IKEA Kitchens assembly
Everything hangs on one steel rail, and you measure its height from the highest point of the floor.
Get that rail dead level and every cabinet after it lands level. Get it wrong by a quarter of an inch and every cabinet, door line and countertop in the room inherits the error, and there is no fixing it downstream.
A rail system, which is why it is forgiving and unforgiving at once
IKEA’s SEKTION kitchens do not fix cabinet by cabinet to the wall the way traditional cabinetry does. A galvanized suspension rail is screwed into the studs, and the cabinets hang from it on brackets that slide along the track. Both wall and base cabinets use rails, and IKEA has you fasten the base cabinet rails first.
The advantage is real and it is why people like the system. Because the cabinets hang from a single continuous rail, a whole run lands at exactly the same height automatically. And if you change your mind about spacing, you slide a cabinet along the rail instead of unscrewing it, patching holes and re-drilling. An experienced pair can hang a wall of cabinets very quickly once the rail is up.
The catch is the mirror image. Everything downstream of that rail depends on it being right. The rail is the datum for the whole kitchen, so its height and its level are not one step among many, they are the step. And the height is not measured from wherever the tape happens to land: IKEA specifies it from the highest point of your floor, because the adjustable legs on a base cabinet can extend down to meet a lower spot but nothing can sink a cabinet into a floor that sits too high.
What it actually takes
Cabinet work only. Plumbing, gas and electrical are separate trades and IKEA says to use a qualified professional.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| Surveying floor and walls, marking layoutFind the floor’s high point. This drives everything. | 2 to 4 hours | 1 to 2 |
| Fitting suspension railsBase rails first, dead level, into studs. | 2 to 4 hours | 2 |
| Assembling cabinet framesThe bulk of the flat-pack time. | 20 to 40 minutes each | 1 |
| Hanging cabinets on the railFast, once the rail is right. | minutes each | 2 |
| Doors, drawers and hinge adjustmentWhere the finished look is won or lost. | half a day or more | 1 |
| A full kitchen, start to finishNot counting counters, plumbing or electrical. | several days | 2 |
The hanging is the quick part. The survey, the rail and the door alignment are where the days go.
What to get right, specifically
Measure the rail height from the floor’s highest point
This is the instruction that makes the system work and the one people misread. IKEA specifies the underside of the base cabinet suspension rail at a set height above the highest point of your floor. Find that high point first, across the whole run, because almost no floor is flat. Working from a low spot or an average means the cabinets over the high spot have nowhere to go, and you discover it when a run will not sit level and the legs are already wound fully in. Their guides give the figures, including the base rail height and the corresponding wall cabinet rail heights for thirty and forty inch cabinets, along with the resulting gap between counter and wall cabinet. Those figures differ slightly between IKEA’s own regional guides, so work from the guide that came with your kitchen rather than a number off the internet.
You need half an inch of clearance above the wall cabinet rail
IKEA states that there must be half an inch of clearance above the wall cabinet suspension rail to enable installation, because the cabinets are lifted onto the rail from above rather than slid in from the front. If you have a soffit, a bulkhead, a dropped ceiling or a beam sitting tight to the rail line, the cabinet physically cannot be hung. This is the kind of thing that is trivial to design around and expensive to discover with the rails already up and the cabinets built, so check it while the layout is still lines on a wall.
The holes in the rail will not line up with your studs
This catches nearly everybody and it is not a defect, just geometry. The rail comes pre-drilled at fixed intervals and your studs are wherever the builder put them. The practical approach, and the one experienced installers use, is to mark every stud along the run, use whichever pre-drilled holes happen to land on one, and drill additional holes through the rail over the remaining stud positions. The rail cuts and drills easily with a hacksaw or a metal cut-off wheel, and lengths can be joined end to end for a long run.
Draw the kitchen on the wall before anything is fixed
IKEA recommends drawing the layout directly onto the wall and checking it against your plan, and it is worth doing properly. That is when you find out that the waste pipe is behind a cabinet that has no space for it, that a socket lands where a drawer stack goes, or that the extractor duct does not line up with the cabinet above the cooktop. Moving a line on a wall costs nothing. Moving a cabinet after the rail is fixed and the plumbing has been altered costs a day and a trade visit.
Hanging cabinets is a two person job
A built SEKTION cabinet is bulky and awkward, and hanging it means lifting it above the rail and engaging the brackets while keeping it square. One person doing that alone will either scratch the frame, drop it, or force the brackets and end up with a cabinet that sits proud of the wall. It is the one point in the process where the second pair of hands is not optional, and it is only a few minutes per cabinet.
