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Cabinet Installation Question

14 years ago

Repost..my message dropped off to several older pages?

I was framing out an area in my basement for some cabinets (the in stock cheapie HD or Lowes brands). Between the studs, I was considering installing a 2x6 horizontally so I can have more freedom when screwing the cabinets in. I am just wondering what if you do not land on a stud in the location you need to screw into.

Questions...

1)Does this make sense?

2)Being it is only 1.5" thick dimension lumber, is this thick enough. I never installed cabinet before so have no clue how deep the screws need to go?

3)How many screws do you usually need for a 30" cabinet?

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Comments (5)

tuesday22
14 years ago
Are you talking about wall cabs or base?

Either way, blocking is very common. (Required, even, I would think, but I'm not qualified to say that.)

We went with Ikea specifically because we couldn't put in much blocking (party walls). YMMV, but we ended up using joist hangers for the 2x6 blocking where it was still necessary (like the wall oven cabinet, which doesn't utilize the very forgiving rail, so we put blocking behind there so we would have a place to attach to).

Hopefully someone else (that actually knows things) will chime in here to tell you what is required...or even best practice, so your cabinets don't fall down.
weedmeister
14 years ago
Are your framing walls 2x4 or 2x3?

It doesn't hurt to add something between the studs at an appropriate height at both the upper and lower parts of the cabinet. make sure that they are well attached to the studs. A 2x4 is fine, but a 2x6 gives you more room for mistakes.

If you're drilling into the stud, use a nice long screw, like a deck screw, say 2.5" - 3" depending on the thickness of the cabinet. Going into the 'blocking', you won't need a screw that long.

the number of screws would depend on the weight being supported. 6 or 8 at least.
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User
14 years ago
Blocking not required, rarely put in - but it's very nice.

You can also use plywood in the key areas instead of drywall. You can also use ply instead of the 2x blocking. On metal studs it's almost impossible to hang wall cabs without sheetmetal on the studs behind the sheetrock. Even that can be done though.

30" cab = 4 screws if possible, 6-8 is overkill and just uglies up the interior. You need at least 2 screws (1top , 1 bottom) into a stud or framing in each cabinet minimum. Systems with hanging rail are a different animal all together. On length , general rule of thumb is 2/3 in the meat holding it up with 1/3 in the cabinet. This obviously won't be possible with metal studs.

DO NOT USE DRYWALL SCREWS.............................EVER.
mojojuju
14 years ago
Oh dear, we have wattle and lathe. Will we have to use toggle screws since we never know if we will hit lathe or the wattle? I would assume the empty spot holding the concrete is the wattle!
sue36
14 years ago
Blocking is pretty standard around here. We did it in our kitchen. When we were building I kept a pile of stud scraps that were 16" or more and we used those.

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