Base Cabinet and Toe Kick Heights

What's the standard height for a base cabinet and toe kick? February 26, 2012

Question
What is the standard height of a style on a face frame? I make mine 30 inches, with a 4 1/2 inch toe height. Is there a standard on overlay cabinets?

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor K:
That depends on what you are making the cab for and the height of the room. If it is a micro-cab, for instance, and the surrounding cabs are 30"h, then it will most likely be a 15"h cab to accommodate the micro. If the surrounding cabs are 42"h or staggered height, then the same cab would be 27"h.

Typically standard cabs are in 3" increments but you will find with 8' ceilings. You will be working with 30"h cabs, and above 8' ceilings you will go up accordingly in 3" increments, although you will most often see 36", then 42" in full-height, and staggered height cabs. The final height also depends on the moldings you are using.

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From contributor F:
I make mine 30 1/2 with a 4'' toe kick. Don't think there is a standard on it as long as you have 34 1/2 height overall.

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From contributor G:
I use to do a 4" toekick and was happy doing it but after doing several kitchens that required toekick heaters I have made the standard to 4 1/2". That way I have some sort of a standard that I follow in my shop. If they want a lower toekick, they got it. If they make no mention of it I will do the 4 1/2".

The change came when I was doing a kitchen and went in for the final measurement before starting the milling. I noticed on the floor they had marked in toekick heaters. I went to the GC and asked him if anyone was going to inform the cabinet maker that there were going to be toekick heaters in the kitchen and if they had sent the specs for the heaters out to the cabinet maker. Just a dumb founded look. I had to make the cabinet toes 1/2" taller to accommodate the heaters. They wouldn't have had enough internal space without the modification. So now I just do it that way, so I have no worries about the heaters.

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From the original questioner:
I’m matching and existing kitchen stock cabinet. They ordered the wrong size and what would you know the big vendor doesn’t offer 1/2 inch sizes. We’re not talking rockets here.

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From contributor J:
For the rare faceframe or frameless my kicks are around 4 1/2" or 114mm which works well with the leg levelers I use. The base cabs are around 30 1/4" or 768mm, but can be in any increment of 32mm which works well with hardware. I adjust the kick height to arrive at a custom height.