Cabinet Screws

[Jerry Simon]

I asked this before, but don't think I had a picture before. Is this type of screw okay for hanging kitchen wall cabinets? Sure looks like a long, drywall-type screw lacking the necessary shear strength for such use. Thanks for any insight.

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[Home Pride]

Drywall screws are not the fasteners specified by any cabinet manufacturer.

Here is Merilat's Install guide:

http://www.merillat.com/care/framed/ins ... nguide.pdf

Dom.

[gtblum]

I can't say that I haven't used them on base cabinets but, never on uppers.

[kurt]

Not supposed to use them; not approved, inadequate shear strength, etc., etc.....

I've used them on a few hundred of upper cabinets. I think they're fine. Absolutely fine.

I use the #10 shanks with the Roberts square drive head.

[Chad Fabry]

I use torx drive deck screws. Torx is to square what square is to phillips.

[Les]

Jerry,

My experience is abt the same as Chad and Kurt's. But, I have written improper fastening a few hundred times and have at least four huge files against builders and carpenters that used wrong fastener.

Regardless of all the technical stuff there is the common sense issue; different thread, different head, different shank, different shear, etc. Your example looks like a McKisson head and phillips drive?

This reminds me of the hundreds of drywall fasteners we see in door hinges after the anchor screws get tossed in the dumpster.

[kurt]

Yeah, it's about how the cabinets were installed in the first place. If the installer bungled it up and is getting hung, might as well pile on with using the "wrong" fastener.

Someday I'll switch over to Torx. I've still got several pounds of square drives left from a 50lb. keg.

The whole idea of a smart construction site has to have, as part of its center, standardization of fasteners and drivers. Trying to maintain a profitable operation with dozens of different fasteners makes it very problematic. That's why cheesey drywall screws get used for everything.

If folks would stock good fasteners and employ good operations, cabinets wouldn't be falling down.

[Scottpat]

Don Lovering had a good article in the June 2007 ASHI Reporter on cabinets. This is the link http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/ar ... px?id=1191

I think you can open it if you are not an ASHI member.

[gtblum]

Wait a minute. Do you actually remove cabinet mounting screws during the course of a home inspection? BARBARA STRISAND!

[Jerry Simon]

Originally posted by gtblum

Wait a minute. Do you actually remove cabinet mounting screws during the course of a home inspection? BARBARA STRISAND!

If the seller is a jerk, I remove quite a few of them.

[Les]

Sometimes I just tighten them until they snap. That way it looks like they are still in place!

[Jeremy]

I like the ones that have the heads snapped off before the last 3/4" is driven in. And then another and another. "A" for effort.

[Darren]

Originally posted by Scottpat

Don Lovering had a good article in the June 2007 ASHI Reporter on cabinets. This is the link http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/ar ... px?id=1191

I think you can open it if you are not an ASHI member.

I did find one problem with that article. The IRC does NOT require safety glass in cabinets. As a matter of fact, the IRC does not mention kitchen cabinets at all.

[Scottpat]

Originally posted by Darren

Originally posted by Scottpat

Don Lovering had a good article in the June 2007 ASHI Reporter on cabinets. This is the link http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/ar ... px?id=1191

I think you can open it if you are not an ASHI member.

I did find one problem with that article. The IRC does NOT require safety glass in cabinets. As a matter of fact, the IRC does not mention kitchen cabinets at all.

I don't know, that section is convoluted. This might be what he is referencing:

6. Glazing, in an individual fixed or operable panel adjacent

to a door where the nearest vertical edge is within a

24-inch (610 mm) arc of the door in a closed position

and whose bottom edge is less than 60 inches (1524

mm) above the floor or walking surface.

7. Glazing in an individual fixed or operable panel, other

than those locations described in Items 5 and 6 above,

that meets all of the following conditions:

7.1. Exposed area of an individual pane larger than

9 square feet (0.836 m2).

7.2. Bottom edge less than 18 inches (457 mm)

above the floor.

7.3. Top edge more than 36 inches (914 mm)

above the floor.

7.4. One or more walking surfaces within 36

inches (914 mm) horizontally of the glazing.

[Chad Fabry]

7. Glazing in an individual fixed or operable panel, other

than those locations described in Items 5 and 6 above,

that meets all of the following conditions:

7.1. Exposed area of an individual pane larger than

9 square feet (0.836 m2).

7.2. Bottom edge less than 18 inches (457 mm)

above the floor.

7.3. Top edge more than 36 inches (914 mm)

above the floor.

7.4. One or more walking surfaces within 36

inches (914 mm) horizontally of the glazing.

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Darren

Originally posted by Scottpat

Don Lovering had a good article in the June 2007 ASHI Reporter on cabinets. This is the link http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/ar ... px?id=1191

I think you can open it if you are not an ASHI member.

I did find one problem with that article. The IRC does NOT require safety glass in cabinets. As a matter of fact, the IRC does not mention kitchen cabinets at all.

The reference for that was:

R308.4 Hazardous Locations. The following shall be considered specific hazardous locations for the purposes of glazing:

1. Glazing in swinging doors except jalousies.

Following that is a list of 10 exceptions, none of which excepts cabinet doors.

That was the basis for Don's claim and that was the basis by which the Technical Committe allowed the claim to stay in the article.

After the article was published, some folks complained that the cabinet door thing was a poor call, so the Tech Committee wrote to the ICC for an interpretation. The response took months and was eventually printed in the September '08 Reporter. I don't have it in front of me but, as I recall, it said something like, "When we say 'door' we really mean a door that a human walks through."

- Jim Katen, Oregon