Jon Endres
11-28-2021, 1:50 PM
Question for y'all. My shop is a detached garage with a concrete stem wall. The wall, including the sill plate and the interior foam board insulation, extends 8" above the floor and projects out from the wall above 3-1/2". I want to build shop cabinets along two walls but I am having problems visualizing the best way to build them. I am now regretting the stem wall, I built the garage myself and have realized it's causing me all kinds of problems.
In a "normal" installation, like a kitchen, I'd build a separate toekick/support platform on the floor, level it up, and then build simple cabinet boxes to sit on the platform. However, most kitchen cabs have only a 3-4" toekick. I really do not want to waste 8" of space due to the stem wall. I have also considered setting the backs of the cabinets on top of the stem wall and then building legs underneath the cabinets, but that leaves 8" of space underneath them which seems to be a good place to lose stuff and collect dust.
Another thought was to notch the cabinets so that the bottom 8" is 3-1/2" shallower than the rest. That seems like a pain in the butt though, and I still want the bottoms of the cabinets a couple inches off the floor. So I'd gain one extra 6" deep drawer space on the bottom.
Final thought was to float the cabinets - set the bottoms on the stem wall and double french cleat the backs, but I have a couple concerns, one being that these cabinets may have a lot of weight in and on top of them, and second that I could just build the backs out of 3/4" plywood and lag bolt them to the wall instead. Still gonna be heavy though.
I am leaning toward the "legs underneath" concept but was wondering if any of you had a similar situation and what you did to accommodate it.
In a "normal" installation, like a kitchen, I'd build a separate toekick/support platform on the floor, level it up, and then build simple cabinet boxes to sit on the platform. However, most kitchen cabs have only a 3-4" toekick. I really do not want to waste 8" of space due to the stem wall. I have also considered setting the backs of the cabinets on top of the stem wall and then building legs underneath the cabinets, but that leaves 8" of space underneath them which seems to be a good place to lose stuff and collect dust.
Another thought was to notch the cabinets so that the bottom 8" is 3-1/2" shallower than the rest. That seems like a pain in the butt though, and I still want the bottoms of the cabinets a couple inches off the floor. So I'd gain one extra 6" deep drawer space on the bottom.
Final thought was to float the cabinets - set the bottoms on the stem wall and double french cleat the backs, but I have a couple concerns, one being that these cabinets may have a lot of weight in and on top of them, and second that I could just build the backs out of 3/4" plywood and lag bolt them to the wall instead. Still gonna be heavy though.
I am leaning toward the "legs underneath" concept but was wondering if any of you had a similar situation and what you did to accommodate it.