Cabinet Installation in Jacksonville, FL

We hang and adjust doors and set hardware too. Get the split in writing, because most disputes come from someone assuming the other guy was pulling the sink out.

Good work starts before the first box comes off the pallet. We laser the room and find the high point of the floor, because every base gets set off that point, not the floor beneath it. A 1/2 inch drop across a 12 foot run is common in older Jacksonville homes.

Then walls get checked for plumb and bows, studs get marked, and we inventory against the order. A missing drawer base on day one is annoying, on day three it is a schedule problem. A floating floor should stop at the run, while tile goes under the toe kick.

Cabinet hanging is about what you are screwing into. On a wood framed wall, studs at 16 inches on center give solid targets, and we run two 2 1/2 inch cabinet screws per stud through the hanging rail.

Block exterior walls are the Jacksonville wrinkle. Houses here from the 1950s through the 1970s often have CBS walls with 1 inch furring and drywall over them, and that furring will not hold a loaded upper. Plenty of failed installs trace back to treating a furring strip like a stud.

Our approach on block is a ledger: anchored into the block, leveled, and the run hung off it, with fasteners through the cabinet backs where they hit solid block. Where the furred wall leaves a gap, we shim behind the back so tightening a screw does not bow the panel.

Kitchen cabinet installation follows a set order, and uppers go first so nobody holds 70 pounds over a base cabinet.

We snap a level line for the bottom of the uppers, usually 54 inches above the floor's high point, which suits a 36 inch counter and an 18 inch backsplash. A second line marks base tops at 34 1/2 inches. Every cabinet references those lines, not the floor.

Bases get shimmed front and back until level both ways and flush with each other, then screwed together face frame to face frame and fastened to the wall. An island is set on cleats fastened to the floor and braced for any overhang past 12 inches.

Countertop templating comes after the bases are set and level, and that sequence is not flexible. A template off a base 3/16 inch low at one end makes a gap at the backsplash that caulk will not hide.

Two moves separate a clean install from a rough one. Scribing means cutting a panel to the profile of the wall it meets: set a compass to the widest gap, trace the wall onto the panel, cut to the line, and a 3/8 inch bow leaves no tapered strip of light.

Filler strips exist because factory cabinets come in fixed widths and rooms do not, and a 3 inch filler at a corner lets a drawer clear the adjacent wall. Keep them under 3 inches and scribe the outer edge instead of caulking a wedge.

Reveals are the tell. Doors should carry the same 1/8 inch gap down the run and line up across the top. Doors that step up and down mean the bases were never leveled to one line.

Six months is when a bad install shows itself. Professional cabinet installation is about avoiding this list.

Doors that drift and drawer fronts that rub mean the box racked, fastened to an unlevel base and pulled tight to a bowed wall. A gap between the backsplash and the counter means the bases were not level at template time, and sagging uppers mean the fasteners found drywall or furring instead of solid backing. The last is a sink base cut sloppily for plumbing, where a ragged hole lets humid air and then water into the panel.

If yours already show these, see cabinet repair and drawer glide repair.

Wall type moves the number first, since block anchoring adds hours. Floor and wall condition is second, because scribing a wavy plaster wall is slow work. Trim is third. These are typical Northeast Florida ranges, not a quote.