Cabinet Conundrums

Because of the booming housing market, experienced crews in the cabinet trade are overworked, and the inexperienced ones are set loose before they’re ready.  Both of these situations mean trouble for the granite guy who has to follow them. 
When the stone comes in, there’s a world of cabinets out of level, out of plane, crowning, sagging or just plain out of alignment.  How the countertop installer deals with issues like this can make, or break, business relationships in the building trades.
My first rule of thumb for cabinets is the most-difficult; accept the fact that you’re going to be fixing a lot of other people’s badly performed work in order to make your countertops fit.  You can go the other way with it and demand every cabinet be set perfectly for you, but you’ll quickly develop the reputation of being difficult to work with. 
The more cabinet problems you can solve on your own means less headaches for the stressed-out builder, kitchen designer, or homeowner.  It increases the likelihood of future business as well.  Provide clients with hassle-free installs and you create regular customers.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should try to make every cabinet installation work, no matter how poor.  It’s important to set guidelines for what you will and won’t try to correct, and make sure your install crews, sales staff, and customers are aware of them.  Keep those guidelines within the skill level of your installers and, most importantly, within your own comfort level. 
Personally, I don’t like to adjust the leading edge of a 3cm granite or engineered-stone counter more than the thickness of one wooden shim, or roughly 1/4”.  If a cabinet run is more out of plane or level than that, I’m going to take a step back and evaluate before I proceed. 
If a solution is relatively straightforward, I may get permission and make the adjustment to the cabinets myself.  If it’s more complicated, and I’m outside my comfort zone, I’ll stand aside and let the cabinet professionals solve the problem.  Sometimes everyone involved agrees (in writing if necessary) that there is no cost or time justifiable solution.
 In this case, I’ll shim as much as I have to in order finish a project.  I’ve gone up to 3/4”, but I was kicking and screaming the whole way.  I just won’t be the fall guy if a piece breaks or the end user is unhappy with how it looks.
The templater is the first person in your crew who should begin to look for problems with a cabinet installation.  Send him out with a 6’ straightedge, a good 4’ level and a pack of red lumber crayons.  Buy the best level you can afford for your templater; a Stabilia or Johnson is going to impress a cabinet installer more than a blue-light special. 
The templater should check in every possible direction for level, and also for cabinets to be in the same plane.  He can use the straightedge to check for high spots and crowns on the cabinet tops. 
Crowns are dangerous because they create a stress point that can crack the countertop.  This is particularly true in sink runs, even rodded ones.  A crown works in the opposite direction of the support that the rod offers.  Because of this, it’s important for your bottom line that crowns are identified and eliminated.
The templater should also pay special attention to the dishwasher space to make sure the cabinets are lined up on the front of the opening and the tops of the cabinets are in the same plane.  I’ve seen too many cabinet installations in which the sides of the dishwasher are both level, but in a different plane.  This can lead to a dangerous situation in which one side of a piece needs to be entirely shimmed up. 
The same scenario can apply to a stove opening if a full-height backsplash is going to span across it.  Both sides of the stove will need to be in the same plane in order for the backsplash to fit nicely.
Any problem spots should be marked with the red lumber crayon.  If the cabinet installers or carpenters are still on the site, the templater should talk to them about making the corrections.  This will save your company the time involved and may give the templater a chance to double-check their work. 
If not, the templater can always carry along a set of woodworking tools to fix problem spots.  If time constraints prevent that, the countertop install crew can use the red marks as a guide for what they will need to do before they set their counters.  They should also visually inspect the cabinet tops and take care of anything else that looks like it might cause trouble. 
If the templater finds a major problem or discrepancy, appropriate people need to be contacted promptly.  It’s also necessary that someone follow up to make sure the problem is actually fixed.  Several times I’ve showed up with countertops, only to find unresolved issues that prevented their installation and wasted my time.
If you template electronically without taking off existing countertops (as I do), prepare yourself for surprises when the old tops are finally removed.  As much as I crawl around and inspect the cabinets at the time of template, I never really know what I’m working with until I see their tops. 
Templating electronically is a great sales tool, because the end users will only have to be without their kitchen for one day.  But ,working with the cabinets you uncover can add hours to the install.  Put enough in your bid to cover your time or the time of the carpenter you bring along.
The same scenario applies to installing countertops you didn’t template.  If you haven’t seen the jobsite prior to the installation date, you need to be ready for whatever you find to complete the install in one day.
Approach each installation assuming you’ll be doing some work on cabinets.  Ideally, every lead installer should be a semi-skilled woodworker capable of sanding and planing cabinets without doing damage, and capable of adjusting the setting height or plane of a cabinet if necessary. 
At the extreme, the lead installer should be capable of rebuilding the inside of a cabinet box that has been cut down or otherwise rendered useless.  If you get into remodels, this last skill is a must!
Each crew should carry with them a belt sander with belts of various grits.  I find the more-coarse grits get the most use in knocking down high spots on cabinet tops and grinding off the glue from previous countertops. 
A crew should also carry an electric planer for precisely cutting down the tops of front cabinet rails.  Nothing looks worse than a front rail that has been belt sanded to resemble the waves of an ocean.  Even an first-time homeowner can spot that one.
Crews should also carry a heavy-duty cordless drill, along with a set of drills complete with countersink, and a wide assortment of screwdriver bits. It can be quite frustrating trying to remove a star-headed screw with a Phillips bit.  The drill and accessories will be essential if any major cabinet repair is needed.
An assortment of saws should also be added to each crew’s toolbox.  I carry a jigsaw with an assortment of blades, a spiral saw (a RotoZip®) with an assortment of blades, a circular saw, and a reciprocating saw (also known as a Sawzall®).  Each can help the installer to adapt cabinets in different situations.
Once your installers are trained and equipped and know the guidelines they are expected to work within, your installs should become more efficient and the reputation of your company as easy to work with should bring you more business.  A company ready to deal with poorly set cabinets can turn a frustrating, time-wasting situation into a positive.
Jason Nottestad, a 12-year stone industry veteran, is co-owner of Wisconsin-based Midwest Template Services.