Does The Floating Floor Or The Cabinet Go In First

I have been installing laminate flooring since the product first became popular.

Does the floating floor or the cabinet go in first.

The result the floor comes apart. It s a popular reason for installing wood floors after putting in the cabinets. 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. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick.

Typically cabinets come before flooring. In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. However when installing a wood flooring nail down or glue down there are more factors to consider.

But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described. If installing a floating floor the answer is simple. My question is how to insure the cabinets are will be the same height since hardwood floors will be installed under the dishwasher and the oven. For installations that go over existing flooring in kitchens where cabinets are already installed i leave a 1 4 gap for expansion and trim out around the cabinets with matching quarter round from the flooring supplier.

But if you do decide to install your cabinets first fear not. Also of note like the last example floating floors are prohibitive because cabinets are entirely too heavy and will surely prevent the floor from being able to expand and contract naturally. It seems it s recommended to install cabinet first before installing the hardwood floor.