You might want to call BS and see what they say. I have trouble understanding why they would care how deep a wall cabinet was unless it was directly over the stove. The diagram does seem to show that, but the box below it says that the maximum depth above the " cooling tops be 13" . I have no idea what a cooling top is, and assumed that it meant that the max depth applied only to cabinets directly over the range, not ones on either side. The first bullet on page 5 says you can't install it up against a wall or a base cabinet thicker than 24 inches - and my guess is that is because the heat that escapes from the side of the door could cause problems to the cabinet doors or sides. So you may have to live with 24 inch base cabinets, or build out the area directly behind the range another inch so that when the range is pushed in, the door opened is flush with the front of the cabinets on either side.

Barry -- thank you for your reply!

I thought the cooling top refers to the countertop, in which case the wall cabinets above the countertop would need to be 13" deep max.

It makes sense that the oven door shouldn't be overlapping the adjacent base cabinets.

We thought about building out the area behind the range by a few inches, but we don't know exactly how it would affect the hood placement and the wall cabinet above the hood, and how much that would add to the cost. Regardless, this seems to be the most sensible solution if we want to keep the 15" wall cabinets and 26" base cabinets.

We will contact bluestar and see what they say.

We spoke to the cabinet maker, and decided that it would make most sense to have 30" deep base cabinets and 18" wall cabinets instead. We will pull the range out by 6", and bump out the hood by 6" as well.

Since a backsplash is no longer required, we will just have the short (4") backsplash run continuously along the range wall, and have 6" countertop behind the range.

I read that some people on the forum did what I described above. I hope our inspector won't frown upon it!

The hood needs to be 48" with your configuration if you're going for extra depth cabinets. You need 6" of horizontal clearance between the range and any deep cabinet, either adjacent or above. That adds an additional 12" of width needed for the hood if you're doing deeper than 13" cabinets. Also, 18" deep cabinets will be difficult to attach to a rear wall and not have them sag over time, even with multiple attachment points. You should plan on having blocking at the ceiling to create attachment points there.

Also, you really won't be able to reach the rear of an 18" deep cabinet over a 30" deep counter. You won't be able to reach windows easily either. Try some cardboard to mock it up first before making your decision. Beats having the stepstool be a permanant fixture in your kitchen to even reach the bottom shelf!

Hmm, I thought the 6" side clearance requirement is only for full-height cabinets, not wall cabinets. Now we need to re-think our plan...

You are correct Cookie, if you look at the diagram, dimensions "A" and "B" are the same, so the uppers are not required to be wider than the range itself, although many choose to allow for a wider hood.

Thank you ctycdm.

We just spoke to Bluestar. One of their guys thought what we are trying to do is weird -- I think that's because he had trouble picturing the whole thing.

In the end, he said 48" hood is not necessary, but we should double check the local building code.

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 14:53

The way my AHJ interprets it is that Dimension B can be the same as the range as long as the wall cabinets are not deeper than 13" adjacent to the range If the wall cabinets are deeper than 13", then the 6" clearance is invoked. Yours may not interpret it that way, but it would be smart to make an appointment with him during the design phase to see how he does interpret the prohibition of deeper than 13" cabinets adjacent to the range.

Sorry, what is AHJ?

Authority Having Jurisdiction. Permit Office, Code Inspector, whomever has the say.

Ah, thank you -- we will talk to the township next. It didn't occur to me it would be so tricky!

If we go with 42" hood, and the inspector decides that he doesn't like it, would adding a sheet of stainless steel to the exposed side of the wall cabinets fix the problem, theoretically speaking?

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 15:08

We couldn't reach our local building department today. Will try again tomorrow.

We did talk to Steve Cramer, the Bluestar Sales Rep for PA, NJ area. His opinion is, as long as the wall cabinets are 18" above the countertop, the 6" side clearance doesn't apply. He said many people did it this way, and he hasn't got a complaint so far.

So I guess we will probably be fine, but we will definitely confirm with our building department.

Make sure to inform your "AHJ" that you will be pulling the range and hood out 6" along with the 30" base and 18" uppers. This essentially puts you back within Bluestar's specs. ...at least I would interpret it that way.