The Hawaiian Home
Kitchen's During Construction
Ordering:
Once the final kitchen design has been accepted and the choice of cabinetry made the contractor or homeowner orders the cabinet. It’s always a good idea to check and double check the cabinets, spacing and needed fillers and panels that are being ordered. There’s often a period between placing an order and the start of cabinet construction when some minor detail can be changed or additional items purchased. This is where kitchen construction experience comes in handy. It helps to visualize the kitchen and its various systems to make sure doors and drawers can open all the way and there are not conflicts between components.
Getting Ready:
Murphy’s Law says you don’t start demolition till you know when your cabinets are going to be available for pick up. There’s nothing more embarrassing for a contractor or inconvenient for a home owner than to have a kitchen area gutted and no work taking place
Before all this demolition and hopefully speedy construction takes place the kitchen has to be emptied of its stored items. Box’s come in handy for the various items, drawers and there content can be removed from the old cabinets and put in your storage area.
The refrigerator stays in operation and the trusty microwave needs to find a place where it can be useful. The hardest thing is no sink. For those with laundry sinks it makes cleaning up less of a chore but for most it’s a mini kitchen set up in the bathroom and a lot of paper plates and eating take out.
The Clock is Ticking:
Once demolition begins on an average job it should be 1-2 weeks for the cabinets to be installed. After the base cabinets are in the counter tops can be measured and fabricated this is why you concentrate on putting base cabinets in first when your own a tight time frame. This will often allow a few days head start on your counter tops.
Counter tops can take days to 2 weeks + depending on your fabricator. During this time the installers can be finishing all items of cabinet installation. The new floors can go installed and if possible electrical work can be finished and painting done. The point being to keep the job going so when the counter tops are installed the sink and faucet can be hooked up as soon as possible. Though there may still be some items to work on and complete and the entire kitchen needs to be restocked with the items in storage.
Having a sink again represent an essentially operational kitchen and assurance that the kitchen will soon be up and running again.
Paul Mossman
http://pfcremodelinc.com/
January 30, 2009
The Hawaiian Home
Kitchen's/ Choosing Your Cabinets?
Cabinetry falls into three classifications:
Production Cabinets: This cabinetry build by major manufactures is what’s available in most large discount stores. They offer an affordable price within a set size and style range. Because of the nature of mass production variation of the preset size of shape is generally not available or very limited.
Custom Production Cabinetry: These represent many regional and large square footage cabinet shops. They offer a preset size and style of doors and cabinets but are small enough to be able to custom build cabinet variations. There price is generally a percentage higher than the production cabinet manufacturer but often offer a superior long term value.
Custom Cabinet Shops: Your local cabinet builder who are able to produce the most custom look in cabinetry. Often in tune with local market style they offer exotic woods and style variation which can produce striking results. They are often twice the cost of production cabinets but a well run shop with skilled craftsmen can bring a jewel box quality to a project.
Cabinet Construction:
This is where I prefer the last two of the above mentioned cabinetry. The cabinet box built by custom or custom production shop is most likely ¾” hardwood plywood or melamine/ plastic laminate over preferable AB* or better plywood. Production cabinet tends to use melamine over ½’ plywood or particle board. You can tell which by looking inside the cabinet if it looks artificial it’s a paper thin heat adhered melamine style product. It tends not hold up well through the years and will bubble up if subject to moisture for even a short period of time.
Cabinets do not do well with any access moisture for any period of time. Hardwood plywood cabinets need to have a clear sealer coat applied inside and outside preferable.
Keep an eye on the sink areas because leaks can occur at anytime and will ruin an otherwise functional cabinet
Doors:
When it comes to cabinet doors its basically hardwood or foil wrapped over medium density fiberboard or MDF. There are painted cabinet doors available which I consider a specialty designer choice being they require more careful long term handling.
First hardwood (sometimes softwood such as vertical grain Douglas Fir). Doors are either in slab form or some variation of the raised panel. A slab doors is precut pieces of hardwood laid out with the grain in reverse direction to counteract warping. The wood is glued and often doweled or splined together under pressure and then cut and worked when ready. I consider these 100+ year doors being they have pretty substantial heft to them and don’t have a lot of ways they could fall apart.
Raise panel doors consist of rail which is the top bottom and center piece if any and stiles which are the side pieces. In the center is a panel laid up in the style of a slab door and then routed into shape. The panel “float” within a groove cut in the rail and stile with foam or rubber “bumpers” holding it tight in the groove but allowing the panel to flex within the rail and stile.
The rail and stile are jointed glued together with the panel all at the same time. The door is finished sanded and stained and coated as needed. The trick with the raised panel door is how sound and tight the connection is between the rail and stile and the center panel having sufficient room to expand and contract with seasonal moisture changes.
If you see display cabinets with the joint between the rail and stile starting to chip at the stain of even gaps created by a center panel swelling it is not a well built product.
