Attaching an Island to a wooden floor
daibach
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
I am in the process of assembling a kitchen Island and wondering how to attach it to the plywood floor. My sense is that the attachment process needs to prevent the island from being dislodged – but am I ignoring something?
It will have a slate countertop with an overhang of 6-12 inched (tbd!) Can anyone recommend a schematic for attaching slate and supporting a cantilever? The missus does not want corbels, but she may have to give in if the consensus here is that they are the best course of action … I am ambivalent – I just want it to look tidy in 5 years …. and not have to re-do it – the slate is coming a long way and will be expensive I suspect, but it’s a quirky thing ….
Thanks for all insights
dai
Replies
To attach the island to the floor, screw cleats to the floor on the inside perimeter of the cabinet base toe kick. Screw through the toe kick into the cleats.
So far as the counter tops are concerned, I would ask for the fabricators recommendations and follow them, plain and simple. 6-12 inchs is easy to do with no support depending on the material.
I'm thinking that you are really spec'ing blue stone not slate.
yourcontractor@aol.com
Thanks, Eric!
That is what I had in mind, but I'm always open to the experience of others.
The countertop is Bangor Blue Slate from Wales - it was quarried in my homeland and I wanted to have a little bit (more) of Wales in the house - of course it is quite a bi tthicker than roof slate material, but it is slate.
I second the cleats to the floor.
as far as supports, I've used flat pieces of steel fastened accross the tops of the cabinets and sticking out to support the stone. usually stone can go 8 - 10" unsupported but I also second talking to the stone fabricator. they are the experts.
sounds nice. My family is welsh on my father's side. They were all coal miners in the scranton PA area. My father broke the trend when world war two was happening and he joined the navy. His brother (my uncle) joined the army. both avoided the coal mining fate by using the gi bill to go to college.
good luck,
Jason
"it aint the work I mind,
It's the feeling of falling further behind."
Bozini Latini
http://www.ingrainedwoodworking.com
I use simple 2x4s as cleats.
dai ,
Lucky for all of us , there are always more then one way of doing things .
Heres another method to attach an island to the floor , make a loose toe kick as it's own assembly , set it where it goes on the bubble and screw it down to the floor from nailers inside flush to the floor , set the island on the kick and screw through the floor of the cabinet to the nailers in the top side of the toe kick . This way you don't have any visible fasteners and is easier then placing cleats imo .
I am building an ell shaped island in the kitchen I'm on and will make the loose toes on the island and the floor to ceiling boxes as well .
On many of these islands with heavy overhanging tops and such it is not a bad idea to run a bead of construction adhesive under the kick just to prevent any squeaking or creaking , you never know who's gonna get slapped up there on that island .
regards dusty
For better or worse, our island isn't attached to the floor. But it's also 4x8 with overhang along the long side. With all the cabs attached to each other and 3cm granite on top, it isn't going anywhere. Not to mention all the stuff in the cabs.
The overhang is 12". It's supported by 5 steel supports- 3/8" thick by 3" wide. I routed recesses into the tops of the cabs (frameless, so the boxes have a top side) for the steel. IIRC, they stick out 9" under the slab, and extend to the back of the cabs (~24"). I bedded the steel in the recesses with glue/caulk, then the counter installers caulked the slab to them also.
FWIW, I believe the 3/8" thick bars were the smallest at the steel yard that wouldn't flex at all.
It was probably all overkill, but I still am too chicken to hop my 200-lb butt up there and see if it holds. Fortunately the wife hasn't noticed the chip I accidentally took out of the edge of the counter putting an empty wine bottle in the recycle bin a few months back.
I've never much cared for the corbels I've seen ... so I had my own design made for me at the local steel shop ... see attached pic. The pic isn't real good ... so look closely. It's before the bar top was installed. The bar top handsl over the corbel by an inch or two. They were inexensive to have fabricated and you can spray paint or powder coat. We like them.