material and installation

How to save money on a kitchen remodel

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Affordable kitchen remodeling ideas on a shoestring budget is very obtainable with a little elbow grease, and some savvy shopping. The key really is how much time do you want to spend putting up cabinets and searching for better prices.

Don't get complicated if your on a tight bank account. Affordability quickly goes out the window if you start rearranging the structural walls, moving the kitchen sink placement, and relocating the range rough wiring. Changing things around also leads to a lot of extra work in sheet rock repairs.

Getting the best price on materials comes down to searching out the best price. The Internet is a great tool for finding low prices. Some of the best prices I have found have been a damaged, or discontinued item in a store that has been marked down. Contractors usually get discounts at some stores, so ask your contractor if you can take advantage of that. Barter with your cabinet dealer like you were buying a car from a car dealer, they cost about the same!

Spending less on Labor really is best done by doing whatever work you can do. Take care of trash removal if that is all you can do. You can save a lot of money by playing general contractor and bidding out only the jobs that you don't want to do yourself. If all the materials were bought by you and are on the job site ready to go then any bids received by contractors are just for labor.

If getting a bid for the whole job then get more than one bid to get an idea of what it should cost. Too high or too low of a bid signals trouble. Be aware of contractors that leave things out, and add them later to keep the bid low. Make sure the bid is separated down into the different activities and how much they individually cost.

The remodeling usually done by the big box stores ends up being sub par because they under pay the contractor, and mark up the bid for themselves for doing nothing. The customer either ends up paying the same, or more, for an under paid short cutting non quality minded contractor.


Saving money kitchen remodeling is just about common sense. Try not to pay full retail for items, and go ahead and get your hands dirty.




Lumber Liquidators

Kitchen Electrical

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This page is about the rough wiring in a kitchen, for information on lighting fixtures and lighting plans visit the Kitchen Lighting Guide page. Always observe local codes and hire licensed contractors.

Modern kitchen electrical requirements by code need 2- 20 amp small appliance circuits. No lighting or large appliances except the refrigerator should be on these circuits. If your kitchen does not have two then consider running a home run from the panel for a new circuit. These receptacles need to be gfci protected.

As far as the major appliances go in kitchen electrical most things need a home run from the panel. The dishwasher, the disposal, the microwave, and of course the range, cook top or wall oven need a home run. The amount of power needed determines the wire size and the breaker size. The appliances need to be picked out before for a finish cabinet plan, or remodeling begins. Check the specs of each appliance to find out the power used and the recommended wire and breaker size.

Kitchen lighting should be on a lighting circuit and not one of the two 20 amp small appliance circuits. Kitchen lighting circuits can be a 15 amp breaker with 14-2 wire. have a detailed lighting plan with accurate locations for all the general room lighting,  cabinet lighting, pendants, and dining table chandelier's placement, as well as appliance locations. See example picture below of a kitchen electrical plan.

The general room lighting is typically recessed cans, but can be be a large fixture in the middle, or a track/monorail system. General kitchen lighting should be on a 3way switch that turns the lights from two main entrances to the kitchen. 3way switches need a run of 3 wire run between the switches for the two switches to same lighting operation to work.

Under Cabinet lights will need a switch. The best way for installing under cabinet wiring is for the wire to go through a hole in the back of the cabinet on the bottom of the cabinet so it is hidden. If you must have low voltage wiring then know that the transformer has to be hidden somewhere, and low voltage wiring is not supposed to be run inside of the wall. The power for under cabinet lighting can come out in one place along a bank of cabinets and then the under cabinet lights can be looped to each other using flexible armor cable wire, or for direct wire under cabinet lights I usually run all the wire in the walls from a switch and poke out wire every place there is a light.
Direct wire under cab light


In a Kitchen electrical plan the counter top plugs need to be 4' apart or less, and within 2' from the sink and cook top, or range. All kitchen plugs need to be gfci protected. The cheapest way is to run all the plugs on a circuit through one gfci, do not double gfci. Kitchen islands and peninsulas need a receptacle, and if over 4' need two. An island receptacle often has to be on the side of a cabinet if there is not a higher bar wall at the back.

See the web site www.kitchenlightingideas.info or more detailed lighting fixture information.

Kitchen Electrical Plan 

 

 Kitchen Lighting Plan lights only

How To Plumb A Kitchen

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Kitchen plumbing is not overly difficult if you have a little plumbing experience. always verse yourself with the local plumbing codes. Hire a professional if you are not comfortable with DIY.

Aside from the refrigerator water line, kitchen plumbing is all about the kitchen sink area. Rough Plumbing a kitchen sink starts with an accurate cabinet plan, (The Cabinet Design Layout Page). The exact location of the sink cabinet must be known to know where to locate the rough water supplies and the sink drain.

 

                                    Kitchen Drain Sink Area

At the kitchen sink the type of sink can affect the placement of the rough drain. Under mount sinks and deep sinks lower the drain lines and the disposal. The height of the drain line coming out of the wall should be 16" up off the sub floor to the center of the pipe, unlike the old rule of 18". If the sink is available you could hook up the drain assembly and get an exact measurement from the top of cabinet down to needed height of the drain outlet. Kitchen sink Information page.

Kitchen rough drain lines are usually 2" PVC or ABS pipe. Leave a compression fitting a few inches into the cabinet from a sanitary t. The sink vent goes from the top of the sanitary tee to out the roof. 

sanitary t in wall



Inside the sink cabinet connect the disposal and sink drains to a trap and then to the rough drain at the compression fitting. The under the sink fittings and trap are usually 1-1/2" compression PVC for kitchen sink plumbing. See example below.
    Under Sink Dishwasher Trap          under kitchen sink plumbing
The dishwasher drain needs some sort of air gap to prevent reverse siphoning. Air gaps can be accomplished by a separate trap, an air gap fitting on top of the counter top, or just a high loop in the dishwasher drain hose attached to the inside of the cabinet and then to the disposal as in the picture above. Rely on the specific dishwasher installation instructions, and your local codes. 

