Re-hanging Upper Cabinets for Dummies

Installing upper cabinets
using a cabinet jack

We're big fans of DIY here at the Antisocial Network, and our staffers have tackled a wide variety of jobs over the years. In "olden days," we'd research new tasks in our DIY library, but here in the online age there's a huge variety of help out there. We've learned, however, that a lot of that help is worth exactly what we paid for it: nothing. That's because the people who wrote the advice, freelancers like Jill Leviticus (aka Holly McGurgan) of HomeSteady.com, have no idea what they're talking about – as Jill amply demonstrated in "How to Raise Kitchen Cabinets."

Leviticus (we were wondering, why not Jill Deuteronomy or Jill Genesis?) opened with an explanation of why you might want to do that:

"If the space between your wall and base cabinets is too small or if your wall cabinets no longer line up with your new, taller refrigerator, raising your wall cabinets may be a good idea to solve your kitchen design problem. Raising your kitchen cabinets can easily be completed in several hours with the assistance of a friend or relative."

We had to giggle... in the first place, there's a standard space between upper and lower cabinets, but if that's not enough, have at it (assuming you can raise the cabinets). In the second place, Refrigerators are all pretty much the same size except for built-ins like SubZero or Wolff models, which aren't typically replacements. But what the heck, she felt she was required to write some reason.

First, Jill says, you have to remove the cabinets. For some unknown reason, she says to take off the knobs and the doors (but never says to empty the cabinets...). Then, take 'em apart and pull 'em down:

"Use your electric screwdriver or drill to remove the screws that fasten the cabinets to the wall. Place these screws in bags for easy retrieval. Pull the cabinets off the wall and store them in another room until you are ready to reinstall them."

Two problems, Jill: first, many cabinets have molding along the top (crown molding is especially popular) and trim at the ends. What about that? and second: in case you hadn't noticed from the instructions you cribbed, the cabinet frames are screwed together.
When it comes to reinstalling your cabinets, Jill instructs you to

"Find the wall studs and mark the location of the studs on the back of the cabinets. Drill four holes in the cabinets through the marked areas that correspond to the studs. Drill two holes on the left side of the cabinets and two holes on the right side."

Idiot: you're just moving the cabinet up a couple of inches, what makes you think the studs have moved? And don't you mean the left side of the back?! Leviticus then tells her readers to use a ledger to set the new height of the cabinets, position the cabinets at the new height, and screw them to the wall. Oops! Jill, you never mentioned clamping the face frames and screwing them together...

Leviticus does't bother to mention the trim and molding, gives a bogus instruction to start at the end (you start in the corner...), doesn't mention prepping/painting the wall, doesn't mention nailing strips, and forgets to screw the frames together (even though her references say to). She also suggests renting a cabinet jack... which won't work if there are base cabinets in place. Classic Dumbass of the Day material? Yes!

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DDIY - CABINETS