put them up. Sure there's a little dust on them, but nothing you notice from the floor.

TravisT · Feb 20, 2014

bdamico said:
(1) Those particular lights are straight up 110 so no separate driver required, if I recall (unlike the undercabinet lights, which required one).

The pictures on the website show a driver that plugs into a connector on the lights. Not sure if that is the actual product or not though. Did you enclose your electrical connections in boxes, or are they just loose in the ceiling? Not trying to get into a code discussion, but I'm trying to figure out how to properly enclose all connections in a box that is accessible. There's got to be a way - just have to figure it out.

I agree the flush mount are the way to go. Hopefully I can find a good solution that will work in my application.

Thanks for the info. :beer:

JDishong · Feb 21, 2014

My cabinets will use similar door facings; painted MDF with plexiglass overlays. I want the Euro-look and I don't want to sand/polish/buff the MDF. An added benefit is when someone scratches the door covers, simply replace the plexi-glass!

Good thinking on your part!

alpinewhite · Mar 1, 2014

Nice work. I'm wondering if you're concerned with all that weight carried only by the lag bolts bolted to the ceiling joists.

Sent from my iPhone using Titytalk

NUTTSGT · Mar 1, 2014

Since it's been up for a year, is there anything that you would do different ? How are they working out ? Did you have any thoughts to putting atoe kick under the cabinets to keep dirt/part from going underneath ?

bdamico · Mar 1, 2014

alpinewhite said:
Nice work. I'm wondering if you're concerned with all that weight carried only by the lag bolts bolted to the ceiling joists.

Sent from my iPhone using Titytalk

You're wrong. Majority of strength derived from concrete walls. Also rests on cabs below.

bdamico · Mar 1, 2014

NUTTSGT said:
Since it's been up for a year, is there anything that you would do different ? How are they working out ? Did you have any thoughts to putting atoe kick under the cabinets to keep dirt/part from going underneath ?

Everything is good so far. I don't use the soffit much. It is long term storage because the idiot designing my house gave me no attic. So Xmas stuff etc. I haven't considered adding a toe kick because I just blow out the garage once a month or so. So it hasn't been an issue.

Edit. If I did it again I'd go leg less on cabs. There's one

alpinewhite · Mar 2, 2014

bdamico said:
You're wrong. Majority of strength derived from concrete walls. Also rests on cabs below.

If you believe that "the majority" is derived from the concrete walls, try loosening the lag bolts to the ceiling. Let me know if the cabinets stay put. My 2 cents.

Sent from my iPhone using Titytalk

Fillys6 · Jul 27, 2014

bdamico said:
I bought bypass sliding door tracks from outwater plastics. I really like the tracks because they come with wheeled trucks for the doors to fit on so they slide smooth. I wish i had better pictures but I got lazy. Because one of the biggest expenses was custom cut plexiglass doors, I test fit a dummy balsa board to get it right.

Do you have a link or part number for the bypass sliding door tracks? Thanks and nice job!!!

bdamico · Jul 28, 2014

Fillys6 said:
Do you have a link or part number for the bypass sliding door tracks? Thanks and nice job!!!

I think this is the link but look at the entire section. Outwater has really cool stuff

http://www.outwatercatalogs.com/lg_display.cfm/catalog/Master_Catalog_Vol_42/page/356

My modern sliding door soffit cabinet install

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