Ok one more. A picture would help but if there are strips front and back you could put 1/8" x 34" strip if wood or ply on top of the cabinet sides inbetween the front and back metal to clear.

Rip pieces of plastic laminate (Formica) the width of the cabinet sides and hot melt the strips to the top of the cabinet sides, making them flush with the metal. Depending on the thickness of the metal and the plastic laminate, it may take two strips for each. Plastic laminate is non-compressive and dimensionally stable. Silicone the soapstone down and forget about it.

Alex, I wish I had read your dilemma before I went 'gung-ho' and had my Sektion installed this week!! Now, I see we are up against the same thing regarding soapstone on sektion. My soapstone installer will be coming in a couple of days to template, supposedly, and I'm afraid he'll tell me the same thing. How did you resolve the issue? Did you proceed on the soapstone?? Thank you for any advice. Also, thanks, everyone else for your suggestions. ;

Thanks so much, Alex. We are in southern california, Escondido area, and my installer is a real perfectionist and I'm pretty certain he won't install over something he feels is not supportive. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much for pics of your beautiful new kitchen and advice! I may have a few more questions for you as time goes on.

I will let you know what our installer says. So, just let me understand how you installed the ss: your countertop is sitting right on top of the metal strips and screw heads? Did you run any additional support strips somewhere across the cabinet tops for extra support of ss? I wonder how the granite tops that Ikea sells is supported on these cabinets? It must be the same way and if the cabinets supports Ikea granite/silestone countertops they sell in the store, I would think it would support soapstone !

Yes, the soapstone is lying directly on the metal strips. (The screw-heads should be flush with the metal strips.) My stone guy put in a couple of extra wooden cleats on the sink cabinet to help frame the under-mount sink. Otherwise that was it. Hope it all holds up! :)

I have just installed a run of 15" depth base cabinets and plan to fabricate a soapstone counter out of a remnant I have. The stone is 3cm thick as typical for soapstone. So this issue with the metal strips has me concerned. I could use the filler layers of Formica along each box side front to back, between the metal strips. Or I could lay a 1/2" ply down across the whole run of 8.5" This would just to get a smooth surface for the stone to set upon. I don't want to rout channels to accommodate the proud metal strip. I know Alex Wood had his stone set right on top after all was said and done. I really don't like the idea of having the points taking all the load at each end of metal, about 1 sq-in. The metal strips themselves have some flex in them, so they I don't know how much support they are for a counter.

While searching for more information on filler strip fabrication I found a site that mentioned using the cover panels as a base for the countertops. The panels are 1/2" for the cabinet panels and 5/8" for the large refrigerator type side panes. This seems like an expensive base for a counter. I could just paint my ply a dark brown/black to blend with my counter. It won't be seen anyway because of the overhang. This cabinet run is in a small office.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thank you, this is exactly the information I was looking for to plan our countertop install. Super helpful!

i'm having the same issue with my granite installer. he wants the sink are reinforced with wood strips under the front and back of the sink base. as far as even-ness of the top, i see ikea sells strips for that. FIXA countertop support brackets , i saw that above. wish ikea would have mentioned that.

I was told about the "FIXA" by the IKEA folks when I contacted them because of the unusual cabinet tops. That was about 3 weeks ago. They told me that I should have been sold them at the time I bought the cabinets. I said I wanted some. He told me I would need 4. He also told me he would have someone contact me during the week, to get more details from me. I didn't hear from anyone, then forgot about it until I got this large box in the mail that was about 18"x18"x12" in size. It contained ONE FIXA. I couldn't believe it. No one contacted me. I already indicated I wanted 4. Jeez!

I am glad that I stumbled upon this thread. I am just about to have my cabinets template for Neolith installation. These metal strips seem like they would be a big problem given that neolith is very light and somewhat brittle. The "FIXA" brackets seem like overkill. They are designed to lift the entire worktop up above the cabinet level. What about some appropriate thickness of perforated metal strip to even up the plane?

Sorry to bump an old thread. Did anyone figure how to support an island overhang using IKEA sektion cabinets? The "Fixa" brackets are just to increase the height of the side of the cabinet, but what about island overhang support?

How will a tubed support work with the IKEA cabinets?

I ended up using a 1/2" plywood underlayment to set on top of the cabinets. I then set the soapstone on that. This plywood isn't trimmed down yet. I did leave the opening to the side of the cabinet like that to store a foot stool in there.

