Most of the questions we field at our Hyde Park shop are about design: door styles, wood species, island size, paint versus stain. But once the boxes are being built, a different set of questions shows up about a week before the truck is scheduled. What happens on install day? How long will my kitchen be torn apart? What do I need to do before the crew arrives? After 20+ years installing custom cabinets in homes from Richmond to Wellsville, we have a clear answer to each, and we would rather you have it before the week starts than during it.
How Long Does Kitchen Cabinet Installation Take?
For a full kitchen built in our shop, plan on the cabinet installation itself taking two to four working days. A straightforward L-shaped kitchen in a Nibley rambler with 18 to 22 cabinets usually finishes in two. A large Providence or North Logan kitchen with a full-height pantry wall, a 10-foot island, a coffee bar, and a panel-ready refrigerator column can run four, sometimes five, because every tall unit has to be plumbed, shimmed, and scribed individually before the crown and fillers go on.
What that number does not include is everything around it. On a remodel, demolition of the old cabinets typically happens one to two days before we arrive, handled by your general contractor or by us if that was part of the scope. Countertops cannot be templated until the cabinets are set and level, and most Cache Valley fabricators need seven to fourteen days between template and install. Plumbing and electrical reconnects, backsplash tile, and final hardware follow the tops. So while our crew may be in your home for three days, a realistic remodel window from demo to a working sink is three to four weeks. We cover the full project sequence in our custom cabinet timeline guide; this post is about the install week specifically.
What Happens on Cabinet Install Day, Step by Step
Every Rivermill install follows the same sequence, whether the home is a new build in Smithfield, a 1990s two-story in Hyrum, or a farmhouse outside Mendon.
- Delivery and staging. Cabinets arrive from our shop on an enclosed trailer, individually wrapped, with each box labeled to match the plan. We stage them in the garage or an adjacent room, never outside. Finished cabinets should not sit in a cold garage overnight in winter, so on January and February installs we bring them in the same day.
- Layout and reference lines. Before a single screw goes in, we find the high point of the floor with a laser level and snap a level line for the base cabinets, then a second line for the uppers, typically 54 inches off the finished floor for a standard 18-inch backsplash. Floors in older Logan homes near USU can be out of level by more than an inch across a 12-foot run. The cabinets get shimmed up to the high point so the countertop lands dead flat.
- Uppers first. Wall cabinets go up before base cabinets so nobody is leaning over a base to reach a wall. They are clamped face-frame to face-frame, checked for plumb, and fastened through the hanging rail into studs with structural cabinet screws, not drywall screws.
- Bases, tall units, and the island. Base cabinets are set to the level line, shimmed, and screwed to the wall and to each other. Islands are anchored to blocking secured to the subfloor; a freestanding island that only sits on the flooring will walk over time.
- Scribing, fillers, and trim. Walls are never perfectly straight. We scribe end panels and fillers to the wall so there is no visible gap, then install crown molding, light rail, and toe kick.
- Doors, drawers, and adjustment. Doors and drawer fronts are hung last and adjusted so reveals are consistent, usually an eighth of an inch. Soft-close hinges and undermount slides are tuned, hardware is installed, and we walk the kitchen with you before we leave.
How to Prepare Your Home Before the Cabinet Crew Arrives
A little preparation is the difference between a two-day install and a three-day install.
- Empty the kitchen completely. Every cabinet, every drawer, everything on the counters. On a remodel, this needs to happen before demo. Label boxes by zone (baking, everyday dishes, pantry) so unpacking into the new layout is easier.
- Set up a temporary kitchen. A folding table in the dining room with the microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, and a small cooler or the garage fridge covers most families for a few weeks. Large Cache Valley households often run a camp stove or pellet grill on the patio; September and October are ideal for that, which is one reason fall is our busiest remodel season.
- Clear a path. A 36-inch-wide pantry cabinet is 96 inches tall and heavy. We need a clear, protected route from the driveway to the kitchen, with rugs rolled up, furniture moved, and any narrow turns measured ahead of time. In a split-level with a tight stair landing, tell us before install day so we can plan to carry tall units in two pieces.
- Confirm the floor is finished, or intentionally not. We install over finished hardwood, tile, or LVP in most homes, with floor protection down the whole time. If the flooring is going in after the cabinets, we need to know the finished floor thickness so the dishwasher opening and toe kick height come out right.
- Have the appliances on site, or the spec sheets. A 36-inch range, a counter-depth refrigerator, and a dishwasher all have real dimensions and real tolerances. We build to the spec sheet, but we want to see the actual appliance before the refrigerator surround or range hood cabinet is trimmed out.
- Plow or shovel the driveway. This one is Cache Valley-specific. Winter installs in Richmond, Smithfield, and up the bench in North Logan require a cleared driveway and walk so cabinets can be unloaded without sliding a trailer or tracking slush onto a new floor.
Cache Valley Conditions That Affect Installation
A few local details change how we schedule and set cabinets, and they are worth knowing regardless of who builds your kitchen.
Our climate is dry, and winter indoor humidity in a furnace-heated home can drop below 20 percent. Solid wood doors move with humidity, which is why we finish and assemble cabinets in a climate-controlled shop and why we ask that the home’s HVAC be running normally for at least a week before install, especially on new construction in Providence and Nibley where drywall mud and paint have just released a lot of moisture into the house. Installing into a wet, unheated new build is the fastest way to see doors shift in the first winter.
Hard water shows up at the sink base. Nearly every Cache Valley home runs a softener, and if you have added a reverse osmosis system or under-sink filter since the drawings were approved, tell us before the crew arrives so the plumbing has room.
Older homes in Logan’s Island and Adams neighborhoods and in the original blocks of Wellsville and Hyrum often have plaster walls, out-of-square corners, and irregular stud spacing. None of that is a problem for a custom shop, because we build fillers and scribe panels to fit, but it does add a few hours compared with a new build.
Questions to Ask Any Cabinet Maker About Installation
Whether you are talking with us or another shop in the valley, these questions tell you quickly how the install will go.
- Who actually installs the cabinets? Our own crew installs what we build. Some shops and most big-box retailers hand the boxes to a subcontractor who has never seen your plan.
- How do you handle out-of-level floors and out-of-plumb walls? The right answer involves a laser level, shims, and scribing, not caulk.
- Will the countertop template happen after the cabinets are set? It should. Templating off drawings alone leads to overhangs that miss and seams in the wrong place.
- What happens if a cabinet is damaged or a dimension is off? Because our shop is at 50 S Main Street in Hyde Park, a replacement door or a re-cut filler is a same-week fix, not a six-week reorder from a factory out of state.
- Do you coordinate with my GC, plumber, and countertop fabricator? We work alongside local GCs and fabricators on nearly every project and will schedule directly with them so nobody shows up to a kitchen that is not ready.
Planning a Kitchen Install This Fall or Winter
If you are hoping to have a finished kitchen before the holidays, the install week needs to land by early November so countertops and backsplash can follow, which means design and approval should be wrapping up now. For a winter or spring install, this is the moment to get on the schedule.
Rivermill Cabinetry & Woodworks has built and installed custom cabinets for Cache Valley families for more than 20 years, from Richmond and Smithfield through Hyde Park, North Logan, and Logan, and south to Providence, Nibley, Hyrum, Wellsville, and Mendon. To see finished doors, open real drawers, and talk through what your install week will look like, visit our showroom in Hyde Park or contact us to get started.
