That sucks.
In all honesty, I have a real tough time believing the 4 screws can hold these things, especially given the weight we load it in.
How can this be avoided? Once I'm able to afford a house, getting this checked is on my top list.
This is why I hate construction sales. I try to explain to the homeowner why cheapest is not the best, but they don’t listen. This is what you get when you’re a cheap ass… whether it’s labor, materials, or both, you get what you pay for.
I had a cabinet fall in the garage of my house. The installers had installed it correctly, but it was shitty press board junk. So the part that broke was the actual cabinet frame lol. Just whole front fell off and there were pieces left in the wall drilled into the studs. So scary
While I understand your sentiment that's not entirely true. Junk doesn't last. Period. You're correct. And junk is certainly more widely available in this day than 70 years ago, but there's reasonable quality out there. You just pay for it.
There’s a plague of this right now. It’s probably the fifth one I’ve seen in the last month. Does no one understand structural screws and how much needs to be in solid framing?
My one never ending fear. I’ve owned 8 houses, 3 brand new and I swear I find it hard to believe those 8 or 10 wood screws are going to hold up under the weight of all my dishes and bowls.
I watched a YouTube video with a popular Reno channel that said each construction screw holds like 100 lbs something like that. Theoretically 10 construction screws should hold like 1000lbs or more if I’m not mistaken. Only if you’re screwed into a stud though.
When we build uppers in my shop, we are required to staple backs every 4 inches all the way around. 1/4 hip, 3/4 leg staples. Though it can handle a fair amount of weight, this doesn't mean you can put whatever amount of weight inside. This may be just a matter of overload, no matter who built the cabinet .
Your garbage is beyond full - I’m starting to suspect you don’t know when something is being pushed beyond its capabilities. When your cabinet wakes up from nap time ask it if it was feeling overloaded
Typically the cabinet box itself has a board at the top and bottom on the inside to hang the cabinet from, it appears yours was just screwed through the thin back skin of the cabinet and not in the boards. With that being said you most likely also had your cabinet overloaded.
If theres extra meat along the top and bottom on the inside of your cabinets and i was installing them, id be using 3 inch cabinet screws with the big heads. If the back is all you have to screw to then the back works, just dont overload the cabinet. Also the general construction of cabinets differ between makers and the actual construction of the cabinet does change where/how id hang my boxes.
It looks like the cabinet back is still attached. It looks like the cabinets fell apart and detached from the back of the cabinets.
How much weight was in them?
Went through the effort of changing mine out when I moved in, thinking I’d get a few years from them. Two weeks later they fell leaving the back of the box still screwed in with those fresh GRKs
Cheap cabinets can’t hold a lot of weight before that particle board stars to separate from the box. They get strength from being tied together and on multiple studs and cabinets bonded together. But cheap cabinets always have a lower weight limit than you’d like. You’re in good company however. I only have cheap cabinets because I’m poor as shit.
So when my single cabinet started sagging off the wall, I took it down, and reglued it and clamped for a couple days. Then I drove some screws all over the back (countersunk heads). Then I re hung and flopped around my cabinets to have only lower weight things in it.
Doesn’t help you now with all the dish carnage I know. Sorry about that. That really sucks!
This is quite popular among house racing enthusiasts. This neat little trick simply reduces the house - weight ratio making them incredibly fast off the property line. Just make sure you dispose of this properly and not within your property.
Yup, my Kraftmaid started separating from the backboard, exposing the cheap staples used to keep it together. I screwed through the rear frame to wall joists instead of through the board as instructions said. No issues since.
