I got a frantic call from my friend, his Modular Kitchen Platform was falling down. He shared the pics of his kitchen.

Site visit confirmed my doubts that there was some issue with the foundation of the frame. The kitchen carcass was made with MDF and the top weight was not getting transferred to the ground.

Vertical planks of the frame were fixed to horizontal planks with a wooden dowel. Adjustable leg supports were placed under the horizontal planks. The entire load (of the kitchen cabinet, its contents and the granite top) was getting transferred to bottom plank thru the dowel pins. The dowels tore thru the plank and the kitchen just collapsed.

Some ways which could have prevented this outcome when the project was executed:

• adjustable legs should have been placed below the vertical members, so that they could have transferred the load directly.

• the whole assembly could have been placed on a plywood base to give it more strength

We decided to make a plywood base and discard the existing bottom. Plywood would be able to take the load of the complete kitchen. Blockboard strips would be pasted to the base, exactly below the vertical members.

Material and tools

• 22" wide stripts cut from a 19mm thick marine ply

• 2.5" Blockboard Strips to support the plywood platform

• Fevicol

• 2" screws

• Drill kit

• Circular Saw

We marked the places where vertical planks were present and pasted the plywood strips under the plywood base. After assembling the base, we assembled the top boxes of the modular kitchen cabinet on top of the base and slid it in place. This was followed by replacing the top plywood and granite top.

It took us about 3 hrs to get the main structure in place. Finished structure looked as below.

We called in the professionals for gas plumbing and re-fixing the hob. Doors and drawers would be installed after cleaning the structure and doing pest control. That would be another 2-3 hrs of work with a screwdriver.