kitchen build, Oven heat barrier?

[tyler mckenzie]

Thanks in advance for the help. Wondering if i need a heat barrier of some sort, between the pony wall and oven. The pony wall is faced with walnut veneer and then polyurethane finish. Any ideas or am i being overly concerned?

[Henry Ambrose]

If it gets used a lot its gonna have some effect on the finish. Is there any possibility of adding maybe a two inch spacer by moving the pony wall over? I think that would help a lot. If not how about a stainless panel over the cabinet side?

[Sam Layton]

Hi Tyler,

I don't know it you are having your kitchen inspected. I am doing a major remodel, and my inspector said that he goes by the appliance manufacture requirements for his inspection. It looks like your stove is less than 0 clearance. Example, my stove requirements say that the upper cabinets next to the stove must be 18" above the burners. What does the manufacture say on your appliances?

From the photo, it looks like your cabinets rap around the stove and are about flush with the door. Does not look safe to me. I would move the wall, or make the side cabinet a little smaller.

Sam

[tyler mckenzie]

I was thinking of a sheet of stainless in between the pony wall and oven.

[Steve Griffin]

I can see why you are asking this question--the manual probably doesn't say anything about a pony wall. Usually they say 4-6" to a side wall. Maybe the manual would say something about adjacent cabinetry, which is basically what you have. I sort of like to err on the side of caution, so I'd probably have followed what ever side wall number is in the manual.

If you don't get your answers in your specific manual, maybe look at other brands of range which have identical size/power as yours, and see what they advise.



-Steve

[David DeCristoforo]

I'm having a really hard time with this. I'm afraid that what I say might offend or present you with an unsolvable dilemma. I think the other responders are "tiptoeing" around this as well. The thing is, it's a really bad idea to have an oven right up against a bank of cabinets like that. It's not just the side clearance that's an issue. As others have alluded to, if the mfgr's specs allow a zero clearance, you should be OK there. (If they don't, no inspector will pass that without a huge bribe!). The big problem you are going to have is that every time you open that oven, you are going to get a blast of heat and moisture on the adjacent cabinet face. That's not going to be good. Plus, no oven is one hundred percent tight so there is always going to be some hot moist air escaping from around the oven door. You really need a spacer between the oven and the cabinet face of at least a couple of inches. I don't see any way for you to achieve that without some fairly major reworking. I would suggest a narrower cabinet on the right side of the range to give you room for a spacer on the left.

[Mike Goetzke]

I was going to say you could center the oven, move the micro and move one of the taller doors to the left side of the micro but you did an awesome job on grain matching.

[tyler mckenzie]

Thanks for the responses. Its unfortunate but I think i'll take out the 3/4 walnut panel on the pony wall. It goes Studs, 5/8 gyp-rock, 3/4 baltic with walnut. That will get me to manuals spec. Wish i looked for the manual online earlier.

[David DeCristoforo]

It's a bit hard to read from your pics but it looks to me like you might be able to lose the pony wall entirely. Or remake it out of 2X's laid flat. Does it have cabinets against it on the other side? Any reason it had to be framed as a "full thickness" wall?

[tyler mckenzie]

Pony wall is acting as more counter space / bar. Here's a photo. Removing the 3/4 walnut panel on the pony wall is the less painful route to go. I'm still hurting though.

[David DeCristoforo]

Ahh... I see now. If it were me, I'd pull that whole pony wall out and replace it with a nice piece of ply to match your cabinets. That would give you a good three or four inch spacer between the oven and the ply and little else would have to change. You're going to live with this for a long time.... your call though....

[Michael Wildt]

I agree with David. What you have today does not flow for me. You need the distance around the stove for the reasons already mentioned. Not to list the pain it would be to 'cook' with the way you have it. The 3-4" you gain on the left side is needed. Use it for trays or the baking sheets in the bottom part. Then do the same on the left side of the microwave but use that gap for spices or similar.

The finish looks awesome though.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Get rid of the drywall and mount the BB to the studs.

[Henry Ambrose]

As far as I can tell you can move the pony wall over a few inches and fix the problem entirely. (assuming you have floor laid that allows that) The counter overhang will be a few inches short but that's no big deal I wouldn't think.