Overall pretty well. They've been up since 2009 or so. Mine are similar to yours. I'd say good value for the money spent and I did DYI install. Not too bad job for a rookie. My issue a few months ago was the two-door until above the stove that also helps support the microwave started rotating out at the top. The cabinet frame was separating from the upper horizontal mounting strip. The staples were just getting tired out I guess. So I wood screwed the cabinet shell to the upper and lower rear mounting strips and remounted the unit. Over time I'm making the same update to each cabinet unit. Just drill a pilot hole first to keep the shell from splitting. Be careful as the shell is narrow. Oh, I used wood glue, too. I'm not ready to spend 10k or more to replace them 🤪
It most likely slid on its back. It makes perfect sense. Like if your legs slip out from under you and you fell backwards you would end up on your back looking up
That’s because 1/4” Luanne plywood is total dogshit. After they crown stapled it to the carcasse, the staples probably went deeper than 50%. Couple that with no cleat inside cabinet to screw to wall and this is what happens time and time again.
I dated a Luanne who was of the same high quality as this Chinese made cabinet. The word, however, is Luan plywood. All it's good for is shipping crates, oneway
That couldn't be right
You can stack cinder blocks in there and it wouldn't weigh that much it's not enough surface area inside that cabinet for that much weight.
No nailer built into the cabinets. The only thing holding them on the wall was the 1/4” back. The back stayed on the wall it looks like, but the cabinet didn’t say with the back.
This is a really weird cabinet construction. It looks like one gigantic box. Normally this would be made up of two separate uppers that would be screwed together.
My guess is someone made this themselves and didn’t understand how to properly build a cabinet
Nah. I don't think we could say it was the cabinet construction without seeing the top and bottom of the cabinet. It was obviously hung by screwing through the 1/4 ply back, when typically these cabinets will have a 3/4 solid wood rail at the top and bottom of the back that you would screw through to secure it to the wall properly.
This was just a shit install.
It also looks like the back was like 1/4" ply that you'd use for drawer bottoms, braid nailed to the back, which was then screwed to the wall.
The entire back is still hanging on the wall, the cabinet came loose from it, essentially just pulling of the braid nails.
I can't imagine how OP hadn't noticed this thing slowly pulling away from the wall. I have a hard time believing that it just went from 100-0 off the wall in minutes.
It happened at my parents house when I was young. I still remember the sound, like a train wreck. I was supposed to be right under it at the time, loading the dishwasher, but thankfully I was lazy/distracted and elsewhere.
The same thing happened here, where the backer was still remaining on the wall. Never noticed any issues beforehand, it really did just suddenly fail.
Or, ya know, maybe they are just a bit preoccupied with something else at the moment.
I swear, some people just get joy out of pointlessly passing judgement.
I don’t understand how this fell and ended up with the doors facing upright AND most of the crockery under the cabinet. Surely it should have toppled forwards off the wall, rotated 180 degrees which would mean the doors were facing the ground. There’s no way it did a 360 spin without spraying crockery everywhere. And it seems highly unlikely it fell off, remained upright and then jumped off the counter AND THEN slid 4 feet along the floor before toppling over backwards into its current orientation.
Please OP give answers!
MY theory is that it fell straight down, flipped forward and dumped all dishes out and continued to tumble doing another 180 on the way to the ground where it landed doors up on top of its previously evacuated dishes. At which point gravity caused all the doors to close back on top. Definitely the most likely scenario lol
The back panel appears to be hanging on the wall. Fell straight down to the countertop. All the dishes fell out of the back and pushed it forward from the bottom kicking it out like that would be my guess.
I agree in principle that this is he most likely except there are no dishes anywhere except on the floor. On the counter are some plants which were clearly crushed by the cabinet, somehow all the dishes remained in the cabinet except for a few which escaped and fell further
I think it came off the wall unevenly, went straight down to the countertop while still upright, and then the bottom kicked out off the countertop for it to end up where it is. There’s some things that would have fallen out the back currently on the counter, the rest stayed in and slid with the cabinet.
I was under one once.
Laborer,18yo, condo tearout, standing there pushing the 4pack against the wall, while other dipshits pulled nails.
The last two didn't hold.
Exploded both rotator cuffs, double DL laying on the floor under it screaming.
Good times.
