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Heating & Air Conditioning DIY Kitchens

Installing a new toe kick vent in an already installed cabinet

last year

I have some beautiful old cabinets in my kitchen that I'd like to install a toe kick vent in. I have to install a new run of ductwork to get to the cabinet which will be straight off the furnace in the basement for about 15 feet and then pop it up under the cabinet. (I couldn't have been more lucky in placement for this and can't figure out why no one before me ever did it.)

1. I'm assuming I'll need to cut a hole in my cabinet bottom to access the floor and install this properly. It's a sink cabinet and I really don't feel like uninstalling everything for access. Can someone confirm my assumptions are correct here?

2. I'm wondering if I should just run a flexible vent pipe through the ceiling/floor to the toe kick vent, or should I go to the trouble of installing a boot at the basement ceiling, and then another in the kitchen floor to transition to the toe kick vent? I can't imagine a cabinet would ever NOT be in this location, so I don't have to worry about what it looks like if it was one day removed.

Featured Answer

wdccruise

last year

Maybe a shallow "register box" can be installed under the cabinet and a "toekick grill" attached to it.

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Comments (6)

Seabornman
last year
Hopefully there's not a joist in the way. I would make sure that the duct transition under the cabinet is metal, and it would be good to seal the duct well at the floor penetration to keep mice from entering. Use duct mastic or aluminum duct tape on all of the joints. You may want to insulate the duct if you have air conditioning.
mike_home
last year
It might be possible to avoid cutting a hole in the cabinet bottom and do everything from the basement. It would making a larger hole through the sub floor to allow you to make make all the connections to the new duct.

Take a look at this Toe Ductor Kits. This is designed when you can move the cabinet. But perhaps you can make use of it in your application.
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They could have inserted a vent elbow similar to this one to get the air flow turned 90 degrees. https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-1-4-in-x-10-in-Short-Way-90-Degree-Rectangular-Elbow-90E3-25X10/100138324 Then extend it with standard 3 1/4"x10" ducting out to the toe kick, and install a grill. I would hesitate to completely remove the cabinet itself just to punish the contractor with reworking a bad job. It will disturb the countertop, backsplash and other things that are already installed to your satisfaction. I have a hydronic toe-kick heater, and we cut out a large square area in the bottom of the sink cabinet, using a jig saw. We then screwed small metal support plates under each corner of the opening so that the cut out section rests on the plates when you put it back in. It is not readily visible when you drop the cutout section back in, and in my case it gives me access to both the pex hydronic lines and the motor for the booster fan that is part of the heater. Bruce
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Oh thanks Mike---I'll check into those options. The HVAC PM said they would have to special order the duct and asked for my husband to send him the measurement for the ducts to the toe kicks. The kitchen one is extremely close to the front of the toekick -we'd originally planned for a furring wall on our log wall (so the cabinet was thought to be placed 3 inches further out from the wall when the ducts were put in) -and then later, removed the furring wall so the cabinets will go directly on the logs. The cabinet guys said the duct will work fine--it will just be a small space after the 90 degree to the toe kick register. The cabinet guys are here-they said they could leave the toe kick off so that the duct could be installed later--but I dont know how its going to happen with the cabinet already in place even without the toe kick--we may need to cut out the floor of the cabinet in order to secure the duct...tbd. To make it more complicated-its on unsealed gypcrete--so we cant screw anything into the floor-and will need to seal around it if we want to glue anything to the floor (we've been told its impossible to get things to glue to unsealed gypcrete long term. Oh man. Appreciate your help.
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PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
last year
It's not a big deal to replace the floor of a sink base cabinet, especially if you can pop the cabinet front off. This job will be much easier sacrificing the cabinet floor.
Amanda Healey
Original Author
last year
@Seabornman I will have AC as I'm having a heat pump installed, but I think I'd probably have the vent closed when the AC was on, because I hate having it on my feet. Would you still recommend using an insulated one knowing that? Also, the rest of the ductwork isn't insulated. Is it something I should look at doing before summer hits?

@mike_home those toe ductor kits are the first thing I found when starting to research this, but as you noted, it did look like something to use before the cabinet is installed. It was watching the install videos that led me to my original question on this post - do I even need to add a boot on either side of the ceiling/floor, or could I just run one piece of flexible ductwork that I could flatten a bit at the end to fit. Like how the toe ductor vent is more oval shaped at the end.

@Mark Bitman why is flexible ducting a problem?
mike_home
last year
@Amanda Healey It might be possible to use a flexible duct. Flexible duct is typically round. You will have to come up with a way to attach it securely to the toe kit boot. There are round to oval transition duct connectors available. You could have a custom pieces made if you can't find anything off the shelf. I suggest you add a damper in the basement to regulate the air flow. This will also allow you to turn off the air flow in the summer.

I don't why a short piece of flexible duct would be problem in this application. Duct work inside of the condition space is usually not insulated. Ducts needed to be insulated when condensation is forming on a cold surface in a warm humid environment.

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