Leveling a workbench

[66HertzClone]

My garage floor has a slight slope towards the doors, no doubt to allow water to drain out. I am going to be purchasing some additional Lista cabinets soon and will have to deal with the slope. Any suggestions from those who have dealt with this issue before on what would be the best way to level these cabinets?

I have an existing bench made up of three Lista's, I did not put these on any base, they are resting directly on top of the Race Deck Flooring. The top of the existing bench will meet the new bench, so having them at the same height at that end is important. I think it would look silly just to shim the top and have the cabinets follow the floor, so something under the framework of the cabinets seems to be the obvious choice. Would synthetic decking material hold up? Seems to be a better option than a wooden product, I would have no worry about any rot.

 

[tomroblee]

I had the same issue. I used some leftover ceramic floor tile. It's strong (under compression) and waterproof.

 

[66HertzClone]

I had the same issue. I used some leftover ceramic floor tile. It's strong (under compression) and waterproof.

We have a lot of that, no concern over the tiles cracking and breaking apart? The empty Lista cabinets are very heavy when empty, so once full of tools we are talking a lot of weight.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

Steel shims. Ask a steel fabricator around your area for some baseplate shims. Most use 3"x3" (or smaller) and in different thicknesses ranging from 1/16" to 1/2". They don't cost much, can be painted and just stack them as required to get the correct height.

 

[tomroblee]

I'm sure that you could crack ceramic floor tile if you dropped a fully loaded tool cabinet from the back of a truck onto the tile, but I'm guessing that you will be more gentle.
I've never heard of anyone damaging a ceramic tile over concrete floor by placing too much weight on it. I don't know why it would make any difference whether or not the tile was "installed" or just used as a spacer.

 

[revkev6]

How much slope are we talking here?? my concrete guy put 2" slope over 24ft in my garage. how wide are your cabinets?? Doesn't seem like it would make much difference for storage cabinets.

if they are 3ft deep with the same slope as my floor, you would need about 1/4" shims....

 

[66HertzClone]

How much slope are we talking here?? my concrete guy put 2" slope over 24ft in my garage. how wide are your cabinets?? Doesn't seem like it would make much difference for storage cabinets.

if they are 3ft deep with the same slope as my floor, you would need about 1/4" shims....

The total length of the top of the new bench will be just over 13', with that long a run the slope will show up, the top will be 30" deep. I spent a lot of time making sure the first set of cabinets we re level, front to back and left to right. Drives me nuts to put something round down and have it roll away from me.

 

[66HertzClone]

I'm sure that you could crack ceramic floor tile if you dropped a fully loaded tool cabinet from the back of a truck onto the tile, but I'm guessing that you will be more gentle.
I've never heard of anyone damaging a ceramic tile over concrete floor by placing too much weight on it. I don't know why it would make any difference whether or not the tile was "installed" or just used as a spacer.

The Lista cabinets don't have legs, so using a shim like you offer would leave gaps between the floor and the bottom edge of the cabinet between the shims. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to have the cabinet supported in that manner, I wonder if it could lead to some distortion of the frame of the cabinet over time.

 

[steven083008]

How much slope are we talking here?? my concrete guy put 2" slope over 24ft in my garage. how wide are your cabinets?? Doesn't seem like it would make much difference for storage cabinets.

if they are 3ft deep with the same slope as my floor, you would need about 1/4" shims....

I think his cabinets will be on the side wall (slope going left to right) and not the back wall (where slope would go back to front.)

 

[revkev6]

The Lista cabinets don't have legs, so using a shim like you offer would leave gaps between the floor and the bottom edge of the cabinet between the shims. I'm not sure if it is a good idea to have the cabinet supported in that manner, I wonder if it could lead to some distortion of the frame of the cabinet over time.

if that's the way you want to do it, I think the decking would work ok. I personally would use pressure treated. are you thinking of having a flat board angle milled to make it level??

