Dublin Kitchens
Flat Pack Kitchen Carcasses: Materials, Sizes and Prices in Ireland
Contents
- What a carcass is
- Board materials compared
- The back panel is the real dividing line
- Edging: 2mm ABS versus paper foil
- Standard carcass sizes in Ireland
- Assembly: fixings, hours and mistakes
- Prices by unit and board grade
- When flat pack is the wrong call
- FAQ
What a carcass is, and what it isn’t
The carcass is the box: two sides, a base, a top or top rails, a back panel, a shelf and the hardware holes. The door hangs off it, the worktop sits on it, and it carries every kilo of crockery inside. Doors and worktops get replaced over the life of a kitchen. Carcasses don’t, not without ripping the run out, so they’re the one component where paying up buys something you keep. Door materials are a separate decision, covered in our guide to kitchen cabinet materials.
Board materials compared: MFC, MDF, moisture-resistant and plywood
Nearly every carcass sold in Ireland uses one of four boards. The names get used loosely in showrooms, so it’s worth knowing what each does under load and under water.
| Board | Typical thickness | Screw and fixing hold | Behaviour when wet | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MFC (melamine faced chipboard), standard | 15mm | Adequate for hinge plates, poor once a screw is re-driven in the same hole | Swells irreversibly; a soaked edge never comes back down | Baseline |
| MFC, heavy grade | 18mm | Noticeably better; holds cam housings without crumbling | Same core weakness, more material before failure reaches the face | +15% to +25% |
| Moisture-resistant MFC (green core) | 18mm | As heavy-grade MFC | Resin-treated; resists spills and steam far longer, not waterproof | +20% to +35% |
| MDF | 18mm | Excellent edge hold, dense and consistent | Absorbs slowly but thoroughly; swells badly once saturated | +30% to +50% |
| Birch or hardwood plywood | 15mm or 18mm | Best of the four; plies grip screws throughout | Handles damp and drying cycles without permanent swelling | +60% to +120% |
For most Irish kitchens 18mm MFC is the sensible answer and plywood is over-specification. The jump that earns its money isn’t chipboard to plywood, it’s 15mm to 18mm. A 15mm side panel with a hinge plate screwed into it is near its limit from day one, and the hinge plate is where movement shows first. That’s why our flat pack kitchen units and pre-assembled cabinets use 18mm rather than the 15mm that keeps a headline price low.
Specify moisture-resistant board for the sink base unit regardless of budget. It sits under the one fitting that will eventually leak, usually a waste connection weeping slowly, and standard chipboard under a slow weep turns to porridge in months.
The back panel is the real dividing line
If you check one thing before buying, check the back. There are two ways it’s done, the price gap is small, and the difference in what you end up with is not.
- 3mm hardboard, pinned or stapled to the rear edges. The cheap method. It closes the box off visually and does close to nothing structurally. Fixed to the outer edge rather than housed in the panel, it lets the unit rack: push a corner and the box moves out of square. That movement is what makes doors on a run stop lining up two years after fitting.
- 6mm or 8mm faced board, housed in a routed groove. The groove is cut roughly 10mm in from the rear edge of both sides, the base and the top rail, and the back slides in before the box is locked up. Once it’s in, the panel triangulates the carcass and the box cannot rack.
Wall units are where this matters most. A wall cabinet hangs off two brackets bearing on the top rail and the back panel, and everything inside is carried by that connection. A stapled 3mm back has no real say in it. It’s the commonest reason a wall unit ends up leaning slightly forward a few years in.
The first thing anyone on our fitting team does with a competitor’s unit is turn it over and press a thumb into the back panel. If it flexes, we already know how the doors on that run will be sitting in three winters’ time. It’s a two-second test and it tells you more than the door sample ever will.
Edging: 2mm ABS versus paper foil
Every cut edge of a chipboard panel has to be covered, and two grades are in common use. Thin melamine or paper foil edging, around 0.4mm, is glued on flat and sits flush. It looks fine in the warehouse and chips at the corners the moment a unit is dragged across a floor, and a chipped corner drinks any moisture that reaches it.
2mm ABS edging is a proper plastic band, thick enough to be radiused at the corners so it takes a knock instead of splitting. On a base unit bumped by a hoover, a bin lid and a dog for a decade, that’s the difference between edges that still look sharp and edges that look nibbled. Ask which edges get it: some budget units edge the front face only, which is fine buried in a run and not fine on an end unit anyone sees.
