Installing Kitchen Cabinets - DIY

If you have already taken down your old cabinets you should have a good idea of where your studs are located. Electrical boxes are connected to the side of a stud so that should also give you a clue. The wires going to the boxes are probably attached to the side of the 2x4's so you don't want to miss and hit a wire. Where are your water pipes and gas lines? If you aren't sure and are really nervous about something you can cut out a small piece of sheetrock and look. Patch it up after and the mess will be covered by the cabinet anyway.

I do not think I could have done this job myself without the Cabinet Jacks. Mark all your studs before you begin, mark them below where the cabinet goes so you can see the marks after you put the cabinet on the wall. Set you cabinet up on the 1x3 ledger board then put the cabinet jacks underneath to hold them in place. Now you have to mark your studs inside the cabinets. If you are lucky you can use your stud finder inside the cabinet. I found that this works sometimes when I set the stud finder to paneling mode. Putting more pressure on the stud finder also seemed to help. Using this and the marks I had under the wall I was able to locate and mark the studs on the inside of the cabinets. Another method you might try is to mark and measure the studs on the wall, transfer these measurements to the back of the cabinet and then drill a pilot hole through the back of the cabinet. I tried this method on the first cabinet but I didn't like it.

One problem I had with some of the kitchen wall cabinets was that the stud was behind the middle face frame of the cabinets. Not enough room to get my large drill in there. A Right Angle Drill would be big advantage in these situations. I had a smaller less powerful drill that I had to use in some places.