Hi all

The lack of a service void on IKEA kitchen cabinets has been discussed
several times here. In my case (if I choose an IKEA kitchen) this will
be as issue under the sink as there are two pipes running horizontally
behind the sink unit and the adjacent corner unit. Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order to
give the base units rigidity?

thanks

Julian

wrote:
Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order
to give the base units rigidity?

Or put in a new backing board. Fix some timber strips to the bottom & sides
of the base unit & screw the hardboard on. Hides the pipes but easily
removed for access.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

On 2006-07-23 11:44:54 +0100, " said:

Hi all

The lack of a service void on IKEA kitchen cabinets has been discussed
several times here. In my case (if I choose an IKEA kitchen) this will
be as issue under the sink as there are two pipes running horizontally
behind the sink unit and the adjacent corner unit. Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order to
give the base units rigidity?

thanks

Julian

Probably not a good idea to do it this way. The backing board on knock
down carcasses is there to prevent it from being pushed sideways.
The problem is that if this does happen at all, the load bearing
capability fails rapidly - think of the effect of a cardboard box with
the end flaps all open.

Angle brackets are not really a good way either because they are
located only in the corners and are liable to bend quite easily - even
the steel ones.

A better solution would be to cut some strips of softwood (not less
than 100mm or so wide and say 35mm thick) and fit them side to side at
top and bottom of the carcasses at the back, screwing through the
chipboard into the sides of the softwood and then the ends. This will
give you a fairly rigid structure. You can then notch out the sides
of the chipboard sides of the carcasses to take the pipes.

Finally you can trim the supplied rear panels and fit them to the
softwood with dome head screws.

The Medway Handyman wrote:
wrote:
Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order
to give the base units rigidity?

Or put in a new backing board. Fix some timber strips to the bottom
& sides of the base unit & screw the hardboard on. Hides the pipes
but easily removed for access.

or screw 2 x 2 battens to the wall: that way you create a service gap for
low voltage & under unit lighting, extra sockets etc. either way is better
than hacking the units about.

.. wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
wrote:
Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order
to give the base units rigidity?

Or put in a new backing board. Fix some timber strips to the bottom
& sides of the base unit & screw the hardboard on. Hides the pipes
but easily removed for access.

or screw 2 x 2 battens to the wall: that way you create a service gap for
low voltage & under unit lighting, extra sockets etc. either way is better
than hacking the units about.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice. I noticed that IKEA do
custom-width worktops so I could bring the units forward away from the
wall and order an extra-wide worktop accordingly..

The Medway Handyman wrote:
wrote:
Could a solution be
simply to miss out the hardboard backing board and cut notches in the
side-walls of the base units to accommodate the pipes? Presumably the
backing board is there to give rigidity rather than load-bearing
strength so perhaps I could use some angle brackets instead in order
to give the base units rigidity?

Or put in a new backing board. Fix some timber strips to the bottom & sides
of the base unit & screw the hardboard on. Hides the pipes but easily
removed for access.



Or just cut the existing one down so that it fits the cabinet rather
than the grooves.
I wouldn't worry too much about the rigidity. Presumably it'll be bolted
to adjoining cabinets and, once the whole thing is screwed to the wall,
it isn't going to move. I think the backing board function is cosmetic
rather than structural