Prefinished or Unfinished plywood for double oven cabinet

[Chris Redmond]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie building my first set of kitchen cabinets, and I frequently consult this forum for questions I have and almost always find my question has already been asked and answered. However I'm stumped on one detail, and don't see a discussion anywhere on this.

For the interior side of the double oven cabinet, I read in an article that it's recommended to use unfinished plywood, since the finish may be damaged by the heat from the oven. I can't find the link to this article now, but am hoping others can weigh in with their advice/experience. We haven't settled on a oven model yet, but in the few oven manuals I've looked at, I don't see any mention of this.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Chris

[Jim Dwight]

I bought my kitchen cabinets including the one for the double oven. It is a "Kraftsmade" and came finished inside. Not as well as the outside but it had finish on it. I don't think ovens get that hot on the outside. If they did, it would be a fire hazard. I put at least a coat or two of finish to seal it up.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Check your oven for clearance specs. It may require a certain offset or spacing between the plywood and the oven. Most have double walls and insulation, so a tight fit will probably be fine, but I would check. As a rule of thumb finishing on both sides is recommended to avoid warping.

[Jim Becker]

I suspect prefinished will be fine given many commercial cabinets, as was already mentioned, have prefinished interiors because of the storage that generally goes up above. But if You'r not comfortable, by all means use non-pre-finished and just finish the interior portions for any non-drawer storage area up top while the pieces are flat. Use waterborne or shellac and be done with it.

[Chris Redmond]

The plywood I bought came prefinished and I've got plenty on hand, so I'm not necessarily looking to go buy unfinished plywood if not needed. That's reassuring to hear at least some commercial cabinets for ovens come prefinished, and come to think of it, I'll be able to see my own oven cabinet's interior when I remove them to install the new ones, but by that time I'll have the new cabinets done and ready to install. Also, good to know in general that finishing both sides helps avoid warping. I will double check the specs of the oven we buy for any clearances to be aware of.

Thanks,
Chris

[Bob Cooper]

I don’t really think finishing on only one side leads to warping in this case as plywood is sold finished on one side. If warping was an issue you’d see that plywood warp when sold.

[Alex Zeller]

I think they prefinish it simply to avoid staining. You would be amazed at where food will go in a kitchen. Unfinished will stain. I'm sure it's very unlikely for a built in oven but if they are building other cabinets with an interior finish I doubt they would want to have an extra stack of sheets just for the few times when it's not needed.

[Dave Seng]

Speaking as a Firefighter - if your oven exterior is hot enough to affect the finish on the cabinet...stop using it or you'll be meeting some of us. And you'll be remodeling or rebuilding after we're done.

[Jim Becker]

Again, I don't believe the pre-finished is going to be a problem for this application. The actual external temperature of a modern wall oven is pretty low because of how they are insulated, etc. They are designed to go into close spaces made from flammable materials. So just be sure that the specific oven's clearance requirements in that oven's specifications are met with your cabinet design.

[Jim Dwight]

If your oven is a double like mine, you should have help removing and reinstalling it. I did all my other appliances by myself but a double oven is seriously heavy. In theory at least, the doors on mine are removable. But not easily. My son got one off, we never got the other off. Removing it would still not make it light. There was also no space for the wires except along the side. So we had to hold it partially installed while making the connections. Not a good one person job.