Cabinet Installation: Uppers and Lowers

Lowers or base cabinets being installed for a recent project.

Cabinets come in two varieties: Uppers and lowers or base cabinets. Upper cabinets are hung from the wall. Base cabinets are set on the floor and can create a foundation point for the room. Although, there are many situations where only uppers will be used as in a study above a counter work platform or a laundry room above the washer and dryer appliances. Each type of cabinet has a different method used for installation. 

Base cabinets are usually put in first during an installation, for instance, of a kitchen. The base cabinet is made of a box that sits on a toe kick. The toe kick, placed on your flooring, is set back from the cabinet fronts and provides room for your feet to approach the cabinet and a seal from the back wall so items don’t roll under the cabinets.  

At ARHTX, we like to have the flooring completed before base cabinet installation begins. This means that should you want to reconfigure or replace your cabinets at a later date, your flooring will not be as impacted. Many times, in remodels, we have to deal with replacing pieces of missing flooring where cabinets had once stood and it’s just the exposed concrete slab. This creates all kinds of matching issues and frequently all the flooring has to be replaced.  

Base cabinets are set on the toe kick and leveled. Because all floors and walls are not plumb, small thin pieces of wood called shims are used to gently ease the cabinets into position so they’re level. Once this is completed, the cabinets are secured in place to the wall and to each other.  

Uppers are set a specified distance above the base cabinets, usually a minimum of 20 inches. You might have specific needs that require more distance. Uppers are almost always narrower than the lowers.  

Uppers going in.

Long screws anchor the upper cabinet box to the wall at a stud or special blocking.  The clamp holds the cabinets snuggly.  The boxes are also screwed together.  Note the hinges already in place for the doors.

To set the uppers in place, a third hand is used to hold the cabinets up. This is a long cabinet jack that can extend and lock at the appropriate height. The uppers go through the same process of leveling using shims, then being secured in place to a blocked area in the wall and to each other.  

After that the shelves are put in place using shelf pins, doors and drawers added. Then to complete, a counter is placed on top of the base cabinets. Caulk is used to finish and seal all the edges.