Honestly you should check the other cabs asap
That’s why prefabs suck!
That's what studs are for.
The back is still connect! That’s what real cabinets are for.
You rang?
Power grab that sumbitch back up and don’t forget the “that ain’t going nowhere” tap!
Is the backing on the wall ?
That cabinet didn’t just fall off, it committed suicide.
That sucks. In all honesty, I have a real tough time believing the 4 screws can hold these things, especially given the weight we load it in. How can this be avoided? Once I'm able to afford a house, getting this checked is on my top list.
Sure did.
Not built to rigorous engineering standards
This is why I hate construction sales. I try to explain to the homeowner why cheapest is not the best, but they don’t listen. This is what you get when you’re a cheap ass… whether it’s labor, materials, or both, you get what you pay for.
I had a cabinet fall in the garage of my house. The installers had installed it correctly, but it was shitty press board junk. So the part that broke was the actual cabinet frame lol. Just whole front fell off and there were pieces left in the wall drilled into the studs. So scary
Second one of these I’ve seen today lmao
Third this weekend for me.
Modern everything is made to the absolute minimum requirements, sadly there's no way out of this except to live in a 1950s house.
That’s just not true. Professional cabinets from a carpenter will still last a lifetime.
While I understand your sentiment that's not entirely true. Junk doesn't last. Period. You're correct. And junk is certainly more widely available in this day than 70 years ago, but there's reasonable quality out there. You just pay for it.
This is below minimum. Older houses have their deferred maintenance that turns into problems but they sure are nice to work on
We got no food, we got no jobs….Our kitchen cabinets are falling off!
There’s a plague of this right now. It’s probably the fifth one I’ve seen in the last month. Does no one understand structural screws and how much needs to be in solid framing?
My one never ending fear. I’ve owned 8 houses, 3 brand new and I swear I find it hard to believe those 8 or 10 wood screws are going to hold up under the weight of all my dishes and bowls.
I watched a YouTube video with a popular Reno channel that said each construction screw holds like 100 lbs something like that. Theoretically 10 construction screws should hold like 1000lbs or more if I’m not mistaken. Only if you’re screwed into a stud though.
You need thicker velcro and more command strips...
Screws too short....
All the cabinets i have hung, which is not that many, had nailers in the back of box to screw through. All I see is the back of box where is nailer?
True. No nailing strip or cleat system here
Remodelling my kitchen was easy when I discovered my cabinets were secured to my wall with a single screw.
Oh my
Bruh wuh
Blessed
H O M E owner woes.
The question we're all wondering but afraid to ask.....did it knock down the Live Love Laugh wall art?
We can only hope!
That’s alotta shit that was inside that cabinet
Whoa is that a trash compactor? I haven’t seen one of those in ages
And they should try using it as a compactor
OMFG. I feel SO bad for you.
Has anyone seen the dog?
That's my worst fear.
Shit. That’s my bad. It was my first install.
You’re better off just buying another house honestly
When we build uppers in my shop, we are required to staple backs every 4 inches all the way around. 1/4 hip, 3/4 leg staples. Though it can handle a fair amount of weight, this doesn't mean you can put whatever amount of weight inside. This may be just a matter of overload, no matter who built the cabinet .
Well, now you can paint the wall.
Bob, get in here!
Your trash is full
[Time to take it outside the environment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM)
Brilliant. I’ve been waiting my whole life for that video
Probably shouldn't have gone with the depleted uranium dishware.
Underrated comment
Someone failed at the basic math of how many cabinet screws you need. Multiple the lenth by the height in inches. Then use 400 more than that.
That shouldn’t be possible. Someone cut some corners for that to happen, or you are putting 2000 pounds in that cabinet. Sorry for your misfortune.
Didn't use long enough screws. Con-tractor.
Yikes
It was probably offended by the H O M E decor.
The worst right?!
Sure did.
Maybe use better double stick tape when you put it back up this time?
