Forums › Kitchen DIY Forum › Kitchen DIY Advice › Plinth gap over floor tiles.
This topic has 2 voices, contains 4 replies.
| Author | Posts |
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| Author | Posts |
| August 30, 2007 at 10:41 pm #6603 | |
 roylec |
I am fitting into a kitchen with a recently tiled floor. The tiles run from wall to wall, so the cabinets are fitted on top of the tiles. This is an old building so although the floor was well prepared with ply before tiling it is not perfectly level (neither are the walls but that’s a different post). The cabinets are fitted square to themselves and level, regardless of the vagaries of the floor and walls, but this leaves me with a varying gap between the plinth and the floor in some areas. The gap is a maximum of 2mm, and don’t get me wrong here because it’s flush against more than 80% of the floor, but this gap shows up as an irritating black shadow. My questions are: 1) Is it just me, can I leave it as it is and walk away happy that I’ve done a good job? 2) What about water? If I was tiling up to the plinth, it would be sealed at the edges and you could mop away, safe in the knowledge that your cabinet cavities were dry. I’m no fan of silicone, but would you run a silicon bead to seal it? 3) Should I scribe it? The plinths are finished in gloss, so it could be a nasty scribe… |
| August 31, 2007 at 2:04 pm #6604 | |
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roylec |
While we are on the subject of beautiful plinths and where they meet the floor, what are your views on how skirting board should meet the plinth. Given the choice, would you prefer to fit skirting that runs behind the unit and scribe the plinth or end-panel (if it’s full height), or cut the skirting off shortly where it meets the cabinet and scribe that to the plinth/end-panel if required? For either approach, how would you deal with the tiny gap along the scribe? Do you fill it? BTW – I haven’t fitted kitchens since the late 80′s when almost every job was a cheap melamine plinth that would be glued/nailed onto the cabinet and sealed with silicone. At the same time, ceramic floors were not that popular, linoleum or similar was king, so this was commonly cut either very flush with the cabs/plinth hiding floor gaps, and units were generally scribed over the skirting board and sealed. So, gaps were never a problem at floor/skirt level – well that was my experience anyway in the days when the Mancunian Way had only two exits. Oh, and in case you ask, yes it *was* that kitchen company in Trafford that supplied kitchens ‘direct’ to customer, and the face you’re pulling now is the reason I left. |
| September 3, 2007 at 12:08 pm #6605 | |
 timfoley |
Christian, I have to say that having tried both methods here, my option would be not to scribe the plinth, as to do so only serves to accentuate the undulations of the floor – not very pretty at all. Skirting boards – as you can appreciate, it’s more difficult to scribe your plinth over a skirting board as opposed to butting the skirting up to the finished plinth but either way is ok and I suppose it depends on the order of things in your design. If you have an existing plinth then it’s better to keep it in place rather than disturb the plastering by taking it off just to butt it up to your plinth, however if this is a new extension area then skirting can be fitted after the kitchen has been completed. Hope this helps, Tim. |
| September 3, 2007 at 5:11 pm #6606 | |
|
roylec |
Thanks Tim, I’ll be leaving the plinth uncut, I tested a scribe in cardboard and it looked horrible, just as you said it accentuates slight differences in height. I might try the sealing strips though as long as I can get some that fix to the back. The skirting will be fitted after the kitchen, so butted, filled with acrylic caulk and painted. Cheers. |
| September 3, 2007 at 5:35 pm #6607 | |
|
timfoley |
Christian, Tim |
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