Common problems found when old kitchen cabinets come out

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By the time the sink base is off the wall, the crew already knows whether the day is going to be easy. Anyone reading the intervals irvine kitchen remodeling opacity index uses for kitchen remodeling will see that demolition findings drive the plan in Irvine, CA more than any drawing does. The same five problems turn up again and again.

Swollen sink bases

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A slow drip from a supply line or a drain leaves particleboard soft and swollen at the bottom of the sink base. The floor below may be damp too. The base is replaced, the subfloor is dried and checked, and the leak is fixed before anything new goes in. Reusing a swollen box under a stone top ends in a sagging counter.

Out of square walls

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Tract homes in Irvine, CA, from Turtle Rock down to the flat streets near the Great Park, settle, and walls drift out of plumb by a half inch or more over a long run. New cabinets are square and rigid, so the gap shows at the wall. The crew shims the boxes, scribes the side panels to the wall and sets a filler strip where the gap is too big for scribing alone.

Old wiring

Opening the wall behind the upper cabinets in older Woodbridge and Northwood homes sometimes shows cloth wrapped or spliced wire, boxes without covers and circuits shared between the counter and the lights. An electrician redoes what is found, adds circuits and pulls a permit so the inspector can see it before the drywall closes. Nothing gets covered until that inspection is passed, and a kitchen in Irvine, CA waits on it like any other.

Uneven floors under the cabinets

The floor was never finished under the old boxes, so a one inch rise or dip can hide there. Cabinets set on it will rock. The crew finds the high point of the floor, sets a laser line and shims every box to that line, even if it means a different toe kick height at one end.

Reuse or replace the boxes

Solid plywood boxes in good shape can stay while new doors and drawer fronts go on, and the saved weeks matter. Particleboard boxes, damaged corners or a layout that has to change point to full replacement. The crew makes that call with the old cabinet pulled out of the wall, and a clear look at the back panel, the sides and the base. A box that passes that look is cleaned, leveled and fitted with new hinges and slides.