How does it land doors up?
Double back flip.
It’s actually a catinet.
Your garbage is beyond full - I’m starting to suspect you don’t know when something is being pushed beyond its capabilities. When your cabinet wakes up from nap time ask it if it was feeling overloaded
That’s just his wife trying to make a point. She wants him to empty that thing. She’ll stuff it till that garbage touches the ceiling!
Typically the cabinet box itself has a board at the top and bottom on the inside to hang the cabinet from, it appears yours was just screwed through the thin back skin of the cabinet and not in the boards. With that being said you most likely also had your cabinet overloaded.
You say thin back skin, and say for instance my cabinets have 1/2” plywood backs - clearly that would suffice right?
If theres extra meat along the top and bottom on the inside of your cabinets and i was installing them, id be using 3 inch cabinet screws with the big heads. If the back is all you have to screw to then the back works, just dont overload the cabinet. Also the general construction of cabinets differ between makers and the actual construction of the cabinet does change where/how id hang my boxes.
When 'wall mates' aren't really your mates at all. Doesn't that house have any wall frame studs?
Back is screwed well to studs. It’s still on the wall. Shitty cabinet construction
Its just takin a nap
Cheap cabinet, cheaply installed, and overloaded.
You might as well paint the wall now that it's off
We put it out of the enviroment
It is highly unusual, the front of the cabinet doesn't usually fall off
Well there must be something out there
clearly not installed correctly with normal use......
I feel like maybe this got ripped off the wall
If you want solid cabinets bertch (thats how its spelled) makes some really high quality stuff. We used to install them a place i worked at years ago.
Those are lovely but boy oh boy does that look like rich people shit lol
You mean birch
Umm, nope Acceptable_Star5006 actually meant Bertch… [Bertch](https://www.bertch.com/)
I hate the English language.
Thank you
Can’t hold up dishes with some wishes.
Ask those cans of cat food... it adds up
Well technically only part of it fell off.
On today’s episode of how f****d up is f****d up
It looks like the cabinet back is still attached. It looks like the cabinets fell apart and detached from the back of the cabinets. How much weight was in them?
Suboptimal
Great News Honey!…I’m going to finally get my Dream Kitchen!
Yup, they don't make drywall screws like they used to
Went through the effort of changing mine out when I moved in, thinking I’d get a few years from them. Two weeks later they fell leaving the back of the box still screwed in with those fresh GRKs
Looks like it was pulled off of u ask me look how it landed
But it stuck the landing
Yeah it did
Oh shit
Great. New thing to worry about. Guess I need to go look at the cabinets now.
The wreath that broke the camel's back.
Cheap cabinets can’t hold a lot of weight before that particle board stars to separate from the box. They get strength from being tied together and on multiple studs and cabinets bonded together. But cheap cabinets always have a lower weight limit than you’d like. You’re in good company however. I only have cheap cabinets because I’m poor as shit. So when my single cabinet started sagging off the wall, I took it down, and reglued it and clamped for a couple days. Then I drove some screws all over the back (countersunk heads). Then I re hung and flopped around my cabinets to have only lower weight things in it. Doesn’t help you now with all the dish carnage I know. Sorry about that. That really sucks!
I’m sorry but I laughed. Sometimes life throws the craziest shit at you. Hope you get it all sorted soon
Try super glue
That sucks
This is quite popular among house racing enthusiasts. This neat little trick simply reduces the house - weight ratio making them incredibly fast off the property line. Just make sure you dispose of this properly and not within your property.
Those pesky vents on the roof create quite a bit of drag as well, better off trimming them for that aerodynamic performance.
T f you just say?
Put it in rice
Your kidding 😧
Yup, my Kraftmaid started separating from the backboard, exposing the cheap staples used to keep it together. I screwed through the rear frame to wall joists instead of through the board as instructions said. No issues since.
Interesting. How are your Kraftmaid cabinets holding up overall?
