Your Designer Ordered the Cabinets. What Installation Actually Involves
The cabinets are chosen and on order. Here is what a good installation looks like, step by step, and what to check before install day.
A professional cabinet installation has six parts: checking the delivery against the plan, finding the high point of the floor and setting a level line, fastening every cabinet into the wall framing, shimming and scribing to walls and floors that are not straight, adding the trim (fillers, end panels, crown, toe kick), and aligning doors and drawers before hardware goes on. Manufacturers are clear about the basics: cabinets must be level, plumb, and square, shimmed where the floor or wall is uneven, and screwed into studs, never hung with nails or drywall screws [1]. Everything else is the craft of making an imperfect room disappear.
Before install day
- Review the layout against the room. We measure and compare to the designer's plan before delivery, so any conflict with a window, vent, or outlet is caught while it can still be fixed.
- Check the delivery. Every box is opened and checked against the order. Missing, wrong, or damaged pieces get reported to the supplier right away, not discovered halfway through the install.
- Confirm the sequence. Flooring, plumbing and electrical rough-in, and any wall repair come first. Countertop templating comes after cabinets are set.
- Clear the room and plan for water. If the sink is out, you will be without a kitchen sink for a while. Plan for it.
Install day, step by step
- Find the high point. Floors are rarely level. We find the highest spot and set every base cabinet to a line from there, shimming the rest up to it.
- Hang the uppers or set the bases, depending on the layout. Both are fastened through their mounting rails into studs.
- Join the boxes. Adjacent cabinets are clamped and screwed together so faces are flush and gaps are even.
- Scribe the fillers and end panels. Where a cabinet meets a wall that is not straight, the filler is cut to follow the wall so there is no visible gap.
- Trim out. Crown, light rail, toe kick, and any decorative panels go on.
- Adjust and finish. Doors and drawers are aligned so gaps are even across the run, then hardware is installed from a template so every pull lines up.
What to look for when it is done
- Door gaps that are even across the whole run
- Crown that meets the ceiling cleanly, or a consistent reveal if it does not go all the way up
- No visible shims, screws, or gaps at the walls
- Drawers that close fully without rubbing
- Tops that are flat and level, ready for the countertop template
Permits
In unincorporated Clark County, cabinets, countertops, and similar finish work are listed as not requiring a building permit, though the work still has to meet code [2]. If your project moves plumbing, electrical, or walls, those parts can need permits. Check with your city if you are inside Vancouver, Camas, or another city's limits; we tell you what applies before work starts.
To be clear about our role: we install cabinets you or your designer supply. We do not manufacture them. That keeps the choice of cabinet line with you and your designer, and keeps our job focused on making it fit.
Cabinets on order? Send us the layout and we will review it before delivery. See Cabinet Installation