Kickboards for flatpack kitchens,home office wardrobes,and laundry fitted to plinths, adjustable legs

Saturday, 24 March 2007

April No. 12 Kickboards- building on a solid base

Kickboards- building on a solid base
The bases of cabinets are made in 3 ways: 1. plinth attached to the cabinets. 2. Legs attached to the cabinet. 3. Inset kickboards with the cabinet sides going to the floor. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type. Different installations can benefit from different bases. The basic principle is to have the doors raised from the floor to prevent damage from shoes, brooms and mops and to enable one to get closer to the cabinet and benchtop. The plinth is easily leveled in order to get the perfectly horizontal cabinet and benchtop regardless of the slope of the floor. The kickboard are also designed to prevent the water damage to the cabinets in the kitchen, laundry or bathroom.

Plinth - A plinth is made in the form of a box without the top and bottom normally with a height of 100-150mm. The plinth is wedged up to get the horizontal level and then a front fascia is placed onto the plinth to cover the gaps left by the wedges. The fascia is best scribed to the floor (the change in floor level traced onto the fascia and then cut to follow this line thus the fascia has a height varying to follow the floor level ). Plinths are subject to water damage the water can track from the floor saturating the plinth and then tracking into the cabinet above. This is obviously not the best solution for the kitchen, bathroom or laundry cabinets. It is cheap to make (using off cuts) and gives even support to the whole cabinet. The plinth gives very solid support for heavy cabinets in bedroom wardrobes and home office bookcases.
Adjustable Legs – Plastic legs made from hard PVC and easily fitted, easy to level by twisting the leg. The fascia is clipped to the legs (after scribing the fascia to the floor level difference). The legs must be positioned so that they support the cabinet sides. The weight is transferred through the sides to the legs which are very strong under compression. If it is not under the side then the weight of the cabinet is taken by the fixings of the bottom to the side panel which does not have the support strength. Water damage to the plinth fascia can be easily rectified by unclipping the fascia and replacing it without moving the cabinets. When supporting a heavy cabinet or stone top. Place a fascia at the back of the cabinets for extra support. Legs can be predrilled in the bottom to take the adjustable legs as with Smartpack cabinets or they can be screwed onto the base of the cabinets.
Inset kickboards – For non moisture areas this is the easiest solution and very stable as the sides go to the floor. Wedges are used to level the cabinets and a front fascia can be attached to the recess cut into the cabinet sides. Single cabinets in the home office or bathroom vanities this construction is used for its ease of installation. The kick fascia is fixed between the sides. Isolated cabinets of 1m or less, leveling is less important as the total floor differential over 1m is relatively small. Where this method is used on a bathroom vanity it is advisable to embed the sides of the cabinet onto a silicone to reduce the risk of water damage to the cabinet sides.