IKEA Sektion Remodel Part 3 - Demolition and Installation

I handled the demolition myself. If I did it again, I'd probably get a dumpster because as it was, I had to carry everything out our porch, toss it down to the trailer, load the trailer, drive it to the dump and unload the trailer into a dumpster.

The biggest load was 1.78 tons! Demo took about a week by myself, did I mention I did it by myself?

Beam delivery

When it came time to remove the wall, temporary 2x6 supports were installed and then the old studs were removed.

2x6 Temporary supports

Beam installed! New drywall too.

Cutting back the wood floor

Setting the toddler trap, I mean, "plywood installation."

On top of the plywood, was another 1/4" of Hardi-Backer and then the tile. I learned that man-made tiles tend to have a certain amount of curvature to them. The tiles were Happy Floors, Apollo Beige 12x24 and were 1/16" higher in the middle than on the ends. This meant that if they were layed so that an end was next to a middle (in a brick or herringbone layout) then they would have 1/8" lip at each intersection. (Which for the record, is completely within tolerances as far as the flooring industry is concerned.) However, there was a solution that would make the tiles just about perfectly flat...clips! The clips are installed under each tile at the ends and middle and use wedges to bend the tile flat until the thinset dries. Then the top of the clips are broken away and grout is installed.

Tile clips

Before grout

After grout

The Sektion cabinet system attaches to the wall by hanging on metal strips, even the base cabinets. This makes hanging and leveling the cabinets very easy. I mentioned before that IKEA flat packs the cabinets, requiring that each one be assembled onsite. We spent a week or so assembling cabinets and drawers. It could have gone faster, but there were children underfoot.

Hanging, leveling and securing the wall cabinets

Tall cabinet and base cabinet installation

The island has to be anchored to the floor, which meant drilling through the porcelain tile with a diamond drill bit and water.

Drilling the tile

Drilled hole in tile for anchoring

Then the wood supports for the island were screwed to the floor with L-brackets.

Anchoring the island to the floor

Door installation

The island consisted of a set of standard (24") depth cabinets with drawers inside the kitchen backed by shallow (15") cabinets with doors on the bar side. IKEA has push openers that can be fixed to the side, top or bottom of the cabinet boxes. On base cabinets they have to go on the side or bottom because the base cabinets do not have tops to their cabinet boxes. We ended up cutting a 1x4 and fixing it to the top of the shallow depth cabinets under the bar so that the push openers could be mounted at the top.

Retrofitted wood strip for push openers

Once the base cabinets were all installed, it was time to measure for counter tops. We were originally set on quartz, but made the mistake of browsing a stone supply warehouse and ended up going with a slab of brushed Blue Flower granite. It has veins of iron pyrite or some similar mineral in it and a unpolished finish. One side of the slab was polished and the other was brushed, customers could choose whichever side appealed to them. The polished side is visible under the counter in the photo above.