Hi Fellow Steemians / DIY enthusiasts,
Another edition of my DIY posts here! Going to be making a number of these over the coming months as we get our condo ready to sell. We will be doing a number of renovations and improvements to our living space. This is one of the latest ones that was inexpensive but adds nice space and a clean look to our front foyer. Let's get started!
First we need to have some tools that will help get the job done smoothly and properly.
Tools Needed
To start, I made sure I had a reliable bullet-style level to make sure I'm not hanging the cabinet at a wild angle that looks straight to me from whatever perspective I was at. I also had a screwdriver and a tape measure.
Can't do a job like this without some good power tools! I used the drill to pre-drill some holes. Then there is the impact-style screw gun which is one of the best tools in my opinion. Very versatile.
These are the screws I used; the long one is for securing the cabinet into the wall and the fine thread one I used to secure additionally some screws into the cabinet itself to give it better support.
Finally it was also helpful to have a nice reliable steel snake. In our building, they don't put the sheetrock directly onto the wood studs, they use aluminum risers on the wall and ceiling so you will never fund a stud using a stud finder. (I found that out the hard way..) The steel snake isn't necessarily a building tool but a nice trick I learned from my father, they are mainly an electrician's tool.
Securing and Installing the Cabinet
After putting the cabinet together, I noticed that it was unfortunately a little lacking in how firm it was secured to the supports that it was supposed to hang on the wall from. I added some additional screws before changing my attention to the wall in which it would hang. I used the drill and drilled a couple pre-holes so that the screws I was going to use wouldn't ruin the particle board construction.
I then added the fine-thread screws, two on each post, as you can see in the photo. The fine-thread screws are preferable in these situations because they are less harsh on the particle board that the cabinet is made up of, giving you less chance of ruining the wood. If you've ever ruined particle board, you know there is unfortunately absolutely nothing you can do once it falls apart!
Now that the cabinet is successfully put together, I moved my attention to the wall in which it would hang. I had to find where the studs were so that I could hang the cabinet and be confident that it wouldn't rip the sheetrock down and fall apart and just make a mess. This is where the electrical steel snake comes in!
I used the screwdriver and made a hole in the wall roughly where I thought the middle should be. I then used the snake to find the studs. You do this by bending the tip a little bit (they are usually fairly straight if brand new, so you will only hit the outside wall often). If you have a brand-new snake, you should hook the curve at the tip of it and cover it with some tape, otherwise it will get stuck on everything in the wall (insulation, wires etc.) and end up being some trouble. Once you bend the snake, insert it into the wall in the direction you are searching for.
You then just push it in the direction you are going until it hits the stud. Move it a few times and push it hard and you'll find out that you hit the stud hard. Once you do this, put your finger on the part of the snake that isn't inside the wall yet to mark the distance. Pull the snake out of the wall and you now have a rough estimate of where the stud is hiding!
This method saves you lots of time and headache from having to take down parts of the wall to find where the studs are. An incredibly useful hack my dad taught me!
I then used a pencil to make some rough marks on the wall to give an idea of where the studs should reside, from when I found them with the snake. I put the board that secures the cabinet to the wall up to determine where it should hang and used the level to make sure the pencil marks I was making would be accurate and level.
Once that was taken care of, I pre-drilled some holes in the wall to make sure that it didn't cause issues by using the bigger sheetrock screws (not the fine threaded ones). This is also where you can confirm that the places on the wall are truly the studs before you get the cabinet fully up there and realize that they aren't securing into a stud.
I also marked on the wall and the board where I would be making a hole so that way I had them lined up in the middle of the board, more of an aesthetic measure for me, but ended up working well because once I covered the marks up, I couldn't see where they were on the wall.
To start the final process of screwing it in, I started with the middle one because you can then rotate it if needed, and ensure it is level.
Now that the middle showed it was level, I started the screws on each side a little bit so that I can keep it level, and just advance them in without much effort.
I secured all of the screws and at the end, hung the cabinet but put some additional screws into the backing of it, to be completely sure that it won't get pulled down since we will be putting a decent amount of weight on it.
Once that was accomplished, I put some weight on it (the drills are quite heavy) and nothing budged a millimeter! I was finally satisfied that I had accurately secured it to the wall and now was able to start to put things on it as we needed.
Hope you enjoyed and learned something from this fun project! I have one coming up that's going to be quite a challenge for me as it's something I haven't done before so looking forward to covering it for everyone!
Check out my other DIY posts if you'd like!
Washing Machine Drain Pump ; Bubble wrap insulation on a wall ; Finish work in the bathroom ; Bubble wrap on windows ; Laminate floors in a bathroom ; Ball joints on a car
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