I had occasion recently to see the results of a planning mistake that is all too common. And, no, unfortunately for the homeowner, this is not a project that I was involved in planning.
When we're talking about the measurements of a kitchen, one of the important things to take into account, besides, obviously, the length of the walls, is the height of the ceiling in the room and how it relates to the top alignments of the cabinets.
There are lots of things to look out for, like an eight-foot ceiling is not really 96" high, but in this instance, what was overlookd was that all vertical measurements must be calculated ABOVE THE FINISHED FLOOR.
The scenario went like this; the homeowner installed the base cabinets, set the appliances in place, installed the countertop, then installed wood flooring.
It wasn't until a couple years later, when the homeowner went to repair the dishwasher that they realized the dishwasher would not come out.
Why?
Because the bottom of the dishwasher, and of the cabinets, were at the level of the subfloor, not of the wood flooring. The addition of the wood flooring reduced the height of the opening between the bottom of the dishwasher and the bottom of the countertop by about three-quarters of an inch. It may not sound like much, but it was enough to prevent the dishwasher from coming out!
The solution? The homeowner had to remove the countertops in order to remove the dishwasher.
How to prevent this?
I usually recommend to my clients that they install the flooring FIRST, before the cabinets. That way everyting starts at teh level of the FINISHED floor and all vertical measurements originate there, at what will actually be the "bottom" of the room.
"But," some will say, "that means I'm spending money on flooring materials taht will be unseen, underneath my cabinets." True enough, I suppose, but in my experience, by the time you calculate the cutting around the base cabinets, the difference is negligible.
Besides, this is one more area where you can avoid problems later on by not trying to cut corners.
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