Hanging Ikea Kitchen Cabinets on a Firewall If you want to know how your DIY projects could be affected by building and planning regulations, click here to post questions and view answers

[lucanolasco]

Hello All,

I had an extension built at the back of my house. The costs increased dramatically so i decided to save costs by installing the kitchen myself. I would like to hang (IKEA) wall cabinets on the bordering wall (semi detached house) which is a firewall. The builder told me i cannot penetrate the firewall as this would facilitate fire spread.
How can i hang the cabinets then? He suggested to put a board on the firewall and to this hang the bracket...
I asked how he would hang the board, to which he said he would screw it on the wall?!?!
(What's the difference between me screwing a bracket on the studs or him hanging the board on the studs and to this the cabinets?!)

Any idea how to hang cabinets on a firewall? If there are special screws or other to be used?
Thanks,
Luca

[richardanthonyj]

The firewall I assume is formed of fireboard attached to studs. Based on this, fixings through the board would penetrate the seal, allowing fire to spread by providing ventilation within the cavity. Your builder is technically correct to say that you'd need to overboard the original firewall, so that you can hang the kitchen cabinets. Set battens against the studs to the firewall and fix through, then overboard with plasterboard and fi the cabinets to that. The reason I'd do this is that timber has a char rate of 40mm per hour and fixing battens to them with the fireboard between means that the fixings are concealed and don't break the barrier.