 

[rodnok1]

My Last garage was sloped like a damn ski slope. I glued/screwed a treated 2x4 to the floor and screwed the cabinets level to it. I didn't care about the gap. I have used ceramic tiles numerous times to level stuff, they work and are cheap. I usually put on under each leg of the workbenches so they never touch the floor.

 

[66HertzClone]

if that's the way you want to do it, I think the decking would work ok. I personally would use pressure treated. are you thinking of having a flat board angle milled to make it level??

That's exactly what I was thinking, I would have contact along the entire length of the cabinet.

 

[revkev6]

That's exactly what I was thinking, I would have contact along the entire length of the cabinet.

If you've got the means to mill a chunk of material big enough to do the entire cabinets then I'd say you don't get more support than that.

 

[nate379]

How much slope? Are we talking 1/2" or 2"?? If it's just a little bit, I'd just use some shims like used on window and door installs, or pieces of steel if you are really worried about it.

 

[Torque1st]

How much slope? Are we talking 1/2" or 2"?? If it's just a little bit, I'd just use some shims like used on window and door installs, or pieces of steel if you are really worried about it.

They make composite door shims. Otherwise you could just stack some of those "Presidential" dollar coins...

 

[Vernmotor]

Well heck on a workbench a liile slope is good ! all the junk you leave on there will roll to one end and leave you a place to work LMAO.....J/K

 

[willymakeit]

Go with the steel shims. Space them the lenght of the cabinets under the ends. Make a toekick closure out of vinyl base or a ridgid product if needed.

 

[ihredo4]

I am not sure now but I thought my Lista cabinet had leveling screws on the bottom of it. Yours wouldn't happen to have the screws missing would it?

 

[66HertzClone]

I don't remember, the cabinets in question are the SC and the DW series. Some of the cabinets they make may have the leveling legs, but I'm pretty sure these don't. Given the weight empty and the capacity to hold things, it doesn't seem likely. Six drawers with a capacity of 440 lbs each, more ton and a quarter on some threaded feet?

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

I don't remember, the cabinets in question are the SC and the DW series. Some of the cabinets they make may have the leveling legs, but I'm pretty sure these don't. Given the weight empty and the capacity to hold things, it doesn't seem likely. Six drawers with a capacity of 440 lbs each, more ton and a quarter on some threaded feet?

You would be surprised at the capacity those "threaded feet" have. One of them a 1/2" in dia. could hold that much if it was a decent grade of bolt and the nut was the correct one that it was threaded into. The total surface bearing area of the threads is huge. They are also in compression instead of tension.

 

[purpony]

I just ordered leveling screw feet for my toolboxes. I removed the casters on them and set them on some stripes of composite wood... but the slight slopes in my garage floor cause the drawer to not latch correctly. With the feet in place I can level them perfect. I have 2 42" toolboxs and a 17" wide side drawer all in a row to support a workbench top. For the gap between the floor and the toolbox bases, im going to put a piece of 1.5" aluminum strip bought from HD.

 

[rasit]

You could form up and pour a level pad with sakrete. Permanent, cheap and doesn't have to look pretty cause you're only going to cover it up anyway. I poured my floor level to avoid this common problem but of course I have the other problem of the occasional puddles that have to get squeegeed out.

 

[Graham08]

If your Listas have a provision for leveling feet, definitely do that. They are much easier to get set up than messing with shims. The best place I've found to buy them is McMaster-Carr.

My garage has a ridiculous amount of slope. In order to level the race car I'm working on, its about 1-3/4" in 8'. I have had to shim or install leveling feet on almost everything in it. My new shop will have a level floor...I can use a squeegee to move water around if need be!

 

[nate379]

Rented a house that had a garage like that. Was a royal PITA for setting up anything. Benches, toolboxes, doing work on cars that needed to be level.

Oh, not to mention it seemed everytime I dropped a little screw it went off at 100mph toward the drain.