Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
Current Articles | RSS Feed
If you are installing a new base cabinet, you certainly want to make sure the top of the cabinet is level. This way the countertop is level and things won’t roll off of it. I have seen cabinets so out-of-level that the drawers all slide open on their own. Wow, maybe next time try a level.
If you have never installed a vanity cabinet before, it is not difficult. Leveling the cabinet takes away the imperfections of the flooring and the walls. Some cabinets come with open backs, so that the plumbing will enter the cabinet with no modifications to the cabinet. On other cabinets, you will need to cut openings so that the drain piping and water supply lines and valves can enter the cabinet.
Once you are able to push the cabinet to the wall, use a level and see how far out-of-level the cabinet is. Take a reading front-to-back, and side-to-side. Use shims under the cabinet to get the top level in both directions. This will take some time, since when you adjust the side of the cabinet, it may throw off the reading of the front of the cabinet. Make small adjustments and then take a final reading to make sure the surface is level in all directions. Once you are happy with the readings, use cabinet screws and secure the cabinet to the wall studs.
If you have a plain cabinet, you can spruce it up with wood appliques, onlays, or overlays. These work well for any project that has a large area that you would like to make stand out. They make these in all sizes and styles. You can buy them online or at specialty molding outlets.
The trick is to get the onlay to match the surrounding surface to make it look like it was originally installed. If the surface is painted, it makes it easy...simply paint the onlay the same color. If the surface is stained and varnished, it will be more challenging. YOu may have to use some scrap wood and try different colors to get the right one. Once you have the right color, you can spray it with a spray varnish.
Some of these are very fragile and securing them to the surface takes some patience. If the onlay has some thicker areas, you may be able to get away with using some brads in a pnuematic nailer. If the piece is very thin, I would use a thin layer of wood glue on the back of it. Place it on the surface and hold it in place with blue painter's tape until the adhesive dries.
This handyman fix works for cabinet doors and drawers. If you have ever had a cabinet door or drawer that won't stay closed, you can try to adjust the door so that it stays closed (European hinges easily adjust this). If it is your cabinet drawers that won't stay closed, you could play with the runners...or you could use a magnetic catch.
A magnetic catch is an easy way to hold a cabinet drawer or door closed. The magnet mounts on the cabinet frame and the mating piece of metal mounts to the door or drawer itself.
A good place to mount the magnetic catch is on the underside of the top of the opening for the door or drawer. For the door, mount it to the frame farthest away fromt he hinge side. This will give maximum hold for the door. For the drawer, you can choose anywhere along the underside of the top frame.
Pre-drill 2 holes and mount the magnet with 2 screws. Screw them in until snug. Mount the mating metal plate to the inside of the door or drawer so that it lines up with the magnet. The plate is usually held in place with one screw. Make sure it is short enough so that it doesn't protrude from the door. Once everything is installed, the magnetic catch should hold the cabinet drawer or door closed. Only a minimal amount of effort should be needed to open it.
Cabinet drawers take a lot of abuse. They get yanked out of their openings and the heavy contents slam into the sides. The weight of the fully loaded drawers place stress upon the drawer runners and cause them to fail and become loose. You may be able to repair these drawers with just a screwdriver.
Remove the sagging drawer from the cabinet and inspect it. YOu are looking for loose drawer guides. You may be able to simply tighten the screws that hold the guides to both the drawer and the cabinet itself. Some drawer guides extend from the sides of the cabinet and some do not. If you have the type that extends, you will need to extend the guides to get access to the screws. Tighten the screws and reinstall the drawer. If the guides are tight, the drawer should operate smoothly. If the guides are still loose, you will likely need to remove the guides and fill the holes with some type of wood so that the screws will have something to bite into.
Try adding glue and small lengths of wood toothpicks into the screw holes. Then reinstall the guides and tighten the screws. The drawer should operate smoothly.
Cabinet toe kick is a decorative piece of trim on base cabinets. It is usually installed last to cover the very bottom of the cabinets. It resides under the doors in an indention and touches the floor. This thin strip of wood is susceptible to damage from people accidentally kicking it, and even from water damage in the case of a leak.
Replacing the strip is easy, so long as you can get a decent match to the cabinets. The toe kick is usually only supported at the edges of each cabinet, although some cabinets have a piece of wood to support it along the way. So once all of the base cabinets are installed the toe kick is installed to complete the finished look.
Replacing the toe kick is easy. Remove the corner molding and then pry up the toe kick. It may break off in some places, but that is fine as you are replacing it anyway. Cut the piece to length and secure it in place. You can use a nail gun for this, or simply a hammer and some finish nails. Try to hit the nails into the grain of the wood and then use wood putty to fill in the indentions. Once you have the toe kick installed, reattach the corner molding.
At some point, you will have a cabinet door that will sag and look like it’s ready to fall off of the cabinet. You can lift it up and it will fall right back down. Here are a few ideas on how you can repair this.
Cabinets these days are not made with the finest of materials. For the most part, only the frames of the doors and boxes are solid…the rest of the material is fiberboard or a close cousin of it.
If a cabinet door is sagging, the reason will be at the hinges. Although the hinges may be damaged, the wood that the hinges are attached to are most likely the culprit. I would first look at the hinges just to make sure they are straight. If they are warped, remove them and either replace them or hammer them back into shape.