Pic Below, soapstone in place, over the 1/2" ply. The room is so small there is really no vantage point to see under the stone to see the raw edge of the ply, so I might not even trim it out. I was planning on ripping some of the end panels to face the ply. But I bet if I just painted or stained the ply with a black brown, it would be fine. I have to get on the floor to see the underlayment.

How much of an overhang do you have? Could you overhang an underlayment of plywood and trim it out on the edges? I don't know anything about overhangs. Have you contacted IKEA with this question?

@guco45, I just posted a thread asking a similar question. I've done a lot of searches here on granite and Ikea, but haven't seen anyone talking about supporting an overhang.

Enduring, my island will have an 15" overhang. I think your solution is great for regular counters with full cabinet support.

Lisa, thank you. I'll be reading the responses to your thread. I just don't know how the tubular support will work with IKEA sektion.

Lisa and guco45 - hopefully Joseph Corlett will see your thread, if not you might want to message him. He'll be able to point you in the right direction, he's the countertop guru around here, and he's familiar with Ikea cabs.

Here's a link that has pictures of Joes tubular steel support of a bamboo countertop on IKEA sektion.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3518204/bamboo

benjesbride, I don't have cabinets yet. However, if you scroll up and take a look at enduring's pics (June 28, 2015), you'll see that the new ikea sektion has a metal support horizontal to the face of the drawers. I believe this will prevent Joe's tubular support from working the same way. Or, do you think the tubular support will go on top of the metal support?

I'd just message Joe to ask him. He's a great resource and very generous with his knowledge.

guco45:

I'm fairly certain the 1" square tube aluminum as pictured above could be made to work with IKEA Sektion. Bolt the tubes to the sides of the cabinets without cutting the metal rail that stretches across the rear of the cabinet and shim the tubes the thickness of the metal rail to get back to flush.

I have Ikea Sektion with 3cm granite counters and a 15" overhang on the 6' pennisula. We didn't do anything special. It's all fine. Nothing moves, nothing has broken, there wasn't even any talk about it by the granite fabricators/installers (at least not to us). There was no issue and all works well.

Debbi, are you saying you have no overhang support at all, or that you were able to put supports in without doing anything different?

Pretty kitchen, incidentally.

@Debbi,

Are you sure your overhang is 15" and not 12"? Just looking at the picture proportionally, the overhang looks like it is not even 1/3 of the countertop, which would be 12". Obviously this is not an accurate measuring technique. :-)

Most granite fabricators would not do 15" without support brackets. Some won't even do 12". We had 12" without support and it was fine, but we'd like to increase to 15" and I wouldn't feel comfortable not using supports.

I thought it was 15, but shoot, I'm at work and can't check - maybe it is 12. Writer - we do not have supports on this countertop. We have a very large overhang in our upstairs kitchen - 18 I think - and that has steel plates supporting the marble.

@joseph-corlett-llc that is an interesting idea using the sides. I think it might bother my SO to not have the brackets evenly spaced in our case. (He can't handle things not symmetrical.) We have a 38" corner cabinet, 18" drawers and 30" drawers. But is worth considering.

@joseph-corlett-llc, very interesting idea indeed to bolt the square tubes to the side of the cabinets. My island will be 123" wide, how would I get the square tubes in the center area of the island? I thought the recommendation is support every 16-20".

Debbi Branka:

There are MIA standards for countertop support. I don't believe your installation meets them. Can you do it? Sure. Do I recommend it? No.

Well apparently I was way off. My overhang is 10.5". No supports. We thought we met all standards in our whole remodel. So maybe 10.5 doesn't need support. It works fine for us. It's also our second kitchen so not used often.

Working through this with our counter top installer now. We want to put a soapstone counter top that that is 63"x28" on top of an island made of three base cabinets (24"x15", 24x"15", 15"x15") next to our range. They currently say an overhang of more than 7" is a no-go. I also asked about the metal brackets and they have not yet done a Sektion install. Will keep everyone posted.

"They currently say an overhang of more than 7" is a no-go."

They are correct and are obeying the 1/3 -2/3 rule of cantilevering. You can cantilever more, but you're going to have to design, build, and install a floor-to-top framework independent of the cabinets.

This top failed to obey the cantilevering rules, is out of level, has failing seams, and is unsafe. I wanted $4,000.00 to fix it (custom steel frame built into the wall) and didn't get the job.

Debbi Branka, this is off topic but what countertops do you have? Thanks!

Shoot JoJo, I can't remember what it is called! I can look up the paperwork if you need me to.

Hi all!

