Eradicating your kitchen cupboards can both be step one in an entire kitchen renovation or just a strategy to give your kitchen a brand new look. It offers you an opportunity to restyle your kitchen and even dabble with fashionable open shelving.
Whichever path you go in, this step-by-step information will present you the best way to take away your kitchen cupboards, each with and with out damaging them.
What to Know About Your Kitchen Cupboards Earlier than Removing
If you wish to take away your kitchen cupboards, it’s worthwhile to work out what kind of cupboards you’ve, particularly if you’re planning to reuse them for any function.
| Kind of Cupboard | Description | How are they connected? | Good to reuse? |
| Unitized | Unitized cupboards are in-built place utilizing the wall because the again, a mode generally present in houses greater than 25 years outdated. | Both nails or glue. | Not often. |
| Prefab
-ricated |
Newer cupboards full with their very own again. Normally, particular person items are screwed collectively to create an entire cupboard set, however will be separated and used individually. | Normally screwed into the wall by way of screws by the again of the unit or across the edges. | Sure. |
To determine which kind of cupboards you’ve, open your cupboard and take a look at the again. If it’s the identical kind of fabric as the perimeters of the cupboards, you’ve prefabricated cupboards that it is best to have the ability to reuse should you take away rigorously. If the again of the cupboard is your wall, they aren’t superb for repurposing.
As soon as you already know what kind of cupboards you’ve, observe these steps for elimination.
Tips on how to Take away Higher Kitchen Cupboards
Step 1: Collect Provides
The instruments and supplies you’ll want to soundly take away your higher kitchen cupboards embody:
- Pry bar or crowbar
- Two putty knives
- Utility knife
- Hammer
- Drill
- Gloves
- Goggles
- Blankets or furnishings pads
- Scrap wooden to help cupboards (should you don’t have somebody serving to you)
Additionally, should you’re disposing of your cupboards or planning a bigger kitchen renovation, it is best to think about renting a ten yard dumpster to do away with your particles with out having to attend in your metropolis’s bulk waste assortment day.
Step 2: Prep Your Kitchen
Earlier than you start eradicating How to remove kitchen cabinets , observe these steps to organize your kitchen:
- Shut off the electrical energy within the kitchen on the breaker field.
- After making certain the ability is off, take away the vary hood and any inset lighting in your cabinetry.
- Cowl your counter tops and decrease cupboards with furnishings pads or blankets to stop scratches and different harm.
In case you plan to take away all kitchen cupboards and counter tops as effectively, you will have to take further steps to prep your kitchen, equivalent to taking out your home equipment. Nonetheless, you should use these steps beneath to start out eradicating your higher kitchen cupboards.
Step 3: Put together Your Kitchen Cupboards for Removing
Earlier than you take away your kitchen cupboards:
- Empty your cupboards fully.
- Examine your cupboards for any hidden electrical connections and ensure they’re disconnected.
- Take away cupboard doorways, utilizing the drill to unscrew the hinges from the cupboard so the hinge stays with the door. In case you aren’t attempting to reuse or donate your outdated cupboards, you may pace up the method through the use of a crowbar to take away the doorways, however you’ll need to put on gloves and goggles.
- Take away cabinets if attainable.
If you’re eradicating your kitchen cupboards to reuse, take these further steps:
- Collect unfastened screws or hinges from every cupboard in a plastic bag or container. When you’ve eliminated the cupboards from the partitions, connect the container to the cabinet to maintain supplies collectively.
- In case you plan to reinstall them in the identical house, take the time to label the placement or quantity the cupboards with tape earlier than eradicating them. This can aid you hold them so as and keep away from confusion later.
As soon as your cupboards are emptied and prepped you’re prepared for elimination.
Step 4: Take away Exterior Parts
Exterior parts embody:
- Caulk – Use a utility knife to chop away any caulk connecting the cupboards to the wall or exterior parts like trim. This can aid you cut back harm when dismantling. You also needs to do that if in case you have any outdated paint connecting the cupboard and wall.
- Molding/Trim – In case you aren’t attempting to save lots of the molding, you should use a hammer to wedge a pry bar beneath the trim after which pull it away from the cabinetry.
In case you’re attempting to take away the cupboards with out harm and need to save the molding as effectively, use at the least one putty knife together with the pry bar. Discover a nail and slide a putty knife between the trim and cupboard near the nail after which pull out barely, then insert the pry bar on high of the putty knife and proceed to tug the trim.
If it looks like the trim is about to crack, insert a second putty knife between the pry bar and the trim. Transfer to the following nail and repeat. Proceed till it’s unfastened sufficient to take away in a single piece.
Step 5: Separate Cupboards From Every Different
When you have older cupboards that have been constructed as one unit, you may skip this step.
If eradicating prefabricated cupboards, they’re in all probability linked to one another by screws within the sides. Utilizing a drill, take away all of the screws to disconnect the group of cupboards from one another. This could loosen them, however they are going to nonetheless be connected to the wall and won’t have to be supported.
Step 6: Take away Cupboards From Wall
To Take away Kitchen Cupboards That Are Connected With Screws:
- Be sure that the cupboards are supported by having somebody help you or by putting items of wooden beneath the cupboard to help the load as you take away the screws. That is necessary if you wish to take away the cupboards with out damaging them.
- Begin by eradicating the screws closest to the underside, after which work your means up, eradicating all screws. Be ready to carry the cupboard away from the wall as you take away the ultimate screws on the high.
- Repeat till all items are eliminated.
In case your cupboards are unitized or have been put in with nails and glue as an alternative of screws, you’ll want to make use of the hammer and pry bar to separate the cupboards from the wall.