CABINETS FOR A 94" WALL

[vdotmatrix]

WE ARE EMBROILED IN A dispute with our general contractor. we went to the cabinet place (FERGUSONS) AND BROUGHT THE ELEVATIONS for the salesman..we picked out our new kitchen cabinets and he plopped everything on the home design program a poof there was our kitchen all printed out.....these plans detailed a 96" wall, 42" cabinets, 18" of space between cabs and the granite countertop, and 1.5" crown moulding.....he faxed these plans to our general contractor. a day goes by and he gives the fergusons the nod, the guy hits the enter key and we write a check for $15,000.

so?

well, we only have a 94" wall. and the tile isn't laid yet...bottom line..the contractor didn't verify the field measurements and now they hung these giant cabinets, and we about 15 7/8 or 16 1/4" under the cabinets and no crown moulding.

what are standard cabinets for an 8 foot wall? and space underneath?

[jackofall]

Min between counter & cab is 16". 42" upper cabs are generally used with 9' ceilings but not a problem its already your house with no inspections due and if there is your 1/2" may go unnoticed.

[vdotmatrix]

16"? Are you saying this is a code requirement?

quote:Originally posted by jackofall

Min between counter & cab is 16". 42" upper cabs are generally used with 9' ceilings but not a problem its already your house with no inspections due and if there is your 1/2" may go unnoticed.

It's sometimes better to be lucky than smart.

[jackofall]

I don't know if its code but that is close to standard

[Snoonyb]

Counter top height should be 36" above the "finished" floor. This is somewhat criticle if you have a DW and are installing a tile floor which is preceeded by a wonder boadr or other stabilizing substrait.

The standard height to the bottom of the upper cabinets is 54", which leaves 18" and in some municipalities, this will be a code for the cabinets adjacent to the countertop cooking appliance. In fact, you were once required to install a vent hood 6" larger than the cooktop.

That being said, I've seen the distance between the countertop and the upper cabinets from 12.5" and 22".

In your "disagreement" with your contractor, are there two culprits in this, was the contractor with you when you ordered the cabinets.
Since 96" is the standard finished ceiling height using conventional dimensioned lumber, how did yours become 94".

If this was due to repeated floor over floor installation, it would have been obvious from the demo.

Illegitimas non-carborundum

[vdotmatrix]

well, we went to fergusson enterprises, they had a showroom salesman sitdown with the program and we designed our new kitchen and we also provided the elevations which were flawed. the finished plans were faxed to our contractor, who incredibly, signed off on the plans with out field verifying the dimensions firstly on the architects plans and secondly on the cabinet makers plans, and he simply checked off that everything would fit. That was the biggest SNAFU and especially since it was happening to us.

quote:Originally posted by Snoonyb

Counter top height should be 36" above the "finished" floor. This is somewhat criticle if you have a DW and are installing a tile floor which is preceeded by a wonder boadr or other stabilizing substrait.

The standard height to the bottom of the upper cabinets is 54", which leaves 18" and in some municipalities, this will be a code for the cabinets adjacent to the countertop cooking appliance. In fact, you were once required to install a vent hood 6" larger than the cooktop.

That being said, I've seen the distance between the countertop and the upper cabinets from 12.5" and 22".

In your "disagreement" with your contractor, are there two culprits in this, was the contractor with you when you ordered the cabinets.
Since 96" is the standard finished ceiling height using conventional dimensioned lumber, how did yours become 94".

If this was due to repeated floor over floor installation, it would have been obvious from the demo.

Illegitimas non-carborundum

[:0]

It's sometimes better to be lucky than smart.

[Snoonyb]

And so, 14 days later, what were the solutions you came to?

Illegitimas non-carborundum

[vdotmatrix]

Well, There are no solutions except that during the punch list the contractor came and fiddled around with a few jobs and left and said everything was done. I was just at a friends house in dillon Montana and they have 9 ft walls and 42 inch cabinets and it looks right......and i whipped out my tape and measured exactly 18" from countertop to bottom of cabinet.....the only really sucky thing is that we have to lug that 31 pound stand mixer up and down from the cabinets using a ^%^$$#%# stool.

It's sometimes better to be lucky than smart.

[Snoonyb]

I would hope that this would be an example and that everyone should take a lesson from it.

Interesting.
There was a contractor hired.
An architect hired.
Apparently, no one including the homeowner had a tape measure.
The contract is a legal document.
The architects prepared and signed drawings are a legal document.
Each of these documents are "stand alone."

By the way, there is an "appliance lift," available from cabinet hardware suppliers, which installs in a base cabinet, is spring loaded and is for the express purpose of affording easy access for heavy, awkward appliances.


Illegitimas non-carborundum

[LazyPup]

A common stud measures 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 96 inches.

A stud wall has both a footer and header which adds an additional 3 inches to the stud length, thus a common rough height is 96 + 3 = 99"

Allow a 1/2 drop down for sheetrock on the ceiling and you end up with 98 1/2inches.

In order to end up with a 94 inch finish wall one of four possibilites had to occur:

1. there was a floor upon floor buildup.
2. there was an additional drop on the ceiling
3. all the studs had to be cut down 3 1/2 inches.
4. The material supplier supplied non-standard studs.

I can not imagine a GC going to the expense and bother of cutting down all the studs unless there was a specific reason listed on the plans.

I dont recall ever seeing a non-standard stud that was 3 1/2 inches short.

Did the original plan call for a raised floor or drop ceiling? If so, was that info provided to the cabinet designer?

Did this problem result from a cost plus field change, and if so was it approved by the architect?

Doesn't anyone on that job have a tape measure?

I suspect the last line of the post is the answer. The tile isn't laid yet. No doubt they used the stud wall dimension to compute the cabinets and faied to note the cement board buildup for tile underlayment. In that case the problem rests either with the cabinet designer or the individual who gave him/her the rough elevation for the layout.

No doubt the 42 inch cabinets will allow 18 inches in your friends house,,as you stated, they have 9 foot walls. With walls a foot higher there should be no problem getting an additional 2 inches countertop to cabinet clarance.