How to Anchor Cabinets to Tile Floors

Mark the four corners of the base cabinets' perimeter on the floor with a pencil. Mark two corners where the cabinets butt against the wall and two to represent the cabinetry's freestanding end for peninsulas. Use the cabinets' interior dimensions to mark the corners, meaning the dimensions between sides of the base's hollow interior. Use the cabinets' interior dimensions to slide them over the floor-mounted frame of wooden blocks.

Stretch a chalk snap line between adjacent corner marks, pull it taut and snap it against the tile floor to lay out the perimeter's sides. Set a builder's square at the corners of the lay out. Check the adjacent sides for square. Adjust your marks' squareness if necessary.

Mark the lengths of the long sides of the perimeter on two pieces of 2-by-4 framing lumber. Cut them to size with a circular saw. Subtract 7 inches from the length of each remaining side. Since the first pieces stretch from corner to corner, you must accommodate their width to fit blocks between them along the short sides of the cabinets. Mark two pieces of lumber with the result of the calculation and cut them to size with a circular saw.

Bore starter holes through the boards' faces, two at each end and staggered every 8 inches between ends using a power drill and twist bit. Attach a tile bit to the power drill. Align the boards along the inside edges of the chalk lines that form the cabinets' interior perimeter. Insert the tile bit through the board's starter holes and drill small depressions through the tile's surface to transcribe the starter holes' positions onto the tile.

Set the boards aside. Use the tile bit to drill through the tile at each depression. Stop drilling when the drill expels wood or halts against a concrete substrate. If your tile is installed over concrete, use a masonry bit to extend the starter holes through the tile and into the concrete.

Align the boards with the chalk lines' interior edges and the tile holes. Use a driver bit to drive wood screws or concrete screws through the starter holes on the boards and into the starter holes in the tile. Continue to drive them in until they grab the wooden or concrete subfloor beneath the tile and secure the boards to the tile's surface.

Set the cabinetry over the floor-mounted boards. Fasten the cabinets' toe kicks, sides and rear faces to the boards with a finish nail gun.