Cutting the Cabinet Space for the Dishwasher

The dimensions of most dishwashers are pretty standard. They need an opening of 24 inches wide by 24 inches deep by 34 inches high. Since I did not have a dishwasher cabinet I had to cut a hole in the long one-piece cabinet that I did have. Here you can see the cabinet before.

My cabinets are already 34 inches high and 24 inches deep so the first step for me was to mark out my width. I took off the door, drawer, and drawer hardware and then I placed two tick marks at 24 inches in width. I used a level to mark my two perfectly plumb lines on the face of the cabinet. After checking the width of the lines at the top and at the bottom it was time to cut into the cabinet.

I drilled a ¾” pilot hole at the edge of my marks so that I could fit the saw blade in. For the majority of the cut I used a variable speed jigsaw with a smooth cutting blade. Remember that the blade cuts on the backstroke so if you are able to make the cut from the back of the cabinet. This will keep the wood on the face of the cabinet from splintering.
At the top and bottom of the cabinet the jigsaw blade was simply no long enough to finish the cut so I had to switch to a sawzall. Again I was careful to set the sawzall on a lower stroke rate with a smooth cutting blade. This helped me control it as they can get a little jumpy.
After cutting the hole I did a little bracing using 1x2 lumber. The will be covered from the cabinet side with a thin plywood.

Now the electrical and the carpentry are done. The next thing is to do some plumbing so that we have a hot water supply line and we will be able to stick it in and hook it up.