Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Not sure if thats how you spell it. But has anyone ever removed the thing that sticks out above our cabinets? I would love to go all the way to the ceiling with our new cabinets that we are installing. But I am not sure how difficult this is.

Also... if anyone is in Levittown (I am in the ranch)... does anyone know if there is anything INSIDE of the soffit?

TIA.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

i have that in my kitchen, u should be ok, did you trying knocking on it? if ur planning on gutting it... tear a piece of it off to take a look in there

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

My parents did it. Not by themselves though. They didnt go all the way to the ceiling though. They have high hats about the cabinets. Are you sure you want to go all the way to the ceiling. How tall is Vanessa?

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Usually, there is nothing contianed in a soffit, however, in my new home there was the waste pipe from the upstairs bathrooms. My FIL (kitchen designer) worked on my model home several times before and he just bumped out the wall 6 inches and put a false side on my cabinets (my cabinets are tall but they are standard depth) so my cabinets look deeper than they appear. It actuallly worked well because I have an extra depp counter top now too.

As the above poster said, tear out a piece and if there is plumbing you might have to consult a kitchen designer to make up a plan for you that will accomodate it as all other adjustments will have to be made.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Vanessa is 5'7.

We were just going to leave it, and most likely this is what we will do.

But since we are gutting out the entire kitchen... its something I am thinking about. But we are doing the work ourselves (with the help of my MIL's handy family). If its too involved... i'll leave it the way it is.

I have to give Consumers the final numbers for our cabinets this weekend so its a decision i have to make soon.

Even if we knock down the soffit... we don't have to go all the way up to the ceiling with the cabinets. We can leave some room up there and do some nice decorative molding. Who knows.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Had it in my old house..we also DIY'ed everything and after peeking in as Bebalina said,there was nothing there. So down they came. I insist on 42" cabinets... doesn't matter what height your wife is,she can always fill the top shelves with things that she doesn't use everyday. Now in my new house,we did 42" again,with a decorative molding as you said,love them..
Listen,you're already spending $$ on new cabinetry,going higher won't add on too much $ but will increase your kitchen value and daily storage. But if you like an airy feeling,knock it down and open the top for display..my BIL put lights up there that are attached to undercabinet lighting...small touch but very dramatic.

Message edited 2/15/2006 11:36:29 AM.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Rich - I looked at a levitt ranch this weekend for my friend and the guy redid the whole kitchen and had ceiling high cabinets. he said they removed the sofit and there was nothing in it......My house doesnt have that, thank god. The room is going to look bigger after you remove the sofit, I dont know why - it just does lol
Scott

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

My Dad's house is a ranch. I don't know what it looked like when they moved in, but as long as I can remember, we had cabinets to the ceiling.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Get your sledge hammer ready - it will be fun lol

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

WE just ripped our soffits down in most of our rooms, DH said they used them as decorative crap when they built the houses.

The one in our kitchen we couldnt, after we looked into it.

Have funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

We dont just have the blank space....cabinets going all the up are night but no body would be able to reach the top shelf...

we just have decortive stuff up top. tons of ideas you can do such like crown molding, some separte lighting, or spot light on pictures

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

We knocked ours down and had no problems. I think in older houses they were just decorative. If you are redoing your kitchen I recommend the 42" cabinets they are great. I am only 5'3 and I can't reach the top but I put things at the top that I hardly use. If you leave the soffit, you are losing 12inches of precious cabinet space. I would get out the hammer and start tearing them down. DH and I destroyed our whole house in one day.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

my cabs are full height with crown and solid stock and triple bead i removed the soffit and there was nothing major in it

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

We removed our sofitt when we gutted our kitchen. When I told the contractor I wanted it down he said as long as it wasn't "hiding" anything it was fine to come down. And it wasn't, so down it came!
We got the cainets to the ceiling with crown molding on top. I love the look and the extra storage. As far as not reaching stuff, I put stuff i don't use everyday on the top shelves. It really isn't that hard to get too though, I just hop on a chair or ask DH to get it.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

we had a sofitt across most of the kitchen ceiling. We ripped it out to raise the ceiling and had to move a number of pipes.

I'd peek inside and see what you're dealing.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Just wanted to add, I highly doubt there is anything in there if its a ranch, since you don't have a 2nd floor.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

We removed ours. Our house is in Queens (Aurburndale) but we didn't go all the way up. We put in a smaller soffit. Below are pics. The only thing that was back there was an elbow pipe.

Message edited 2/15/2006 8:00:28 PM.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

the only way to know for sure is to make a small access hole on each end & look in. It can easily be repaired if you decide to leave the soffit. As far as taking the actual soffit out, it should be easy.
Do you have an over the range hood or micro? often those are vented to an outside wall through soffits. In my kitchen we have 10 ft ceilings & used stock standard height cabs, so we added smaller angled soffits to make the cabinets appear taller.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

Just like some other people have said, cut a slice to see what's inside. Sometimes they run pipes through it, but most times it's just hollow. We had one and as soon as my husband saw it was hollow, he started smashing it down. It's a huge mess because it messes up your ceiling. Needless to say, he eventually went as far as tearing the entire ceiling down because it was going to be a pain to patch (or at least so he said). Finally, after 4 months, our kitchen is just about complete. My husband did an awesome job !

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

the other thing to keep in mind if you are DIY, most ceiling are not level...so if you remove the soffit & patch the ceiling make sure you figure out if the ceiling is off, then hang the cabiets accordingly & use the crowm molding with the cabinets to make up the difference.

Re: Has anyone removed a soffit (sp?) from their kitchen? Levittown?

We had the same question recently....since we don't have any plumbing upstairs, we figured if anything, there was just a small vent out of the house in the soffit.

When it was ripped down it was completely empty. Like everyone else said, just take a peek and see what's inside if you can.