askjake

Behind the soffit

We are planning to remodel our bathroom and kitchen. We want to remove the soffits in both rooms. What is under the drywall and how difficult is it for us to do.

- Terri

Terri,

Removing the soffits is not too difficult. Behind the soffits, we have found plumbing pipes, heat ducts and wires.  Not always, but sometimes.  Some of these can be pretty challenging to relocate.  If you have reason to believe that you could find some of these things, you could cut a hole in the face of the soffit, large enough to stick your head in with a flashlight and take a good look.  If you find any pipes, wires or ducts, call a professional to have them relocated. 

Soffit glass

Hi Jake. My husband and I are considering opening up the soffits in our kitchen and keeping our existing cabinets. We'd like to use the open space for additional storage. We're contemplating putting in glass doors to enclose the area instead of leaving a completely open area. Have you seen this before? Can it easily be done?

Jessica

Jessica,

Yes, I have seen this done.  We have a kitchen remodel client that collected beer steins and wanted a way to display them.  The upper portion of the wall cabinets (the area that is typically a soffit) had glass doors on them.  We added “puck” lights in each cabinet to highlight the steins.  Check out this web site. It has a lot of different options for under-cabinet and in-cabinet lighting. 

For the second part of your question, “can it be easily done”.  I think it needs to be done by someone that has carpentry skills at “cabinet making” or better.  Basically, you will be installing new cabinets above the existing ones.  This will require some pretty good carpentry skills.  If you or your husband posses such skills, go for it.  If not, hire someone that does.  Good luck!

Jake

Worms

Brenda's question:

Jake....I have a problem. 

I have a peninsula in my kitchen with a corner cabinet and 2 sets of double cabinets.I want to remove all 3 of these and put up pendulum lights. Do I have to remove the soffet? Will it look silly if I leave it. Removing it will open a whole can of worms! What is your opinion?

Brenda,

Opening a whole can of worms is not such a bad idea if you’re planning on going fishing.  In remodeling, it’s a whole different story.  If you leave the soffit, just about everyone will most likely know that you removed cabinets and didn’t want to mess with the soffit.  To come up with a nice finished end product, I would remove the soffit, deal with worms and enjoy the newly remodeled area with a full height ceiling.   That’s my opinion.  

Making room for lights

Question from Claire: 

We are remodeling our 70's style custom kitchen. I want to take out the upper cabinets. I know everyone thinks I am crazy but I haven't used my upper cabinets for months now testing my theory. Question that I have is we have a soffit above the upper cabinets, would you keep the soffit and put in can lights in the soffit or would you remove the soffit and put can lights or small pendent lights from the ceiling?

Jake's Answer:

Claire,

Without a doubt, I would remove the soffits and put in can lights over the counters.  Consider installing the pendants over the island or other focal point you might be creating in your new kitchen.

Removing soffits

Question from Judy:

I am having my kitchen remodeled by a contractor. To try to curb costs, there a few things I want to do myself. I want to remove the soffits, two are on walls, and the third is a peninsula soffit. I will also be removing the flooring. I know there is electrical in the soffit over the sink. There shouldn't be any electrical or plumbing in the others. The house was built in the 50s. What am I likely to find under the soffits? Also, should I remove the flooring before or after the cabinets are removed? It is a floating floor over original flooring.

Jake's answer:

Judy,

I hope you enjoy your time with the hammer and crowbar.  I know it can be rewarding when participating in your own remodeling project.  You will definitely have some sweat equity in the finished product. 

When removing soffits we have found electrical wiring, pluming pipes, heat ducts, attic insulation that has spilled down and a few beer cans too.  To determine if you will run into any of these items, it might take a trained eye to help you inspect the area. 

Since the floor is a floating type and was installed over the original floor, it probably does not go under the cabinets.  In which case, you can remove the floor either before or after the cabinets come out – which ever you find easier. 

Removing soffits and maintaining their lights

Question from Kristina: 

We purchased a foreclosure and cannot afford all of the updates we would like to make. I decided I would like to attempt to remove the kitchen soffits myself. I understand there may be pipes and such hidden behind the soffits and I have to think about whether I am up to the challenge. Our soffit has can lighting in it...how would we and what would we switch the lighting to in order to maintain the light?

Jake's Answer: 

Kristina,

You are wise to maintain the lighting.  The can lights will have to be moved up into the ceiling.  You may have to slightly relocate some lights due the presence of the ceiling joists.  This shouldn’t be a big deal. Since we rarely install soffits, we typically set the cans in the ceilings, approximately 24” off the wall.

Another soffit challenge

Question from Sally: 

I have started the exciting task of removing the ugly soffit in my kitchen. I have knocked out about 5' so far and there is nothing to relocate but I've encountered a few things I don't understand: every foot or so there is a support board, about an inch thick, between the ceiling and the cabinets. Are these boards ok to take out or are they there for actual ceiling support? Also, I could really use some step by step directions...do you know of a good website to help me with the wripping down and then the building up of my endouverous project? 

Jake's answer: 

Sally, Thanks for writing. I assume those pieces you are talking about are the vertical members placed there to help stabilize the top and bottom framing boards. They shouldn’t have any structural need. Regarding a web site, try this. This site has some pretty good detail on how to lay out a soffit and even how to build one.

Soffit removal

Question from Maria: 

I would like to remove an 8' soffit from one wall of my kitchen. Trouble is this is a floating wall, does not reach the ceiling, and has a header connecting it to the family room wall. If I remove the soffit, would the wall be strong enough for 49" kitchen cabinets? The old cabinets were connected to the soffit.  

Jake's Answer: 

Sure, if the wall was holding the soffit and the cabinets, you should not have a problem when removing the soffit. I assume you are not removing the header connecting it to the family room wall. This header could be stabilizing the “floating wall”. Good luck!

Concealing plumbing pipes in wall cabinets

Question:  Hello Jake, I am remodeling our kitchen that has a 15 foot soffit, a 2 foot soffit and a 7 foot one on the side. The 2 and 15 foot ones have minor vents that need to be moved and can. The 7 foot one has a plumbing main from the upstairs which I had a plumber look at and said it would be costly to fix. You mentioned in a previous post about cutting cabinets to fit over pipes like this. Do you have any more info or perhaps pictures of this and the final look. I think that would give me the full height cabinets I want and only the 7 foot would have an unusable top shelf. Is that modification costly for an installer to do ? Thanks !

Jake's Answer:  I don't have any pictures of us doing an installation like this.  It is not that difficult of a modification to make.  The installer will cut the back and top of the cabinet out to accommodate the pipes.  Cut out only that which is necessary.  Cover these pipes that are now inside the wall cabinets with wood that will match the interior of the cabinets. These pipes will be at the top shelf which is difficult to use on an everyday basis. 

Soffit painting

Question:  I have 9 foot ceilings in my home. all walls have rounded corners, and the rooms flow together. My kitchen is in the middle. The builder used soffitts to make the cabinets look taller. The soffitts have plant shelf space above them on both sides. On one side there is a closet built up to the 9 foot ceiling flowing into the soffitt. . I want to paint the roon darker, but don\'t know how to treat the soffitts. If I make them similar to the white cabinets, how do I paint the tall closet area?

Jake's answer:  I'm afraid that  if you paint the soffits the same dark color, they might overpower the room.  The same holds true for the closet.  I would suggest you look at using a half-strength color on these two surfaces.  This will soften the affect of the darker colors.