Foil wrapped doors start with a piece of pre-routed MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) often in the shape of a raised panel. Because it is all one piece and MDF is highly stable there is none of the joint concern as with a true raised panel door. Foil which is available in various colors and artificial wood grains is heat wrapped around the MDF core producing the finished door. This produces a solid door at an affordable price. It does not have the decades of longevity an all wood product may have but is the best way to a solid color kitchen. It is the only way to go when a high gloss look is desired.
* Plywood designation A,B,C, etc, designate the quality of the finish veneer. "A" or best quality on one side and "B" second best quality on the other, hence AB plywood.
Paul Mossman
http://pfcremodelinc.com/
Kitchen's/ Choosing Your Cabinets?
Cabinetry falls into three classifications:
Production Cabinets: This cabinetry build by major manufactures is what’s available in most large discount stores. They offer an affordable price within a set size and style range. Because of the nature of mass production variation of the preset size of shape is generally not available or very limited.
Custom Production Cabinetry: These represent many regional and large square footage cabinet shops. They offer a preset size and style of doors and cabinets but are small enough to be able to custom build cabinet variations. There price is generally a percentage higher than the production cabinet manufacturer but often offer a superior long term value.
Custom Cabinet Shops: Your local cabinet builder who are able to produce the most custom look in cabinetry. Often in tune with local market style they offer exotic woods and style variation which can produce striking results. They are often twice the cost of production cabinets but a well run shop with skilled craftsmen can bring a jewel box quality to a project.
Cabinet Construction:
This is where I prefer the last two of the above mentioned cabinetry. The cabinet box built by custom or custom production shop is most likely ¾” hardwood plywood or melamine/ plastic laminate over preferable AB* or better plywood. Production cabinet tends to use melamine over ½’ plywood or particle board. You can tell which by looking inside the cabinet if it looks artificial it’s a paper thin heat adhered melamine style product. It tends not hold up well through the years and will bubble up if subject to moisture for even a short period of time.
Cabinets do not do well with any access moisture for any period of time. Hardwood plywood cabinets need to have a clear sealer coat applied inside and outside preferable.
Keep an eye on the sink areas because leaks can occur at anytime and will ruin an otherwise functional cabinet
Doors:
When it comes to cabinet doors its basically hardwood or foil wrapped over medium density fiberboard or MDF. There are painted cabinet doors available which I consider a specialty designer choice being they require more careful long term handling.
First hardwood (sometimes softwood such as vertical grain Douglas Fir). Doors are either in slab form or some variation of the raised panel. A slab doors is precut pieces of hardwood laid out with the grain in reverse direction to counteract warping. The wood is glued and often doweled or splined together under pressure and then cut and worked when ready. I consider these 100+ year doors being they have pretty substantial heft to them and don’t have a lot of ways they could fall apart.
Raise panel doors consist of rail which is the top bottom and center piece if any and stiles which are the side pieces. In the center is a panel laid up in the style of a slab door and then routed into shape. The panel “float” within a groove cut in the rail and stile with foam or rubber “bumpers” holding it tight in the groove but allowing the panel to flex within the rail and stile.
The rail and stile are jointed glued together with the panel all at the same time. The door is finished sanded and stained and coated as needed. The trick with the raised panel door is how sound and tight the connection is between the rail and stile and the center panel having sufficient room to expand and contract with seasonal moisture changes.
If you see display cabinets with the joint between the rail and stile starting to chip at the stain of even gaps created by a center panel swelling it is not a well built product.
Foil wrapped doors start with a piece of pre-routed MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) often in the shape of a raised panel. Because it is all one piece and MDF is highly stable there is none of the joint concern as with a true raised panel door. Foil which is available in various colors and artificial wood grains is heat wrapped around the MDF core producing the finished door. This produces a solid door at an affordable price. It does not have the decades of longevity an all wood product may have but is the best way to a solid color kitchen. It is the only way to go when a high gloss look is desired.
* Plywood designation A,B,C, etc, designate the quality of the finish veneer. "A" or best quality on one side and "B" second best quality on the other, hence AB plywood.
Paul Mossman
http://pfcremodelinc.com/
January 29, 2009
The Hawaiian Home
Kitchen's Made Brand New Again!
Kitchens Take A Beating!
Most people start looking hard at remodeling their kitchen when it gets in the 25 to 35 year range. For people that’s a good age range but for kitchens that’s represents a lot of use.
Older kitchen often have laminate counter tops glued down over particle board that is decaying away. The cabinets used in many tract homes built in the 70’s and 80’s or high-rise condominium built in the 60’s forward are of the budget variety. In house’s built in the 1960’s and earlier cabinets were built by carpenters on the job site often by the same tongue in groove siding or plywood that the home is built from.
What Can be Done?
It’s surprising to find in other wise well designed homes and apartment building that kitchen layout seemed to have been barely an afterthought. To be fair professional kitchen design work is of relatively recent origin and a separate discipline of interior design.
