Uneven Floors... ugh
We finished building the cabinets except for the pantry cabinet. One of the sides is incorrect so we wrote the company to get a replacement. They've been very responsive so far so I expect it to only be a minor delay.
The real fiasco of the day is our uneven floors. I wrongly assumed that since we were having new subfloors installed and adding plywood to increase the height of the subfloor to match the rest of the house that they would level the floors before installing the hardwoods. I guess I've watched too many episodes of holmes on homes. I went to install the cabinets and found almost an inch drop from the wall to the center of the floor. Our cabinets are inset and the face frame has a leg extension like furniture feet that goes all the way to the floor. If we shim them to level the feet float a quarter inch or more. I really want to avoid adding quarter round because it would defeat the whole point of the clean style of the finished leg. The only other alternative I can think of is to scribe every single cabinet which is beyond my skill and patience.
I contacted the flooring company to see what they're willing to do. I am guessing that reinstalling the floor is out, but I'm hoping they'll be willing to come sand down the high spot along the wall.
Anyone know of any other fixes besides quarter round? Alternative ways to level the floor?
Start at your highest point. Either you have to shim everything up to that level, scribe and cut the cabinet base down on the high floor side, or a combination of the 2.
This is incredibly common to have to do for an install and I’ve had to do this on every kitchen I’ve ever done for primary residence, new build, rental, or flip.
If you decide to shim, you don’t need 1/4 round or shoe mold, you could just add 1/4” ply over your existing toe kick and paint/stain to match. Shimming can cause issues, namely if you have to go too high, your appliances won’t fit in correctly. Though, cut too much and it doesn’t help either!
If you already installed your upper cabinets and leveled those, know that your measurement for distance between counter and uppers may change, which could mess up your backsplash design or pattern.
If you decide to scribe, just get close, it doesn’t have to be perfect, and use a circular saw to cut.
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