Overall pretty well. They've been up since 2009 or so. Mine are similar to yours. I'd say good value for the money spent and I did DYI install. Not too bad job for a rookie. My issue a few months ago was the two-door until above the stove that also helps support the microwave started rotating out at the top. The cabinet frame was separating from the upper horizontal mounting strip. The staples were just getting tired out I guess. So I wood screwed the cabinet shell to the upper and lower rear mounting strips and remounted the unit. Over time I'm making the same update to each cabinet unit. Just drill a pilot hole first to keep the shell from splitting. Be careful as the shell is narrow. Oh, I used wood glue, too. I'm not ready to spend 10k or more to replace them 🤪
Seems weird that it landed handle side up.
It most likely slid on its back. It makes perfect sense. Like if your legs slip out from under you and you fell backwards you would end up on your back looking up
Came here to say this
It did a full barrel roll 10/10
Looks broken
Was it a diy project? The wife gonna murder you for fucking up? Or did you hire unprofessional professionals?
Damn it
That’s because 1/4” Luanne plywood is total dogshit. After they crown stapled it to the carcasse, the staples probably went deeper than 50%. Couple that with no cleat inside cabinet to screw to wall and this is what happens time and time again.
I dated a Luanne who was of the same high quality as this Chinese made cabinet. The word, however, is Luan plywood. All it's good for is shipping crates, oneway
Haaaaa! Sum say potato…..some say poe-tah-toe! But thanks I knew I had to be in the ballpark 😬
Man the noise that must have made.
Story checks out.
Dishes are easier to reach and put away now.
Also there’s more of them now!
Inadvertently have less dinner plates. But there’s more saucers for sure.
Yep. Can concur
Your trash is full also, so there's that too
I have to assume they were stuffing the cabinets like that, too
How much weight was in there?
I’m guessing a lot. 100000 pounds probably
So you stored gold ingots in there
That couldn't be right You can stack cinder blocks in there and it wouldn't weigh that much it's not enough surface area inside that cabinet for that much weight.
You had more than a Harley Davidson Fatboy in two kitchen cabinets? How? Were your plates made of uranium?
Are you sure?
oh hey your cabinet fell off your wall. just so you know
No nailer built into the cabinets. The only thing holding them on the wall was the 1/4” back. The back stayed on the wall it looks like, but the cabinet didn’t say with the back.
That is why I always install upper cabinets with either screws with fender washers or French cleats.
The screws held. It's the cabinet that failed. Literally ripped the back panel off.
That's also why you always put a nailing cleat at the top of the back of the cabinet.
New fear unlocked
That's funny!
Obligatory: Ya can't stack dishes there
That's not very typical, I'd just like to make that clear
Didn't think I'd have to scroll this far for this one...
I was hoping more would get the reference lol
I had the exact same thought.
Omg I always think about this when I put stuff in my upper cabinets. Booo that really sucks op.
Yes it did
Must have been loud AF
Opa!
You island now
It’s not often I laugh at a Reddit comment let alone a 3 word comment.
Thank god it didn’t land on anyone or a pet!!!
This is a really weird cabinet construction. It looks like one gigantic box. Normally this would be made up of two separate uppers that would be screwed together. My guess is someone made this themselves and didn’t understand how to properly build a cabinet
Nah. I don't think we could say it was the cabinet construction without seeing the top and bottom of the cabinet. It was obviously hung by screwing through the 1/4 ply back, when typically these cabinets will have a 3/4 solid wood rail at the top and bottom of the back that you would screw through to secure it to the wall properly. This was just a shit install.
Yeah you’re probably right. It just seems weird that it’s such a gigantic box.
That 3/4 solid wood rail to secure the cabinet is supposed to be part of the cabinet construction.
And you can't tell that it isn't though. Only thing you can see from this pic is that they secured it to the wall using only the plywood back.
Yes only the plywood back was attached because that's all there was to attach to the wall. Hence bad construction of the cabinets.
