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Question about toe kicks vs. legs...

doggonegardener

15 years ago

Hey All You IKEA Folks (and maybe some others as well),

I have a question. Concerning cleaning and hassle. We are planning an ikea kitchen and a cork floor. I have always liked the look of legs vs. toekicks but...

I wonder how tough it is to keep this area clean. Anyone have any feedback. I love the look of cabinets on legs rather than cabinets with closed off toe kicks but I wonder if cleaning under there will be a real hassle.

I posted this on another site too but I thought you all might answer more quickly.

P.S. I have two dogs that add to my housecleaning considerations.

Thanks in advance,

Rene

Featured Answer

randaloulton

2 years ago

2022. I just found this thread and the information in it is still current, valid and useful. Thank you all!

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Comments (8)

evilbunnie
15 years ago
Hello there, doggone. I'm not going the IKEA route, but I did get some open toekicks w/ my kitchen design. I don't have dogs, but I have a feisty little cat, and I just know the open toekick is going to be a problem -- the collection of junk the cat has chased under my sofa is tremendous. While I love the look of little legs on the cabs, I don't need catnip mice, balls of string, or errant cherry tomatoes rolling all the way under the cabinets. My solution is going to be to have my GC (or me!) put a backerboard about three inches behind the legs (and I'll paint it black or brown so the furniture leg detail stands out). That way the junk will be within reach of the dustbuster (or broom, or whatever.) I'm sure you can do that with the IKEA cabinets as well (even if you have to make little 3 inch high boxes to sit under the cabs behind the legs). So that's my compromise. Good luck with whatever you do!
kitchenredo08
15 years ago
We went with Ikea and legs. We love the look and everyone who has seen it comments on how nice it looks. Yes things roll and lots of dog hair accumulates under but I sweep once a day and haven't had a problem yet. (The dog gets a little impatient when his ball rolls under and he can't reach it though)
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I'm not sure of the technology in your description. By electric, do you mean coils that heat up or a heat pump that blows heated air through openings in the toekick? I believe hydronic means that heated water is pumped into coils in an air exchange system, and then a fan blows air through the heated coils, heats the air, and sends it into the vents and out through the toekick or any other opening. Question: Is the water heated in an electric or gas (or even oil) boiler? Electric systems are nearly always more expensive to operate than gas, but often less expensive to install. In my experience, hydronic systems tend to dry the air less than systems that heat the air by other means.
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I have to run out but will try to answer some (if not all!) of your questions later tonight. Here are some close-up pics of our Turbonics kickheaters: First pic is the side of the island facing our pantry wall and the doorway to the kitchen. Second pic is the side of the island facing the sink wall. We used the black plastic grates supplied with the units--they fade away and are barely visible unless you are looking for them. They do (or did) offer metallic-look plastic (much like the silver pedal on our trash cab opener I'd imagine), but we opted to stick with the ones we had. We have ours hooked up to switches seen here (had the switchplate made to custom specs by arnev.com--took a few tries to get it right, and DH had to carve out the back of the final version a little to fit the switches in snugly, but the end result is perfect): There are various options for hooking them up as you seem to already know; with or without having them hooked up to the switches, including running both (or in your case, all three) units off one switch. We mostly run ours on low speed, unless it's bitterly cold, and we want to jump-start the warming! :-) Anyway, have to run, but will pop in later with more info. FWIW, we are very happy with ours, and our plumber, who tried to talk us out of getting kick-heaters, was impressed with these when he installed them and tested them out. PS If you do a search at the bottom of the Kitchen Forum page, you might find some older threads with some of my posts about Turbonics.
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It's an accessibility issue. You need to get at it if there's ever a problem and short of removing the counter and the cabinet, I see no other way. I've done several of these in the past and cleanly done are not unappealing. One suggestion is to install a slide out tray on the bottom of the cabinet. Covers the cut-out and makes those items readily available. Another is to make the whole bottom removable. Depending on the cabinet style, overlay or style and rail, a good carpenter can do this with ease. It may take the average DIY'er a little more time, but not much more than a cleat on the perimeter and a few screws with finish washers to make it look good. I've attacked this problem several different ways depending on the client and they're wants (and of course budget). Hope this helps!
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ccoombs1
15 years ago
These are not my pictures, but I thought it was such a great idea that I saved them and plan to do this in my kitchen. These are removable! She sticks them on with velcro and then can just pull them out of the way for cleaning. I love this idea.
cheri127
15 years ago
It will add to your housekeeping, but a good pass with the swiffer once daily should be all you need. If you really love the look, go for it.
Ron Hubscher
2 years ago
Go with legs. I recently removed my old cabinets with recessed kicks only to find 20 years of rat droppings (as well as a couple dead rats) under the counter. Kicks or legs, things get under there. The difference, you can clean under there with legs (a roomba goes under great), you cannot clean under a kick. With kicks all the spills, rodent mess, etc will live under your cabinet until the next remodel.
Ron Hubscher
2 years ago
@Shannon_WI it is useful for others wondering the same question, which is how I got here. Look mommy a TROLL. (As that was a troll comment.)
tim
2 years ago
Im debating the same. Prefer legs but it adds a significant cost to the vanity for some reason uknown

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