 

                                 Water Lines at the kitchen Sink

Kitchen plumbing the rough water supplies for the faucet should come out on either side of the drain, and are usually 1/2" copper, PEX, or CPVC that are connected to a shut off under the cabinet. It is a good idea to have a T off of the hot water supply with a separate shutoff for the dishwasher because if the dishwasher brakes you will still have the sink working. The flexible type supply lines from the shut offs to the faucet are a little more expensive but are the best option. Some faucets come with their own supply lines attached. the shut offs should have the 3/8" fitting for the supply line side.


If your new kitchen has the plumbing in the same place then still a good idea to change all the old drain lines, shut offs and water supply lines so they last another 10 years till the next kitchen remodel?

Cabinet Type and Quality Guide

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Cabinet Construction,  Finishes, and Cabinet Wood Types

 

Outline

Box Construction

  • Framed and Frameless
  • Particle Board or plywood and thicknesses

Doors

  • Wood Species
  • Door Styles
  • Finishes, Stains and Non-Wood

Drawers

  • Types of slides
  • Construction

 

Cabinet Box Construction

Framed or Frameless that is the question. Framed cabinets have a solid wood face frame that the door attaches to, and frameless doors just attach to the cabinet body. Framed Cabinets have that classic American look, and frame-less cabinets are usually used in more
contemporary style kitchens,(European look) that sometimes use finishes other than wood.

 

Framed cabinets, or frameless cabinets can have full overlay doors, but only framed cabinets can have less than full overlay.

 

Personally I like the framed cabinet construction better for quality because they are usually stronger and easier to install, but the frameless cabinets do allow for a larger opening for storage.
 Framed Cabinet Construction  frameless cabinet construction
    Framed 1/2 overlay Wall cabinet            Frameless Wall cabinets


Plywood or Particle Board is the second main construction decision to be made. Framed, or frameless cabinet construction can be plywood, or particle board. The highest quality cabinets would use 3/4" cabinet grade plywood. The skinnier the plywood the less strong the cabinet.

 

Particle Board is associated with lower quality cabinet lines, and again the thicker the board the stronger the cabinet. Water damage would show more damage to a particle board cabinet than a plywood. See the Plywood Vs Particle board blog article on this site.

 

Cabinet Doors

Cabinet Door Wood Species Types  are either solid wood, or veneer particle/MDF/plywood.
The solid wood doors are usually made out of the more common woods like Oak, Cherry, Maple, Alder, Poplar, Pecan, Hickory, Pine, Beech, Mahogany and Black Walnut. The harder the wood species the more durable the door. Maple, Hickory, Pecan, Oak, Beech are among the harder wood types.
 
         
The Exotic Wood Species are usually used in a veneer situation because of availability and cost. Some available specialty wood types are Zebra Wood, Red Gum, Rosewood, Birds Eye Maple, Anigre, and Wenge.
Zebra wood cabinets Red Gum Cabinets Rosewood Cabinets Birds Eye Maple Cabinets Anigre Cabinets
 
 
Cabinet Door Styles are different with every cabinet company, but most have similar styles. There are simple flat panel doors with square frames (sometimes called shaker style), there are decorative raised panel doors with lots of layers and trim, and there is the simple slab flat doors. Cabinet doors are set three different ways, there are full overlay doors, less than full overlay doors, and inset doors that are flush with the face frame.
Flat panel style cabinet door       Slab style cabinet door  
     Flat Panel Door         Raised Panel Door            Slab Door
 
Cabinet Door Finishes are typically stains/paints or non-wood finishes like laminates and thermo foil. Stains and paint colors can vary greatly from cabinet manufacturer to cabinet manufacturer so I will not go into that here. There are typically three non wood finishes as in low pressure laminates (melamine), high pressure laminates, and Thermo foil.
The low and high pressure laminates can really come in any color or wood grain match. The Thermofoil finish is a thin layer of PVC heat bonded to the door. Thermo foil can also match any color or grain pattern, but also comes in a high gloss bright color finish.
      thermofoil cabinet door
Laminate Doors with a
metal edge band                               High Gloss Thermofoil Doors
 
Cabinet Drawers
Cabinet Drawer slides have different quality, and price levels. The top of the line drawer slide would be a 110LB under mounted full extension soft close slide. The soft close action slide is becoming a standard in a nicer kitchen. The lower quality drawer slides would be rated for less weight, be mounted on the sides of the drawer,and not be full extension.
 
Cabinet Drawer Construction boils down to material it's made out of, and if it is dovetailed or not. The best drawers will be full dovetail, and made out of solid hardwood like oak or beech. The medium grade cabinet drawer would be blind dovetailed and made out of cabinet grade plywood. The lowest grade cabinet drawer is made out of particle board, and joined together with just nails or staples, and not dovetailed. Expect the lowest grade drawer to fail within 10 years.
dovetail drawer
 
 

For More information on cabinets visit the pages:

 

         
Cabinet Manufacturers:

  • Crestwood: Crestwood is a great lesser known cabinet company with all the options 
  • Medallion and Mastercraft are Elkay companies
  • MasterBrand:  Master brand is a conglomerate that carries different cabinet companies, two of my            favorites are Omega, and Decora.  
  • Merillate: Marillate is a cabinet company under the Masco company.
  • UltraCraft: UltraCraft  offers the more modern sleek finishes like thermofoil and acrylic.