DIY Kitchens: IKEA,Bunnings,Masters,others...?

[dazzler]

Using the leg adjusters make up all the base boxes with the adjusters set the same (set your combi square for height) and assume the floor will be level (hold that thought).

My place was built in 1937. 

The stumps are blue rocks that were too hard to get out of the ground and built before levels were even thought of 

I used to have some footage of a bottle of coke rolling across the room 

I just found I was chasing my tail with the leg adjusters.  May have been the technique  of course.

[dazzler]

TO THIS...

Wow!

[dazzler]

Looks like there are a few handy people on myswag

 Any options other than getting a new wife who likes the current kitchen?

Are you on your first or second wife?

My second is a far improved model than the first 

[D4D]

Are you on your first or second wife?

My second is a far improved model than the first 

Second and I can't afford a third

[Rumpig]

Wow!

yeah the wife seemed to like the improvement also for some reason, she'd been going on for years about how the old kitchen was rubbish...lol

Are you on your first or second wife?

My second is a far improved model than the first 

PMSL 

[prodigyrf]

Sorry I overlooked your link to your reno pics dazzler but it should be clear now from that and rumpigs kitchen that when you think 'new kitchen' you can really be asking how long is a piece of string sometimes? It's why the kitchen mobs talk telephone nos and they know they have to get in get out stop mucking about, or else the client gets stroppy pretty quick. They need plenty of fat for 'contingencies'. For example an old house with coke bottle rolling down hill may require jacking the timber floor or screeding a poor concrete one and then there's the plumb of the walls to consider. Those cabinets must simply be plumb and level whatever the lie of the floor or walls.

When I said stick to adjusters that assumed like me you'd already checked the floor level and walls for plumb and were reasonably comfortable with them. That was the case with that U shaped job, albeit I had to shave back the plaster (solid brick walls) at the corners to get a nice fit. You almost always need to do that with solid plaster or gyprock flushing at wall corners because they're almost always floated greater than 90 degrees. The concrete floor was reasonably level too apart from a 5mm hump near that stove so planing to fit it was. Bear in mind if there was serious unaddressed fall across the job you may need to fit custom KBs to suit after adding packers under the leg adjusters because they're reaching their limit of adjustment.

As we're discussing the various jobs and problems it jogs other issues and steps I have taken for granted you know, but that's clearly not the case when you're new to it all. All I can say is 95% of what we do, we do in our sleep but it's the last 5% that creates 95% of the headaches if you don't plan ahead for it. Thunkin time is the most important part of any new job for a tradey ie what's this job all about and where are the pitfalls and headaches before I touch a tool to begin? Obviously it gets easier with experience but just when you think you know it all some job throws you a real curve ball to remind you you don't.

[oldmate]

Mine started life like this




Now looks like this, only finished lol
(Only pic easily available)


Better off spending a bit more if you can stretch the budget and get a local cabinet maker to do it or make the cabinets for you. If you want to have a crack yourself, maybe a local cut to size place could help you out with a cutting list.
Maybe someone like this? http://www.hppgroup.com.au/new/


Sent from an overpriced, overengineered, outdated gadget that can make phone calls, sometimes.

[dazzler]

For example an old house with coke bottle rolling down hill may require jacking the timber floor or screeding a poor concrete one and then there's the plumb of the walls to consider.

For a giggle

Tassie houses circa 1930


 

[Barry G]

Yes, one of the 'joys' of an old house is that probably not a single wall is plumb, no two walls are square to each other and nothing is level!

[prodigyrf]

It aint always just the old houses baz but what the layman doesn't appreciate with a new kitchen is you are really fitting and adjusting the house around those near perfect computer cut cubes set up dead plumb and level as they must be. That seems counterintuitive to most but the art is in intuiting how the counter will look in the end.

[Fivid]

Was trying to find a link to an article but with just  quick search I couldn't find it.  Basically the article was about formaldehyde levels and basically said that any board manufactured in Australia has to emit less than a certain amount of formaldehyde, most cabinetmakers use Australian made board.  Bunnings kitchens that were tested had formaldehyde levels way in excess of what is allowed but theirs I believe were made overseas so didn't need to meet the same regulations.  I reckon it was maybe a couple of years ago that I read this article and things may have changed in the meantime but if I was thinking of buying any cabinet type product from there I would check it out. 

 
Dave