Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Home: Repairing sagging kitchen cabinets - DIY Dads with Beards

Sagging Kitchen Cabinets
   Have you noticed your cabinet doors don't close properly, or swing open on their own? What's up with that gap between the wall and the back of the cabinet?

Mind the gap.
   Sagging cabinets can be caused be several things: poor materials, poor construction, poor installation, too much weight, or just old age. Usually there is a combination of these issues that causes enough sagging for us to notice it, and it that point it needs to be dealt with immediately, for the worst case scenario is that the cabinets loose their structural integrity and send all of their contents onto the floor, and possibly even, you or your child who put a little too much weight on it when reaching up for a sippy cup.

  So let's fix'em! If you can swing a hammer and use a screw gun, this project will be easy for you.

1) The first step is to remove all of the contents of the cabinet, and put them out of reach of the kids. A large bin with a snap lid would be a great tool for this.

2) Assess the damage and integrity of the cabinets. In our case, the condition is due to poor quality, poor construction, and poor installation. The good news is, with some reinforcement, they should last at least a few more years until we can afford to renovate and replace the cabinets that came with the house.

3) Detach and remove cabinet to be worked on. Usually there is a
thicker support on the top and bottom of the cabinets that are used as the 'nail board', in our case there were a couple screws in each. I removed the six screws ( the top one last) and gently lowered the cabinet to the floor.




4) Repair the damage. The backing was pulling apart and the top nailer was damaged. I used 4 screws and an 'L' bracket on each of the damaged nailers, and a little glue and finish nails to reattach the backing. I also added a finish nail and some glue to the backing. Easy peasy.
Repairing broken supports
  
I used self tapping wood screws
Adding L bracket to inside nailer
Adding L bracket to top
5) Reattach the cabinet. Using my knee to prop it up, I screwed the cabinet back in with the original 3" screws that held it in place. be sure to find a stud if you are installing into drywall. Make sure that the screws pull the cabinet tight to the wall.
Drill a small pilot hole

No Gap!
6)Add more attachment points. Part of separation and warping was caused by the fact that the installers used very few attachment points. I would recommend at least 3 in each nailer, two at the edges and one center. Four if it is over 18" wide or needs to be more secure/heavy duty.
Pull the edges in with more screws
Once it is secured, make sure all shelves are properly set in their grooves, and all doors open and close freely. If done properly, the doors should no longer 'hang open.'


7) Clean to a sparkle and replace dishes!
No more sag!
Since everything is out of the cabinets, now is the time to vacuum them out, scrub off the kid splatters, and shine them up with some murphy's oil or equivalent. I would also recommend using a little wood filler to clean up any new attachment points, scuffs, etc. I opted to skip this step, since we are planning on replacing the cabinets as soon as possible, anyways.

Thanks for tuning in!
-DIY Dads with Beards

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