An experience with a cabinet installer in Nanaimo
Report from Lionel Space, Nanaimo BC

We were excited to update our mobile home in Nanaimo BC. One of the first things we had done was to hire a person to level the entire home so that all the renovations would be on a good foundation.

One of the projects was to replace the kitchen cabinets and after getting quotes from several companies, we settled on one that would provide all of our desires and also was reasonably priced. Although we had some issues along the way with the provided materials, the biggest disappointment was with the installer. Many companies sub-contract out the install of their cabinets and this was one of those cases. Although I had previously installed my own cabinets in our previous home, we opted to pay for an install to save time and make sure it was done well.

The cabinets were delivered as scheduled in the morning and the installer and his helper arrived shortly after. We had 4 sections of base cabinets and basically one section of wall cabinets:
1) A base corner cabinet on the left side of the stove.
2) A 24" drawer cabinet attached to a sink cabinet on the right side of the stove, with a dishwasher next to the sink.
3) To the right of the dishwasher was a series of 4 base cabinets, a 24", 2 30", and another 24" cabinet.
4) An island section of two 36" cabinet boxes.

The upper cabinet section of cabinets was installed first over the corner cabinet without incident. The installer then drew a line to mount the cleat for the base corner cabinet using a level. Since he had not done any measurements of the level of the rest of the kitchen and did not use a laser to guide the project, I asked how he would know that he would not run into a height problem as he got to the other side of the room 20 feet away. He replied he wouldn't, without expressing any concern.

After hearing that, I became a bit worried about his expertise. He used a brad nailer to fasten the cleat to the wall and I said I had a question. He said he uses the nailer to hold the cleat in position, but uses screws in the studs to secure it. I replied with a question as to how high he was installing the cabinets since the cleat looked rather high. He then realized that he had attached the bottom of the cleat to the line instead of the top and got out his pry bar to remove it and install it in the proper location. That was not encouraging.

After installing that cleat, he drew a line on the next wall on the opposite side of where the range would be. I had provided adjustable legs to be used for the front of the cabinets instead of having a toe kick installed. The corner cabinet had the legs pretty much at the bottom of their adjustment. Since I had meticulously made sure the floor of the home was level, I was surprised that then next section on the other side of the range had over 5 mm of adjustment showing. I commented how that should not be, as the home should be level, but he persisted on.

He had used his 8 foot level to transfer the cleat line to the third section of cabinets on the other side of the dishwasher. As the first cabinet went up in that last section, the leg had over 10 mm of adjustment showing. He did not appreciate my expression of concern, but just proceeded to do his install. When the last of the four boxes went in on that third section, the last leg had nearly 15 mm of adjustment showing. I got my 6 foot level and put it on the sink cabinet towards the third section and the level did not match the same height, the last section was about a quarter inch higher. When I asked him how that could be, I just got silence. At that point I asked if he had yet screwed those cabinets to the wall. He said no, so I said to just stop as something was wrong.

Instead of analyzing the situation, he packed up his tools and equipment, told me that I would have to find another installer to finish the job and left without saying goodbye. My wife being desperate to get her kitchen operational tried to reason with him while he was in his truck. He said "I don't know why you're being so picky, you're just putting laminate on them". After she replied that we would be installing quartz, he said "Why would you waste money putting quartz in a mobile home?", indicating that he did not have the intention to be meticulous with the accuracy of his install.

When contacting the cabinet company, they informed me that they had no other installers available and I said that I'd do it myself. I removed the last section of 4 boxes that were just attached to each other.

I then reviewed the second section of 2 boxes with the sink and made some startling discoveries that I had not previously noticed because I had tried to give the installer space while he did his job, respecting his complaints of my watching his work. When using a level from the first section to the sink section, the sink section top was 5 mm higher at the left corner, which explained why the leg adjustment was much higher (I later discovered that the corner cabinet was also installed too high, making the problem actually even worse than this initial level indicator). I wanted the sink centered with the window and had drawn a center line on the wall for the center of the window, a line where the left corner of the sink cabinet would be, and a line where the adjoining drawer cabinet would be, which had been shown and discussed with the installer. However, he had installed the cabinets 1/4 inch to the left of those lines, which would make the range hole either too small or shifted to the left. I also noticed that the cabinets where not level from left to right.
 
Level between first and second sections. 
 
Level should be at top of sink cabinet, not below. 
 
Level is accurate and level. 

After removing them from the wall, I could see the line he had drawn for the cleat (which was level) and the attachment of the cleat. The cleat top was at the line on the left, but 1/8 inch below the line on the right. He had put a screw into a stud on the left, but the next screw went between the two studs that run up beside the window and it basically just spun when I tried to remove it as it wasn't really gripping anything. The next screw hit a stud, but there were no more screws for the next 19 inches of cleat, even though there was another stud 16 inches from the last screw. So basically there were 2 screws supporting that cleat that was attached unlevel. So just on that section, the errors were 1) too high, 2) too far left, 3) unlevel, 4) inadequate support.
 
Left side of sink cleat. 
 
Right side of sink cleat missed the line. 

In addition he drilled two holes in the bottom of the sink box for the hot and cold water lines that come up from the floor, prior to attaching the box to the wall. He measured the cold water line and drilled the hole. He then measured the distance to the hot water line from that hole and drilled the hole. When trying to put the box on the wall over the lines, they would not fit because he had drilled the hot water hole on the wrong side of the cold water line, so he had to drill a third hole in the correct location. So that's error number 5 on that section.

There was an electrical outlet on the wall in the sink cabinet for the dishwasher, so he cut a hole to mount the faceplate on the inside of the box. When I asked if he had longer screws to reattach the outlets, he said "I have screws that will work". From previous experiences with tradesmen that used incorrect screws in this situation I said "I'm not trying to be obstinate, but exactly what kind of screws will you be using?". When he said "Number 6 wood screws" I told him to NOT put the screws in and I would install my own proper 6-32 long electrical screws. So many problems on just that one section, many which I initially missed because I wasn't looking over his shoulder close enough.

The next section to the right of the dishwasher had been installed an additional 5 mm higher than the sink section. When I had completed the re-installation, all the feet were adjusted to the same height and the counter tops were level with each other. And that was just the simple part of the installation that was a failure. I shudder to think of the job he would have done on fillers and crown moulding.

In addition, the adjustable legs had a locking collar to help prevent them from changing their adjustment after installation. Instead of using the collars to lock against the leg, the installer had every one spun up to the top of the threads where it performed no function.

In the end I got a beautiful install, thanks to the installer walking out on the job. He's been installing cabinets for 20 years. I just have to wonder what problems he's left behind.