how to level a huge furniture piece?

[BlueHouse]

Mom's giant storage hutch has been moved from a place with wood floors to a place with wall-to-wall carpeting.  Now, the doors don't open/close correctly and I think it's because the piece isn't leveled.  Tried sticking shims under, but they seem to do nothing (and the piece is so heavy it's hard to play around to do more/less).

It's actually two pieces,  one that sits right on top of the other (and they're both so heavy, there is no hardware to connect them.  The top piece just sits in a a channel/groove in the bottom.  Doors are folding doors on piano hinges that open from the center.  One set (left and right) on both the top and bottom pieces. 

Any ideas on how to tackle this?  Should I keep trying to shim?  I'm pretty sure the correct answer is going to mean taking everything out, removing the top piece and doing something to the bottom to get it level.  This will mean I have to hire two people to lift the top part, so I want to make sure I have a good game plan before I hire people. 

Should I get a piece of plywood and set the entire thing on that?  I'm afraid even that would start to bend at some point because the carpet is so thick/mushy and the hutch is SOOO heavy. 

thanks in advance for any ideas. 

[lthenderson]

I'm going to start with the assumption that this piece sets against the wall. The reason why I'm assuming this is that when installing carpet, tack strips are added to the floor to hold the carpet and I run into this quite often where the back edge of a large piece of furniture is actually resting on the tack strip which adds another 1/4" to 3/8" of height on the back edge of the furniture. So your solution is to scoot the furniture piece out from the wall to avoid resting on the tack strip or using shims to level the front with the back. It can also be possible that the floor just isn't level in that area so no matter how far you scoot it out from the wall you still need shims.

Can you get under an edge on the low side at all? I've lifted some extremely heavy things with a 2x4 and a fulcrum point or the slim end of a prybar with a piece of wood between it and the furniture piece to prevent damage.  I would just keep shimming until you got things leveled up and the doors working fine. If the sight of the shims bother you later, you can buy a set of markers to color the wood to blend in with the furniture. They even make wood colored ones for that very purpose. I have a two piece hutch with about 3/8" worth of shims under the front legs that have been colored to match the wood and I don't think anyone has ever noticed it but me.

[Sibley]

The hutch is just going to smash down the carpet, as long as it's equally smashed it's not a factor. If you don't have padding under the carpet evenly, that might impact it a bit. Agreed that the carpet tack strips could be pushing it out of level a bit.

But also, are you using a level to really see what you're dealing with? The last thing you want to do is go through all the effort to level it and find that it was level to begin with. Yes, it's obvious, but sometimes that must be stated :)

I would check that the floor is level. Also, is the floor able to handle the weight of the piece in general? You could level all day long, if the floor is deflecting under it you're going to have problems (and by problems, I mean get the hutch out of there before it damages the structure, reinforce joists, etc to handle the weight and then put it back in).

[BlueHouse]

Definitely agree that it's the tack strips and I guess two layers of carpet because they roll it under where it meets the wall I think. 

If you think shimming is the answer, then I'll be able to do that on my own after I empty the whole cabinet to get it light enough to hammer more shims under.  I'm not worried about anyone seeing them.  The carpet is thick and shaggy, so it should be completely hidden and besides -- it's in a place no one would notice.  I don't notice the ones that are there now. 

We're using long plastic furniture shims.  Is there a limit to how many I can stack on top of each other (assuming it's not at risk of toppling).  I think I may have to shim at least 1/2 inch, maybe slightly more because the tack strip + thick carpet. 

Good point on the level -- I'll be sure to doublecheck all points. 

[Fishindude]

I'm going to start with the assumption that this piece sets against the wall. The reason why I'm assuming this is that when installing carpet, tack strips are added to the floor to hold the carpet and I run into this quite often where the back edge of a large piece of furniture is actually resting on the tack strip which adds another 1/4" to 3/8" of height on the back edge of the furniture. So your solution is to scoot the furniture piece out from the wall to avoid resting on the tack strip or using shims to level the front with the back. It can also be possible that the floor just isn't level in that area so no matter how far you scoot it out from the wall you still need shims.

Can you get under an edge on the low side at all? I've lifted some extremely heavy things with a 2x4 and a fulcrum point or the slim end of a prybar with a piece of wood between it and the furniture piece to prevent damage.  I would just keep shimming until you got things leveled up and the doors working fine. If the sight of the shims bother you later, you can buy a set of markers to color the wood to blend in with the furniture. They even make wood colored ones for that very purpose. I have a two piece hutch with about 3/8" worth of shims under the front legs that have been colored to match the wood and I don't think anyone has ever noticed it but me.

This is good advice.
A flat pry bar will slip right under just about anything and allow you to lift enough to slip a shim in.   Set a level on top of the bottom sections top surface as you work and check in both directions, and get a little help if you need it.

[bacchi]

A floor jack can be used to lift it too. :)