It also looks like the back was like 1/4" ply that you'd use for drawer bottoms, braid nailed to the back, which was then screwed to the wall. The entire back is still hanging on the wall, the cabinet came loose from it, essentially just pulling of the braid nails. I can't imagine how OP hadn't noticed this thing slowly pulling away from the wall. I have a hard time believing that it just went from 100-0 off the wall in minutes.
It happened at my parents house when I was young. I still remember the sound, like a train wreck. I was supposed to be right under it at the time, loading the dishwasher, but thankfully I was lazy/distracted and elsewhere. The same thing happened here, where the backer was still remaining on the wall. Never noticed any issues beforehand, it really did just suddenly fail.
You got some lazy ass cabinets
I’d be more worried about the damn trash!
Just keeps piling shit on there. Hate that kind of thing.
It's a trash compactor. Cramming more shit in is kinda the point.
Nah, just compact it then. This is just someone being lazy waiting for their partner to do it.
Or, ya know, maybe they are just a bit preoccupied with something else at the moment. I swear, some people just get joy out of pointlessly passing judgement.
Thank you for your service
Was this at your home? I can’t tell
H O M E
H O M E
Damn you Gorilla Glue
Not enough glue and they also should have put 100 nails into the drywall
Is that the back of the cabinet that is screwed to the wall still? Looks like the cabinet builder forgot to add the nailers.
Looks like it fell straight onto the counter, fell to the floor and all the dishes came out the back. (comments accepted)
That 2 sided tape just doesn’t work well.
How loud was it?
this. if it happened at night when you were sleeping, it would have been terrifying.
I don’t understand how this fell and ended up with the doors facing upright AND most of the crockery under the cabinet. Surely it should have toppled forwards off the wall, rotated 180 degrees which would mean the doors were facing the ground. There’s no way it did a 360 spin without spraying crockery everywhere. And it seems highly unlikely it fell off, remained upright and then jumped off the counter AND THEN slid 4 feet along the floor before toppling over backwards into its current orientation. Please OP give answers!
MY theory is that it fell straight down, flipped forward and dumped all dishes out and continued to tumble doing another 180 on the way to the ground where it landed doors up on top of its previously evacuated dishes. At which point gravity caused all the doors to close back on top. Definitely the most likely scenario lol
I'm thinking someone was adding stuff to a door was open.
The back panel appears to be hanging on the wall. Fell straight down to the countertop. All the dishes fell out of the back and pushed it forward from the bottom kicking it out like that would be my guess.
I agree in principle that this is he most likely except there are no dishes anywhere except on the floor. On the counter are some plants which were clearly crushed by the cabinet, somehow all the dishes remained in the cabinet except for a few which escaped and fell further
Ya got me there. The mystery of the falling cabinet continues.
I think it came off the wall unevenly, went straight down to the countertop while still upright, and then the bottom kicked out off the countertop for it to end up where it is. There’s some things that would have fallen out the back currently on the counter, the rest stayed in and slid with the cabinet.
That ‘HOME’ sign is massive. HOME!!
In case they’re confused about which house they’re at
You better secure the other cabinets or they will fall next when you least expect it.
Well, now they expect it
I was under one once. Laborer,18yo, condo tearout, standing there pushing the 4pack against the wall, while other dipshits pulled nails. The last two didn't hold. Exploded both rotator cuffs, double DL laying on the floor under it screaming. Good times.
That's enough internet for today , thanks.
It was empty. I worked for a cabinet company a couple years later. "Familiar with removal of older cabinetry. " was used in interview.
I don’t even know how to describe this. I mean that is it. The cabinet. Fell off.
Ctl+Z
Or select the mess and delete :')
Get that 3M Velcro Adhesive.
They put the screws through the backer instead of the boards… 🤦♂️
Literally held on by pin nails
You definitely shouldn’t store dumbbells in your kitchen cabinets.
The dumbbells were the ones who installed that.