Standard carcass sizes in Ireland
Irish and UK units share the same dimensional convention, which is what lets you mix a replacement unit into an existing run. Heights and depths are fixed; width is where the choice sits.
| Unit type | Carcass height | Carcass depth | Available widths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base unit | 720mm (plus 150mm adjustable legs) | 560mm to 570mm | 150, 300, 400, 450, 500, 600, 800, 900, 1000, 1200mm |
| Corner base unit (L-shaped or blind) | 720mm | 560mm to 570mm | 900mm and 950mm returns |
| Standard wall unit | 720mm | 300mm (330mm on some ranges) | 300, 400, 450, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1200mm |
| Extra-tall wall unit | 900mm | 300mm | 300, 400, 450, 500, 600, 800, 1000mm |
| Bridging unit (over fridge or hob) | 360mm or 400mm | 300mm | 600, 800, 1000mm |
| Tall / larder unit | 2150mm | 560mm to 570mm | 300, 400, 500, 600mm |
A 720mm carcass plus 150mm legs plus a 38mm worktop gives a finished height of roughly 908mm, and the legs are where you take up the fall in an old floor. Dublin period houses regularly run 15mm to 25mm out over four metres; the legs absorb it and the plinth is scribed to the floor afterwards. Full dimensions, including appliance housings, are in our kitchen cabinet unit sizes guide.
Assembly: fixings, real hours, and the two things people get wrong
How the boxes actually go together
- Cam lock and dowel. A steel dowel screws into the edge of one panel, a cam housing sits in a 15mm hole in the face of the other, and a half turn pulls the joint tight. Quick, strong, and it comes apart again if a unit has to move.
- Wooden dowel and glue. Used by some pre-assembled ranges because it’s rigid and invisible. Fine, but a one-way trip.
- Screws straight into the board face. The budget approach. Works on the day, least holding power of the three, no reserve if a joint needs pulling tight again.
How long a kitchen actually takes to build
Take a 10-unit kitchen: six base units, three wall units and one larder. Allow 40 to 50 minutes for the first base unit while you work the system out, then 20 to 30 minutes each once you’ve a rhythm. Wall units run 15 to 25 minutes. A 2150mm larder is the awkward one at 35 to 50 minutes, and a two-person job because the panels flex.
That puts carcass assembly at roughly 4.5 to 7 hours. Add 10 to 15 minutes per door once you’re setting all three hinge axes properly, and 15 to 20 minutes per drawer box. Two people working steadily get a 10-unit kitchen built in a long day, or a day and a half first time out. Fitting and levelling the run is a separate job again.
Tools: a cordless driver with an adjustable clutch (not a hammer drill on full torque), PZ2 bits, a rubber mallet, a decent square, a couple of clamps, and a clean flat 2m by 2m area. Building on bare concrete scuffs the panels you’re about to make cabinet sides out of.
The two mistakes that cost people an afternoon
The first is mirroring a side panel. The 32mm system holes for hinge plates and shelf pegs run down one face only, so a left panel used as a right puts the hinge holes on the outside of the cabinet. That isn’t recoverable. Lay both sides out holes-up before any dowel goes in.
The second is tightening every cam lock before checking the box is square. Chipboard carcasses lock up as a rhomboid happily enough and stay that way, and then no hinge adjustment gets the door level. Bring the joints up finger-tight, measure both diagonals, adjust until they match within 2mm, then lock down.
Our flat pack kitchen planning guide covers the sequence for the whole project, and our flat pack kitchen range shows which board grades each unit is built in.
Carcass prices by unit and board grade
Carcass-only figures for 2026: box, back, shelf and hardware, without doors, handles or worktop. They show what board grade and assembly state cost, rather than building a budget. For that, see our flat pack kitchen cost guide.
| Carcass | 15mm standard MFC, flat pack | 18mm MFC, flat pack | 18mm MFC, pre-assembled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 600mm base unit | €40 – €60 | €55 – €85 | €80 – €120 |
| 1000mm base unit | €55 – €80 | €75 – €110 | €110 – €155 |
| 950mm L-shaped corner base | €75 – €110 | €100 – €145 | €145 – €200 |
| 300mm wall unit, 720mm high | €28 – €45 | €40 – €60 | €60 – €90 |
| 1000mm wall unit, 720mm high | €45 – €70 | €60 – €90 | €90 – €130 |
| 600mm larder, 2150mm high | €90 – €135 | €120 – €175 | €165 – €240 |
| 900mm 3-drawer base (drawer boxes included) | — | €150 – €230 | €200 – €300 |
Moving from 15mm to 18mm costs around 30% to 40% on the carcass line, which across a 10-unit kitchen is a couple of hundred euro on a component you never replace. Pre-assembled adds 35% to 45% on top, and that buys time and someone else’s quality control. Buying 15mm to save €200 and then spending €600 on soft-close drawers is the trade-off that makes least sense, and we see it on quotes constantly. Wider cabinet pricing is in our kitchen cabinet prices guide.
