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While
professional kitchen remodeling fitters can save you time
and effort,you can also do it your self if you're up for
the challenge.In this section I'm going to show you how
to remodel a small kitchen step by step but let's first
look at the benefits of installing your own kitchen cupboards
as well as if a kitchen remodeling fitter should do it.
Do
it yourself Vs Kitchen remodeling Contractors
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You will save the money that you can spend on your kitchen
instead of spending it on the labor fees and organizing
fees of a kitchen remodeling company.
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You can do it in your own time without having the hassles
of kitchen contractors rocking up early at your house and
making a noise or contractors not pitching for work at all
and delaying the lead time to finish your kitchen.
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If anything ever breaks in the kitchen you will know how
to fix it quickly because you were the one who installed
your kitchen.It's sometimes difficult to have a kitchen
remodeling contractor come back to fix something.
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You will be able to remodel a kitchen for other people and
make a buck if you need it.
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You won't have to worry about contractors running away with
your money.
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You will score big points with your wife building her dream
kitchen and live happily ever after!
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| Let's
begin the project |
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The
first thing we are going to need to do is to measure the
space where we want to remodel our new diy kitchen
cupboards in.Remember to measure every bit of the kitchen
where you are going to place cabinets and countertops in.You
also have to measure the height of the roof to know how
big you want your topfiller also well as how height you
want your wall cabinets and tall cabinets to be. If you've
never measured up a kitchen you can
learn how to do it here. Did your measuring?Double
checked it?Great!Time to move forward.Next let's remove
the existing kitchen if you haven't already done it. Tip:If
you can use your existing cabinets or some of it it will
save the time it will take to assemble and install them
as well as save you money. If you do decide to remove
all the kitchen cupboards and do a complete kitchen remodeling
project make sure that you remove everything from the walls
and floors.You don't want any obstructions when you're placing
your cabinets against the walls or on the floors yourself.Make
sure that you do sweep all of the dust off the floor so
that the cabinets are completely spotless underneath.
Finally!Let's
start building!
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For
our first do it yourself kitchen
cupboards pretoria project we are going to build a simple
straight kitchen.
This
type of kitchen is called a straight kitchen because it
lines up straight against one wall with out an island
or breakfast counter.This kitchen has everything you
need for it to function properly and still look good.Now
what would it need to make it a functional kitchen?Well
you need to place your broom somewhere ,you need to wash
your dishes,you need to cook,you need to throw your rubbish
away,you need to wash your clothes and you need to grab
a cold coke out the fridge.Those are pretty much the most
important things needed in a kitchen to make it a fully
functional kitchen.
Let's look at an over view of the kitchen we are going to
build.
I'm
first going to show you have to build a kitchen then when
you've got "the thirst" for it I'll teach you
how to make
up and assemble cabinets giving you all the sizes you
would need to build base cabinets with doors on ,drawers
cabinets(very easy!!) and even spice drawers.Remodeling
your kitchen cupboards by doing it yourself is actually
very easy.You just need to be guided and that's what I'm
going to be....your personal "do it yourself kitchen
remodeling guide".
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| Stage
1.
Check
the level of the ground.
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Do
this to see which side the floor slopes down to.
It's quite important to do this when remodeling your kitchen
cupboards yourself because most adjustable legs(150mm high)
can only adjust longer not shorter.
Place a straight edge(the silver long object) on the floor
first.This is because you very rarely get a level that is
2m long.Then place your level on top of the straight edge.
Let's say that this kitchen is 150mm away from the floor
on the right but on the left side of the kitchen it slopes
down to 160mm.
Look in the next picture to see what I mean.
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| Sloping
to the left down by 10mm |
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As
you can see I placed a cleat(the white long thin plank running
along the wall)under 150mm against the wall.this will be
to place the diy kitchen cupboards on and will also line
them up perfectly.The side where it says 160mm is where
the floor is sloping down 10mm.The reason why the cleat
covers a length of 3200mm is because of the length the floor
cabinets will cover in between the fridge and washing machine.Look
at the picture below and add up the totals of the floor
units to get 3200mm. Note: Remember chip board
comes in a length of 2750mmx1830mm. This means you will
have to add two pieces together to cover that length against
the wall. The reason you use a cleat to place your floor
cabinets on is because the kitchen cabinets will all line
up straight against the wall when you are remodeling the
kitchen.
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| Measurements
of the kitchen |
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Remember
to leave a space of 650mm for the fridge.Although the width
of a fridge is 600mm you always have to leave a space so
that you can get it in and out of that gap as well as for
ventilation. Also in the picture the broom cupboard is on
the end of the row units.Well it would look kinda funny
if the diy broom cupboard was in the middle of the wall...don't
you think.In the next figure you can see the cleat in a
3d view just so that you and I are on the same page. Talking
about 3d views check the design
a kitchen page.
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| Level
the kitchen |
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The
yellow thing on the cleat is my "home drawn level".Always
check that the cleat is 100% level.Do it and save yourself
the effort of having to take the diy kitchen cupboards of
the wall and re-leveling the kitchen.
This is probably the most important thing you will do in a
kitchen.Always make sure your cleats are level.If not, your
doors and drawers won't be level. |
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| Install
the first diy kitchen cabinet |
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Ok,let's
remodel our diy kitchen cupboards and put our first unit
in place.
This
is a 2 drawer pot drawer.Pot drawers always have to have
a solid drawer bottom so that the weight of the pots and
pens don't make the bottom warp down.Making your pot drawer
with a hardboard bottom is the worst thing you can do.Also
don't fit a wheel runner on the pot drawer.Use a ball bearing
runner or also known as a extension runner.These runners
carry allot more weight and don't slip of the track like
a wheel runner.You can use a 500mm runner for your drawer
units(drawer units and base units are all 560mm deep x 720mm
high). If you want to the size of the front part of the
drawer of the inside you just subtract 91mm off the width
of the outside dimention of the cabinet.You don't have to
buy diy units you can do it yourself.
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| Install
the kitchen cabinets along the kleet |
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After
you placed the diy 2 pot drawer on the cleat line up the
other base units next to that unit.Make sure that all the
units are flush with one another at the top ,bottom and
front.Oh yes!In the pictures I use units with doors on when
building the kitchen.This is because if you have your door
on the unit and you try to level it you will immediately
see if the unit is out of square or not level.You will pick
it up because the door will be skew on the unit.Try it out
and see.The cleat at the back cuts your work of leveling
the kitchen in half because now you don't have to level
the back legs.You just have to adjust them down unlit they
touch the ground.
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| Finished
measurement view of the kitchen designs |
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I
like showing pictures in a complete view that way you always
have the finished product before you.In the pervious do
it yourself kitchen remodeling project design you will see
that the row of diy kitchen cupboards ended at the 800mm
sink unit.To continue remodeling the kitchen you will have
to leave a 650mm gap for the washing machine and then mount
a broom cabinet next to that gap.Make sure the broom cabinet
is level before mounting it against the wall yourself.Next
you can install the 450mm wall cabinet against the broom
cabinet and wall.You can then continue by installing the
wall cabinets on the other side of the window yourself aswell.Make
sure to leave the same size gap on both sides of the window.
You
just finished your first diy kitchen remodeling project
and you did it all by yourself. You are welcome to send
me photo's of your own kitchen remodeling projects. I would
be happy to see the system working for others.
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