The interesting thing about the kitchen is there is often a lot more ability to modify its design to compliment the way people live than is often thought. With the kitchen area gutted down to bare walls serious modification and upgrade is obtainable and affordable considering the use and aesthetics of the finished product
There is often some unique desire in a new kitchen project like more light or a casual bar top for kids to eat lunch. Yet the one rule I find most useful in applying to any kitchen design is creating maximum use of storage space and more open counter top area.
Some variation of a U shaped kitchen tends to give the most working counter space and naturally creates the triangular work area between sink, stove and refrigerator. It’s surprising how many kitchens have two or more entry points which block areas where additional cabinet and counter top could be to obtain better use of the available space.
I prefer tall cabinetry often to a soffit which is a short drop down ceiling which helps gives the kitchen more character and is an excellent place to install recessed task lighting. The base of the wall cabinets should be 18” or so off the finished counter top which in an 8’ ceiling house will mean wall cabinets 36”to 42” tall.
Kitchens Last A Long Time...
In cabinetry I find it best not to go cheap. A lot of mass produced cabinets are good for 25 to 35 years depending on the quality of construction. Truly well built cabinetry will last a century or more if properly taken care of. Now it’s a given a well built cabinet with a slab of 10,000 year granite on top will out last all of us. The point being the well built cabinet like a high quality roof will hold up better inside and out decades after its installation compared to the lower cost alternative.
One last housekeeping point is before the cabinets go back is to clean and seal up all opening in the walls and floors. Replace damaged or rotted drywall, close off the areas the previous builders were careless about sealing. This step helps everyone have a much cleaner finished product and helps protect the whole kitchen.
What About Cabinet Refacing?
When it comes to installing new doors over existing cabinets I recommend if the inside of the cabinet is old and falling apart it’s not a good use of their remodeling funds. Better to wait and go with new cabinetry. If they happen to have cabinet that are under 15 years old and in good shape (usually not the case) I see no problem with ordering new doors.
Paul Mossman
http://pfcremodelinc.com/
Kitchen's Made Brand New Again!
Kitchens Take A Beating!
Most people start looking hard at remodeling their kitchen when it gets in the 25 to 35 year range. For people that’s a good age range but for kitchens that’s represents a lot of use.
Older kitchen often have laminate counter tops glued down over particle board that is decaying away. The cabinets used in many tract homes built in the 70’s and 80’s or high-rise condominium built in the 60’s forward are of the budget variety. In house’s built in the 1960’s and earlier cabinets were built by carpenters on the job site often by the same tongue in groove siding or plywood that the home is built from.
What Can be Done?
It’s surprising to find in other wise well designed homes and apartment building that kitchen layout seemed to have been barely an afterthought. To be fair professional kitchen design work is of relatively recent origin and a separate discipline of interior design.
The interesting thing about the kitchen is there is often a lot more ability to modify its design to compliment the way people live than is often thought. With the kitchen area gutted down to bare walls serious modification and upgrade is obtainable and affordable considering the use and aesthetics of the finished product
There is often some unique desire in a new kitchen project like more light or a casual bar top for kids to eat lunch. Yet the one rule I find most useful in applying to any kitchen design is creating maximum use of storage space and more open counter top area.
Some variation of a U shaped kitchen tends to give the most working counter space and naturally creates the triangular work area between sink, stove and refrigerator. It’s surprising how many kitchens have two or more entry points which block areas where additional cabinet and counter top could be to obtain better use of the available space.
I prefer tall cabinetry often to a soffit which is a short drop down ceiling which helps gives the kitchen more character and is an excellent place to install recessed task lighting. The base of the wall cabinets should be 18” or so off the finished counter top which in an 8’ ceiling house will mean wall cabinets 36”to 42” tall.
Kitchens Last A Long Time...
In cabinetry I find it best not to go cheap. A lot of mass produced cabinets are good for 25 to 35 years depending on the quality of construction. Truly well built cabinetry will last a century or more if properly taken care of. Now it’s a given a well built cabinet with a slab of 10,000 year granite on top will out last all of us. The point being the well built cabinet like a high quality roof will hold up better inside and out decades after its installation compared to the lower cost alternative.
One last housekeeping point is before the cabinets go back is to clean and seal up all opening in the walls and floors. Replace damaged or rotted drywall, close off the areas the previous builders were careless about sealing. This step helps everyone have a much cleaner finished product and helps protect the whole kitchen.
What About Cabinet Refacing?
When it comes to installing new doors over existing cabinets I recommend if the inside of the cabinet is old and falling apart it’s not a good use of their remodeling funds. Better to wait and go with new cabinetry. If they happen to have cabinet that are under 15 years old and in good shape (usually not the case) I see no problem with ordering new doors.
Paul Mossman
http://pfcremodelinc.com/
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