When flat pack is the wrong call
We sell a lot of flat pack and it suits most people. Three situations come up often enough to name.
- No dry, flat storage space. A 10-unit kitchen arrives as pallets roughly 2.4m by 1.2m needing somewhere indoors and dry for a week or two, and a damp garage swells the board edges before the units are built. If the only option is an apartment hallway, pre-assembled units delivered close to fitting day are easier.
- A fitter booked on day rate. If your fitter charges by the day and builds the boxes on site, that labour cancels out the saving and then some. Flat pack pays when someone in the house is doing the building.
- Tall units and no second pair of hands. A 2150mm larder panel is long, heavy and flexible, and building one solo is where people crack a panel or hurt a back.
A quieter fourth case: if the existing carcasses are sound, none of this applies and replacement doors get you a new-looking kitchen for a fraction of the outlay.
What to check before you order
Ask for the carcass spec in writing: board thickness in mm, whether it’s moisture-resistant, back panel thickness and whether it’s grooved in or pinned on, and edging thickness. Any supplier building proper cabinets answers all four without hesitation, because those numbers are the argument for their price. One who talks about door colours instead has told you what you needed to know. Read the warranty terms too: a carcass warranty running a decade or more is a fair proxy for the manufacturer’s own confidence. Recent fits are in our projects gallery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a kitchen carcass?
The structural box of a kitchen unit: sides, base, top rails, back panel and shelf, before the door, handle and worktop go on. Doors get replaced over the life of a kitchen; the carcass stays.
What are flat pack kitchen carcasses made of in Ireland?
Almost all are melamine faced chipboard (MFC) in 15mm or 18mm, with a 3mm to 8mm back panel. MDF and birch plywood carcasses exist but are a small minority and cost considerably more.
Is 18mm better than 15mm for kitchen carcasses?
Yes, and it’s the upgrade worth paying for. 18mm holds hinge plates and cam fixings far better over time, while a 15mm side carrying a heavy door is near its limit from the day it’s fitted.
How thick should a kitchen carcass back panel be?
6mm to 8mm housed in a routed groove, rather than 3mm hardboard pinned to the rear edges. The grooved back stops the box racking out of square, and is what a wall unit’s brackets load into.
How long does it take to assemble a flat pack kitchen?
Roughly 20 to 30 minutes per base unit after the first, 15 to 25 per wall unit and 35 to 50 for a 2150mm larder. A 10-unit kitchen is about 4.5 to 7 hours, plus doors and drawers.
What size is a standard kitchen base unit in Ireland?
720mm high and 560mm to 570mm deep on 150mm legs, giving a finished height of about 908mm with a 38mm worktop. Widths run from 150mm to 1200mm.
Are flat pack carcasses as strong as pre-assembled ones?
With the same board, back panel and fixings, yes. The risk is in the building: a box locked up out of square stays out of square.
Do I need moisture-resistant board for the whole kitchen?
No, but specify it for the sink base unit at minimum, and ideally beside a dishwasher. Slow leaks under a sink are the commonest way a chipboard carcass fails.
What tools do I need to build flat pack kitchen units?
A cordless driver with an adjustable clutch, PZ2 bits, a rubber mallet, a large square, a couple of clamps and a clean flat 2m by 2m area. A driver on full torque strips cam dowels out of chipboard.
How much cheaper is flat pack than pre-assembled?
Typically 35% to 45% less on the carcass, though the saving disappears if a fitter on day rate is building the boxes on site. Mixing the two works well: larder and corner units pre-assembled, base and wall units flat pack.
Related Kitchen Projects & Guides
- Kitchen Cabinet Unit Sizes Ireland
- Flat Pack Kitchen Cost in Ireland
- DIY Kitchens Ireland: Costs & Flat Pack Options
- Kitchen Cabinets Ireland: 2026 Guide
- White Shaker One-Wall Kitchen in Swords, Dublin
Want the carcass spec checked against your own layout? Book a free design consultation and we’ll put a unit list together with board grades stated on it, or get in touch for a spec sheet before you compare quotes.