I'm new to this forum. Just a question to all you Ikea DIYers. We bought the SEKTION cabinets and hired a carpenter for the base install. Today after trying to put in the drawers, they won't fit without a small gap at the top...Less than half an inch. We tried adjusting to lower and top holes and there's either a gap or overhang. Does this mean they might have installed upside down? Has anyone ever had this issue before? Thank you!!! Not sure quite what to do. Maybe drill new holes to make drawers line up?

Take a picture. Is it just the top drawer that has the gap, but all other drawers line up correctly?

Here is a picture of 2 top drawers of my base cabinets:

We need to see a picture, but with my Sektion, when my husband adjusted something, it put the cabinet off-level, which made the drawer have a big gap. He leveled up the cabinet again (adjust the feet) and the drawers were perfect. Don't go drilling anything!

Sorry to bump an old thread... How did everyone support their under mount sink? Our installers left a brace underneath it, but I would like something more sturdy. Any pictures?

We had our IKEA cabinets installed by their service (traemond) and had no issues with our quartzite fabrication including a large peninsula with the sink in it. It all came out perfect and no complaints from the fabricator. Our GC installed the plywood substrate.

Nick Marks:

The best way to support an undermount sink is with a Hercules Universal Sink Harness (Braxton Bragg) or a Sink Strap or two from Regent Stone Products.

Its NOT a problem. They just want to charge you to install a plywood top base. You need to buy the FIXA bracket from ikea and install them at each side panel at the top to make it flush.

Very happy with our quartz on sektion cabinets. We used Fixa to even up the top of the cabinets for the quartz. For the undermount sink we screwed two strips of wood to the side walls of the cabinet to support the sink. The side rims of the sink rests on the wood. This method allowed us to install a sink that is nearly as wide as the cabinet. Wood strips are about 2-3" high, as long as the cabinet depth and thickness of the wood depends on the size of the sink. Cannot be too thin. Also notable. We used high quality (dense) wood - not pine. We also used lots of screws to attach it to the wall - and where possible - screwed into the adjacent cabinet wall (just don't go all the way - it would damage the interior of the next cab).

Yep wood works as well

We're prepping to order Sektion cabinets for our kitchen and haven't chosen countertop material yet. After reading through this thread, wondering what would be the most fail-safe solutions from the get-go? Sorry, second cup of coffee doesn't seem to be kicking in...!

Fail safe? #1, order your counter directly from Ikea wether this is formica, stone or other solid surface. Make sure they include anything they need in their quote for supports. This may include the ikea brackets, blocking, or even a plywood underlayment. My counter guys did a 3/4" plywood decking for a 3cm thick material and then wrapped the edges.

"For the undermount sink we screwed two strips of wood to the side walls of the cabinet to support the sink."

I strongly discourage this procedure. I constantly repair leaking double bowl stainless steel sinks that have been supported this way. Most sinks do not have a stanchion between the bowls. This means that each bowl is supported by wood on one side and steel-on-the-flat on the other. Steel-on-the-flat flexes, especially with the weight of a disposal pulling the sink down, causing leaks. Leaks cause rot, rust, insect infestation, and unsanitary gunk where you're preparing food for your family. Of course I have tons of pictures to support my claims.

Wood cleats cannot provide the constant upward even pressure on sinks that a Hercules Universal Sink Harness (Braxton Bragg) or a Sink Strap (Regent Stone Products) can. You can stand in a strapped sink. You can jump up and down in a strapped sink. You can push on the steel-on-the-flat and it will not budge; it can't defy the laws of physics. And straps take up less room than cleats.

Swollen particle board cabinet from leaking cleated sink.

Bug frass from the same job.

Leaking sink flange. No stanchions between the bowl bottoms. Lookit that gunk.

Rusty sink clip; see this all the time.

Winner of the Most Hillbilly award goes to "glue-'n-tape-blocking-over-the-sink-flange".

If your sink is attached like this it is leaking, has gunk, and is coming down, I promise.

Leaking sinks are not only unsanitary, they're an excellent way to blow a rod.

kleb:

Here's how you'll fix your leaking sink in the future without removing the tops:

Run a Rotozip across the cabinet sides as high as you can get, but staying below the bowl(s). Pull the cabinet sides, drive a scraper between the sink flange and the stone bottom, and pull the sink from the cabinet. Clean the flange completely.

Unscrew the rotting cleat, and screw the cabinet side into the adjacent cabinet. If you've got a dishwasher on one side, use blocking and screws to reattach it. Install the strap(s), clamp the sink in place after siliconing the flange, and reinstall the sink.

If you can pop the front apron off and get access to the cleats, you'll save a lot of work, but it sounds like you really screwed them in.