How to Install Cabinets

If you want to successfully install cabinets, you need to be obsessively planned and organized. While that means having the right drills, drivers, bits, and other tools on hand when work starts, a trouble-free cabinet installation actually starts long before then.

A crucial first step is for the cabinet installer to confirm, before placing the final cabinet order, that everything will fit together in the allotted space and that the homeowners are getting what they want. This review is doubly important when the installer is working for a home center or cabinet shop and hasn’t been involved in the design. Short-changing it not only invites problems: it leaves potential profits on the table.

The next step for cabinet installation is the review. The review takes place during a pre-construction meeting with the homeowners, and the secret to making this meeting earn its keep is a written checklist. While cabinet installers all seem to have different lists, they have several things in common, from carefully confirming measurements to reviewing countertop materials and lighting needs. (We have included a sample checklist below but it’s meant as a starting point, and should be customized for your needs.)

Rob Corbo, a remodeling contractor in Elizabeth, New Jersey, makes it a priority during this meeting to double check problem areas like corners. “If there’s a drawer cabinet on an inside corner, you want to make sure that when the drawer opens it won’t hit the intersecting cabinet’s door hardware.” When he identifies problems or conflicts, he calls the designer and faxes or emails the completed list with the items marked that need correction.

Some contractors don’t use formal lists on job types they have done a hundred times before. But the habit of doing so on every job makes installations go more smoothly – a real payoff when installing low-margin stock cabinets.

The list review is also a good time to do some upselling for your cabinet installation. “You can ask the clients about custom tile backsplashes, overhead and under-cabinet lighting, and whether they want extra electrical outlets,” says Corbo. “If no architect or interior designer has been involved, those items will not have been addressed.” He notes that while cabinet installation alone isn’t a high-profit work, such extras can be.

Of course this approach will yield the best result when followed consistently. That’s not always the case. “The biggest challenge is complacency,” says Dennis Gehman, a Harleysville, Pennsylvania remodeler who serves as a trainer in the National Association for the Remodeling Industry’s Lead Carpenter Program. “Some installers have a ‘been there done that and I don’t need to check the list again’ attitude. This may work fine most of the time, there’s always that one time when it causes a problem.”

Gehman suggests having leads complete the list in writing, sign it, and turn it into the office. “For those of us in management, checking lists is our nature, but tradesman have a lot of other things to think about.”

What does he consider the most important items in the list review? While it’s a good time to sell extra work Gehman agrees with Corbo that the first order of business is to make sure the dimensions are correct. “Measure twice and cut once may be a cliche but it’s a very wise cliche. If you don’t do it, you’re going to end up needing a wood stretcher.”

The questions on this list are ones that most cabinet installers will want to review with the homeowners before placing the final cabinet order. Note that this list is only a sample to get you started. Think through it and add additional questions as needed.