Plinths

Never silicon to the floor mate.
If someone needs to remove the plinths for any reason it will cause problems, oh, it has already . If you can get the original customer to pay you to remove it and re-fit good luck. maybe you need to chalk this down to experience and do it for free, try getting her to pay for your time first though.
Good luck mate, and dont silicon to the floor again

 

you can get clear plastic cover strips which clip on underneath plinth and protect them from spills.
mfi and howdens use them.

 

As cosworth says this is what you need, also takes up slight undulations in floor.

Jason

 

i dont fit naked wood on the floor, that would be silly, i scribe to fit cut side up underneath the unit base. Never really had a problem with "blowage" i always warn people excessive water anywhere will cause trouble, maybe all my customers listened (both of em )
Failing that the plastic end covers will do the job, although i notice these details and i dont think they are that good looking IMO
Good luck whatever you do mate.

 

Well, I always use silicone when the floor has ceramic tiles and clear plastic plinth seal when the floor is a laminate or vinyl and non if carpet or carpet tiles.

This I think is the besy way to so it and the neatest.However, when fitting plastic plinth seal,I take great care to mitre all internal and external corners properly and it looks pretty good.It's all about detail as far as I am concerned.

In my experience,service engineers are mostly very lazy.
I had one customer who needed a visit to repair her Stoves oven and he took one look and said he could not touch it because there was no isolation switch,so buggered off.

If he had cared to look in the cupboard below the oven (tall housing unit ) he would have seen it in there.

If a siliconed plinth needs to come off,its not much of a big deal just to cut through with a stanley blade, and then clean off the old and re-seal.

 

i always silicone the plinths to the floor as no floor in ever going to be totally flat,i think the guy was being lazy but if the plinths are mitred and glued you can see his point.i think it becomes a matter for him and the customer as far as responsibility goes

 

Silicon all day long unless you want an 80s looking formula ie strips. seal it and take note fron Bern...

 

This thread bugged me.

I always run a thin bead of silicon along the plinth bottoms, due to the lazy git kitchen fitters not fitting strips at the bottom.

As for the bit about laying a floor flat
I've yet to see a kitchen where the fitter asks the customer, if they are having the walls or floors tiled, and thinks of the tiler after?

As in, allowing floor tile room under plinths, as well as room behind cornices etc

 

Ghost,

This kitchen fitter does exactly that.I always ask what sort of flooring is going down and always leave the plinth off until the floor has been tiled or vinyl layed or even laminate floored

I just go back later and fit it.To me, and this might surprise some people,the finished job is more important, than the bit of extra time it might take, to do the job right.

As for fitting plinth,you guys who say you scribe the top edge ?,does this mean you leave the bottom edge straight ?

Because if you do,you are doing it wrong.There is now way to can do this unless the floor is perfectly flat and horizontal,otherwise the vertical ends would not be vertical, and the return pieces would reflect this.

I have never seen a flat floor in my life.The only way to do this is with the top edge straight and scribe the bottom edge.This will obviously then leave exposed chipboard that will need to be sealed to prevent water damage, hence the need for plinth strip or silicone.

Some of you guys must have gaps between the plinth and floor that you could get your fingers in,if you don't scribe.

By the way,we actually screw our plinth on to a piece of 1 x 1 that is fitted 60mm back, with the legs behind the 1 x 1.this gives a far more secure method of fixing than those stupid clips.

 

And for those people that are thinking ,screws on the return !,well no, they get screwed through from the inside.Perfect.

 

ay bernie so you screw thru the front of the plinth.seen some fitters just silicone the plinth to the legs.

 

So as to avoid confusion,the 1 x 1 is screwed to the underside of the cabinets before fitting and the plinth is screwed through the front right at the top of the plinth.Positops over the screwheads to match the colour of carcass.

The screws are not seen unless you get down on your stomach to kook at the topside of the plinth.

This gives a really good secure fitting and meansthat the plinth stays in place for good.

 

What a bunch of rubbish fitters (well most of you!)
Scribe the plinths to the floor & use clear silicone & do it neatly! Get back to me if you dont know how to. As for the service engineer not removing the silcone etc, welcome to the 21st century, every big company tells there guys what to do and thats it.
Cheers

 

Hi I'm new to the forum so I hope I'm doing the right thing in posting on this thread rather than creating a new one.

My fitter has scribed the top of the plinths with the inevitable result that there's a gap between the bottom of the plinth and the floor in places, so the info here is really useful.

My question is; the floor was newly screeded by an accredited Amtico flooring fitter ... do I have a right to expect it to be perfectly level ... should I ask the flooring guy to come back and level it? The house was built in 1997 and the original kitchen didn't have these gaps (the old floor covering was vinyl tiles; we now have Amtico tiles).

Also, the kitchen fitter has left quite a big gap between the top of the plinth and the bottom of the cabinets all round. I was expecting the top edge to fit tightly up to the cabinets just like it did in the old kitchen. I can see a benefit of this gap if we ever need to remove the plinths, because it will be really easy to get hold of them but is it normal to leave it like that? (It isn't noticable unless you bend down; I spotted it when cleaning the floor).

I've spoken to the kitchen supplier who assures me both of these 'issues' are quite normal and nothing to worry about, but the imperfection is niggling me so as a novice in the world of kitchen fitting I just wanted to get another opinion.

Many thanks.

 

If you can't get a screed level, then go to specsavers! it's not that difficult, unless they screeded floor with kitchen cabinets still place.

Was the screed a sand/cement or a liquid screed, or did the flooring fitter pour a levelling compound onto an exsisting concrete floor.

Quiet common to leave a gap between top of plinth & bottom of cabinet.

 

Thanks KIAB

He did screed with the cabinets in place. Both he (or at least the flooring shop that contracted him) and the kitchen supplier knew the schedule and neither of them suggested it would be better to re-order things. In fact when he arrived I distinctly remember him saying "this is going to be an easy job".

He removed the plinths and screeded just beyond them.

The screed looked very shiny and wet after it was done, so I'm guessing a liquid screed but I'd have to ask him to be sure. What's the significance of the method used?

The existing floor was concrete and all previous tiles had already been removed by the kitchen fitters.

Do you think I should ask the flooring shop to come and look at it?

 

Amtico, I bet this wasn't cheap and would expect it to be absolutely flat.

Surprised the fitter has scribed the top of the plinth - this should be perfectly flat. The top edge of the plinth is normally hidden so it doesn't matter if there is a small gap. Indeed a small gap is quite useful to allow a little air movement under the cupboards.

You would normally only scribe the floor edge if it is uneven