Now look at the wood. Most likely, the screw holes are reamed out and may no longer be able to hold a screw. There are a couple of things you can do here. Try using a larger screw. You want to get into some undamaged wood. You can use a longer screw (pre-drill it first to avoid splitting the wood), or you can use a fatter screw with larger threads. Either of these methods will allow the screw to bite into new wood.
Your other option is to fill the damaged hole and reinstall the same screw. You can use several toothpicks or a wood golf tee for this. Smaller holes like these are perfect for a few toothpicks. Slather up the toothpicks with glue and stuff them into the hole. Wait for the glue to dry and then reinstall the hinge and screws.
Having a microwave hood is a great feature. It sits right under your wall cabinet directly over your cook top or stove. When it is installed correctly it looks great, but how do you fix a gap in between the bottom of the cabinet and the top of the microwave?
The microwave hood sits on a bracket that is screwed into the wall. The brunt of the weight and stability rests on this wall bracket. The power cord gets threaded through a hole in the cabinet above it. The final adjustment is closing this gap between the microwave and the cabinet.
If you look in the cabinet above the microwave, you will see a screwhead near the front of the opening. This screwhead is attached to a bolt that goes through the bottom of the cabinet and into the top of the microwave. The purpose of the bolt is to hold the front of the microwave and adjust the gap. By turning the screw clockwise, you will close the gap. Always support the microwave from below as you turn the screw, as this will make raising the microwave easier. You want to turn the screw just enough to close the gap. Don’t over tighten the screw.
If you are installing a new paper towel holder the question becomes should you mount it to the underside of your wall cabinet or to the drywall itself. I guess it is a matter of choice as there are good and bad with both.
I’ve never been a fan of mounting a paper towel holder into drywall as the plastic tends to take a beating. You have to use wall anchors, and the way the arms stick out from the wall leads to abuse as people pull on the holder and then rip off a paper towel. It makes sense that if the arms are pointing downward (such as if it were mounted to the underside of a cabinet) the act of pulling the paper towel in line with the arms might not subject it to as much abuse. Also, mounting the holder to the wall makes it difficult for the kids to reach it…maybe that’s why they don’t clean up their messes.
Installing the paper towel holder to the underside of the wall cabinet makes a little more sense to me. You can mount it at the front of the cabinet so that it is more accessible and easier to reach, and as I mentioned before, it should hold up to the abuse a little better. The only thing is that you will need to install the screws into the cabinet, which means you need to make sure the screws don’t penetrate all the way through the cabinet. As cabinets these days are not very thick, this might pose a challenge. If it pulls out, you might go with a short bolt, washer, and nut.
A cabinet drawer handle can go through a lot of abuse before it finally falls off of the drawer. This can happen for several reasons, but repairing it is not difficult.
A drawer handle is held in place from inside the drawer. If you open the drawer you will see the screws. If you have only a knob, you will have one screw, and if you have a pull you will have two mounting points and two screws. The knobs seem to get the most repairs as they have only one screw holding them in place.
In a lot of cases, the screw holding the knob on will slowly unscrew due to movement of the knob. In some cases, the screw head will start to wear away at the wood drawer face (many are particle board) and get loose in that manner.
Try using a washer on the inside of the drawer. Remove the screw (if its not already out) and place a large washer over the end of it. The washer should have a small hole so that it won’t slide beyond the screw head. Place the knob or handle back on and thread the screw back on. The washer should provide plenty of bearing pressure against the back of the drawer to keep the knob tight. It will also span any damaged wood that will cause the screw to loosen.
Here is a way to really make your cabinets stand out. By installing a piece of glass in place of the solid door panel, you can make an area for display of certain items of your choosing. Maybe you want to display the heirloom serving bowl, a wine selection, or maybe showcase your collection of cookbooks.
Choose a cabinet or two that is in a conspicuous area and remove the door. I wouldn’t do more than 2 cabinet doors as it will diminish the overall effect. You will need a router for this job with a straight cutting bit to remove the panel. The panel typically floats in a mortised groove. You want to remove the back lip only of this groove so that the panel can lift out of the back of the door.
Set the door face down on a soft surface to avoid scratches and make sure you have the depth set correctly on the router. The last thing you want to do is plow through the front of the cabinet, so test the depth on a piece of scrap wood. Clamp the door frame to your work space and look for any signs of metal staples or brads. These will damage your bit and maybe injure you in the process like flying shrapnel.
Start the router and slowly cut through the back lip. Keep an eye out for how wide you need to go to free up the panel. Once you have cut around the perimeter of the panel, the panel may lift out, or you may need to clean up the corners as the router bit will cut a corner as a semi-circle, and the panel is square. You can chisel out the corner if necessary. I generally don’t worry about how the back of the door will appear as the door will remain in a closed position.
With the panel removed, take the frame to a glass shop and select the style of glass you like. There are many choices here: clear glass, wavy, birdseed (little air bubbles), tinted, etc.
With the glass cut, lay down a bead of clear silicone around the perimeter of your groove and push the glass into it. If you like, you can additionally install some plastic clips to hold the glass down, but the silicone works very well. Wait 24 hours and reinstall the door.
