Install Guide

Your installation will not be successful unless you:

properly determine high points & wall imperfections.
float the cabinets on shims.
very carefully and competently remove and reinstall doors, drawers, and adjustable shelves.

Step 1. Check your parts

Unwrap and organize delivered materials to check on any missing parts. If there are any missing parts, report them to the appropriate designer

Step 2. Check & mark the layout

Check the layout on the walls for accuracy and the paperwork for details. The key sheet is provided to the installer from the account manager to spell out things like sink cutouts, cabinet heights, recessed bottoms and other details. If there are any major issues, contact the account manager and the site super for resolution. Find and mark studs and locations of no-nail plates and hidden pipes. Be sure to place your marks on the wall where the cabinets will cover.

Step 3. Shim the heck out of it

Find the high spot in the floor, check walls for plumb and flatness. These steps will help save time when installing cabinets and insures that there will be enough height for the dishwasher to fit. Finding the highest point in the floor, and using it as the reference point for level, will ensure that all the cabinets will be level and the space between the counter top and bottom of the uppers remains the same. See figure 1.

Our cabinets meet AWI standards for custom-grade quality. If they do not adjust, they were installed improperly.

Checking walls for plumb will help ensure that the upper cabinets can be hung plumb which ensures that the inside fillers are equally revealed and the cabinets look correct. Checking walls for flatness helps overcome hidden issues that affect cabinets sitting flat on the wall, because our cabinets do not bend. Things in the wall that will bow the wall out are plumbing pipes, buried electrical outlets and twisted studs. Putting a level across the bump in the wall will give a teeter-totter effect. To fix, shim the back of the cabinets off the wall equally both sides of the run. Do not bend the cabinets over a bow in the wall. All you end up doing is separating the sides from the top and bottoms of the cabinets.

Step 4. ~CAREFULLY~ Remove doors & drawer fronts, hide edgebanding

You will cause most of the damage during this step. Strip the cabinets of their doors, drawers and shelves before installing. Stripping the cabinets and organizing the pieces safely away from work area will insure that the doors and drawers won’t get accidentally damaged and makes it easier to install the cabinets. Lastly, it’s easier and cleaner to screw cabinets together flush with no doors in the way. At this point before installing the cabinet, use a color marker on the edge band edge on the unfinished sides to hide the natural wood color. A black sharpie works for regency and regentwood stains. It only takes a second but after the cabinets are screwed together the white strip between the cabinets goes away.

Step 5. Start screwing things (uppers first)

It’s best to start with the upper cabinets first, so that you don’t have to reach over the base cabinets risking your back and damaging the base cabinets. Always start in the inside corner and work out, being mindful of the layout that you have already done on the walls. Follow designer drawings for inside filler sizing. Uppers can be minimum 1” but are typically 1 ½ or 2”. Base fillers minimum should be no less than 2 ¼ to clear drawer handle opening issues but are typical 3”. If the cabinet run ends at a wall, that filler is the one that is designed to be ripped down to fit the cabinet run. Sink cabinets at windows get centered under window, and upper cabinets are equal revealed on the window. Always refer to the cabinet drawings and call the account designer when there are conflicts.

Installing upper and base cabinets, always install plumb, level and square no matter how bad the walls and floors are, this is where shims are used. A shim behind the cabinet at each stud will keep you from pulling the back of the cabinet in when you screw it into the wall. If you do not shim behind the stud, you will pull the cabinet out of square and level when you screw it to the wall. Screw upper cabinets to the wall at every stud one inch up from the inside of the bottom of the cabinet and one inch down from the inside top of the cabinet. Tip; your tape measure is one inch wide. Screw base cabinets from inside of the cabinet at every stud not toe nailed from the outside. If the cabinet run needs to move in the future, the warranty team needs access to the install screws and they can’t if the screws are buried by the counter top. Toe nailing the base cabinet through the toe is acceptable to secure the cabinet from moving, like with the islands.

Screwing cabinets together, ganging, use a minimum of three screws, in the uppers, one behind each hinge arm and one in the field. Base cabinets get one in the drawer opening and one behind each hinge arm. Upper cabinets over 36” tall get four screws with two in the field. When ganging standard and drawer bank base cabinets together, always screw from the drawer base to the standard leaving the standard cabinet as clean as possible. Using screw caps to hide screws is good, but strategically hiding the screws and not needing screw caps is great.

Screwing the cabinets to the wall, use minimum 2 ½” long screw. Use longer screws as needed for party walls, double drywall, fire rated walls. When you were looking for studs earlier, this is the step that you would find out how long the screws were needed.

Step 6. Moldings, Crown, Fillers

After cabinets are installed, install crown build up, crown, light rail and scribe moldings. With the doors and drawers off the cabinets, this process goes much quicker and cleanly. Remember to glue all miter joints with wood glue and use your color marker on the outside edge of your miter cut which makes the miter joint look much cleaner. Using a 23 gauge micro finish nail is preferred because the hole it makes is very small and easier to putty. Smaller putty holes hide better and look cleaner.

Using screw caps to hide screws is good, but strategically hiding the screws and not needing screw caps is great.

Step 7. Make it look good!!

Next step is to putty nail holes, clean cabinets of dust, smudges and marks and screw cap all screws. Next step is to install shelves back into cabinets with equal spacing, and making sure the pins are right side up, moving shelf pegs if needed and removing the plastic delivery clips and tossing away. Reinstall doors and drawers, making proper adjustments now before drilling for knobs and pulls.
If the cabinets are plum and level, adjusting the doors and drawers goes very quickly. If you are spending a lot of time adjusting the same few doors or drawers, these cabinets are probably not plumb and level. Refer to the knob and handle placement sheet for knob and pull placement. If any doubt, contact the account manager for clarification. Bar backs and corbels are screwed in. Screw on corbels to the bar backs then screw bar backs on the cabinets from the inside. Counter top companies tend to rip off our corbels if they are nailed on. If they are screwed on there is no puttying of holes and warranty can replace them cleanly if needed later on.