Should I Install Flooring Or Cabinets First

I can see reasons for doing it either way.

Should i install flooring or cabinets first.

First the quantity of flooring needed will decrease by the area under the cabinets. And the newer vinyl planks are having issues with this reduced expansion gap. When installing cabinets first you need to tell your cabinet makers counter top installers of the clearance needed for the dishwasher with the extra added height of the floor. Installing flooring first but if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described.

Besides protecting the finished product there are other benefits to installing the flooring after cabinets. Amy asks when remodeling a kitchen should you install the cabinets or finished flooring first i prefer to put the finished flooring down before installing the cabinets though it can be done either way. That is why it s important to install the flooring first so that if you decide to change the kitchen appliances or cabinets you will still have the same flooring covering the entire area. Given a choice should base cabinets be installed on top of the finished flooring or shimmed to floor thickness and install flooring as final step.

No time or money will be wasted on hidden flooring. The one exception to this rule is if you are installing floating hardwood flooring these should be installed after the cabinets have been installed. I have an existing kitchen and want to redo the floor to be hardwood floor and replace the cabinets. Of course you can avoid many of these trappings by starting with the cabinets and installing them first.

Read on to find out more. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick. However i lean to the installing flooring after because of reduced risk of damage during kitchen remodel activities ease of replacing repairing flooring. While it uses more flooring material the installation requires less cutting and fitting.

Typically cabinets come before flooring. One reason to install new flooring before cabinets is to create a level surface for your cabinets to sit on. Also your floor is less likely to experience damage in the form of dents or scratches when you put the cabinets in first. Floor covering or finish flooring is the surface that you see and walk on not the subfloor under the underlayment or underlayment between subfloor and finished layer.

It seems it s recommended to install cabinet first before installing the hardwood floor. This gets a lot of the heavy objects out of the way prior to putting down your new precious flooring material.