The doors are where the kitchen is judged
Frames and rails are structure. What anybody actually sees is whether the door gaps are even and the lines run true across the room. Budget real time for hinge adjustment at the end, working across a whole run rather than cabinet by cabinet, since a door that looks right in isolation can still break the line of the ones beside it. This is slow, unglamorous work and it is the difference between a kitchen that looks fitted and one that looks assembled.
Services are somebody else’s trade, and IKEA says so
Before the old kitchen comes out, the electricity, gas and water need shutting off, and IKEA direct you to use a qualified professional to disconnect and reconnect. That boundary is worth respecting on your own schedule too: get the trades booked around the cabinet work rather than assuming they can appear at short notice, since a kitchen that is installed but not connected is not a kitchen.
Before the first rail goes up
Survey the floor and find its highest point across the whole run, because that is what the rail height is measured from.
Check for soffits, bulkheads or ceiling features that would leave less than half an inch above the wall cabinet rail.
Draw the layout on the wall and check it against plumbing, waste, electrical, gas and ventilation positions.
Mark every stud along each run, and expect to drill extra holes in the rail rather than relying on the ones provided.
Book your electrician and plumber around the cabinet work, and have services shut off before the old kitchen comes out.
Work from the installation guide supplied with your kitchen, since IKEA’s stated rail heights vary slightly between regional guides.
Who this is really for
Anybody fitting an IKEA kitchen, which is a very large number of people, because the system genuinely does make a fitted kitchen achievable without a cabinetmaker. The rail is a clever piece of design and it removes most of the fiddliness of aligning cabinets one at a time.
It suits somebody who is comfortable with careful setting out. The flat-pack assembly is repetitive rather than difficult, and the skill in the job is concentrated in the survey and the rail, at the very start, before anything looks like progress.
The case for having it installed is that the mistakes are front-loaded and unforgiving. A rail set from the wrong reference point, or a soffit that leaves no lifting clearance, is not something you notice partway through and adjust. It is something you discover with cabinets built and the correction is to take it back apart.
What an installer does
- Surveys the floor and walls, establishes the floor’s highest point, and sets the rail heights from it.
- Marks the layout on the wall and checks it against plumbing, electrical, gas and ventilation before attaching anything.
- Fits suspension rails dead level into studs, base rails first, drilling extra holes where the pre-drilled ones miss.
- Confirms lifting clearance above the wall cabinet rail before cabinets are built.
- Assembles frames and hangs cabinets with enough hands to keep them square and unmarked.
- Levels base cabinets on their adjustable legs and aligns runs across the room.
- Adjusts doors and drawers across whole runs so gaps and lines are consistent, and coordinates with the plumber and electrician.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
How high does the suspension rail go?
IKEA specifies the underside of the base cabinet rail at a set height above the highest point of your floor, with corresponding heights for thirty and forty inch wall cabinets. The exact figures differ slightly between IKEA’s own regional installation guides, so use the guide supplied with your kitchen rather than a figure quoted elsewhere.
Why measure from the highest point of the floor?
Because base cabinets have adjustable legs that can extend downward to meet a lower spot, but nothing can lower a cabinet into a floor that is too high. Setting the datum at the high point means every cabinet in the run has somewhere to go. Working from a low point or an average leaves the cabinets over the high spot unable to sit level.
Why will not my cabinet go onto the rail?
Most likely there is not enough room above it. IKEA requires half an inch of clearance above the wall cabinet suspension rail, because cabinets are lifted onto the rail from above rather than slid on from the front. A soffit, bulkhead or low ceiling at the rail line will stop the cabinet going on at all.
The holes in the rail do not match my studs. Is it the wrong rail?
No, that is normal. The rail is pre-drilled at fixed intervals and studs are wherever they happen to be. Mark every stud, use whichever holes align, and drill additional holes through the rail over the remaining stud positions. The rail cuts and drills easily with a hacksaw or a metal cut-off wheel.
What is the actual advantage of the rail system?
A whole run of cabinets lands at the same height automatically, and cabinets slide along the rail. If you want to shift one, you slide it rather than unscrewing it, patching the wall and re-drilling. Once the rail is correct, hanging the cabinets is quick.
Can I do the plumbing and electrical myself?
IKEA direct you to shut off electricity, gas and water before removing the old kitchen and to use a qualified professional to disconnect and reconnect. Those are separate trades from the cabinetry, and in many places the work is regulated, so book them around the install rather than treating them as part of it.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by IKEA. IKEA, SEKTION and UTRUSTA are trademarks of their owner, referred to here only to describe the installation services that independent installers on this directory provide. Plumbing, gas and electrical work may be regulated in your area; use a qualified professional where required.