You don't have to hang sheetrock if you don't want to. It's probably
cheaper to hang sheetrock than plywood, but that's personal preference.

To hang your upper cabinets, you can rip a 1x3 at an angle (30 deg or
45 deg) for your hanging bar. Attach half of it to the wall and the
other half to the back of your cabinet. when you put your cabinets on
top of the hanging bar, it will lock it self in because you ripped it
at an angle. That keeps the cabinet from sliding down the wall. Then
you can attach the cab to the wall through the back nad into the studs.
If you can't visualize this, pick up any kitchen cabinet building book
and they'll have something drawn out for you.

Good Luck.



wrote:
Hello,

I'm a relatively competent DIY'er, but I've never tackled a kitchen
until now. Measured and order the cabinets & counters, and they've all
come in. As soon as I'm done with the 1100 sq ft of hardwood, I'm
tackling the kitchen...

I need to demo and move a wall about 20" for the new cabinets to fit -
the fact that it's a plumbing wall wasn't apparent until after we'd
bought the cabinets, but that's another story... On the newly moved
wall, is there any reason that I have to hang drywall? I was thinking
about sheathing with 3/4" plywood, mostly to make finding studs a
non-issue when I install the upper cabinets - and I hate hanging
drywall... Fire protection?

Also, the cabinets we bought (Aristokraft, upper cabinets are 36" )
have no hang rails inside or outside. The backs are 3/8 or 1/2 particle
board, but don't inspire confidence that they'll hold the cabinet
weight. I was thinking about using 2.5" cabinet screws w/ washers, but
that still doesn't give me a warm'n'fuzzy. Install a 1x4 hang rail
inside the cabinets?

Thanks in advance!

-C