Base Kitchen Cabinet question

[Bob Vavricka]

I'm getting ready to redo our kitchen and ordered the cabinet boxes pre-cut/drilled and will apply my own face frames. doors and drawers. The base boxes (except for the sink cabinet) come with a top. I am debating not using the top since I think it may make it more difficult to install the cabinets having to work inside them to screw them in place as opposed to being able to do it from the top. The boxes have a 1/4 inch back set in a groove 1/2 inch from the back edge and use a plywood spacer where they fasten to the wall. Do you see an advantage to using the cabinet box top on the base units. The top will be granite if that is important to know. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

[Sam Murdoch]

The tops will do a few things in your favor - 1) help square up the box and 2) support the face frame 3) support the c-top.

I don't add tops to my cabinets but I do add 3" wide plywood rips across at the front and back of the cabinet for the reasons stated above.

I'm not certain how the tops will make the install difficult though they might add a degree of complexity to actually assembling the cabinets AND attaching them to each other. I really don't know if that's the case because I don't know how they are intended to fitted and secured to their respective box.

With what I know - and mostly don't know about these cabinets - I'd say that they will be more useful than in the way.

[ken masoumi]

I did a similar kitchen upgrade (Ikea) and used the top in all of them,it gave the cabinet more rigidity ,there was no drawback when the installers attached the granite countertop ,the only place that I had to add a 1/2" sheet of plywood was for the dishwasher top in order to level it with the rest of the counter.the Granite installers used some PL premium type of glue on all over the tops to attack that heavy slab.the only place that did not have a top was ,as you mentioned,the sink cabinet.

[Justin Ludwig]

The tops will do a few things in your favor - 1) help square up the box and 2) support the face frame 3) support the c-top.

I don't add tops to my cabinets but I do add 3" wide plywood rips across at the front and back of the cabinet for the reasons stated above.

I'm not certain how the tops will make the install difficult though they might add a degree of complexity to actually assembling the cabinets AND attaching them to each other. I really don't know if that's the case because I don't know how they are intended to fitted and secured to their respective box.

With what I know - and mostly don't know about these cabinets - I'd say that they will be more useful than in the way.

+1

Only time I use a full top is in a corner cabinet with a lazy susan. It really helps to keep it square.

[keith micinski]

Where did you order boxes from that let you make your own face frames and doors? This is something that might interest me for a future project. Also I'm assuming they come knock down, so I would have assumed they used the cam fasteners but it sounds lime they actually come with dadoes is this the case? Is the. Inside of the box prefinished maple ply?