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what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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Posted by ani_t (My Page) on Tue, Jan 22, 08 at 16:24
I am getting conflicting info from my cabinet installer and my floor installer ....
if it can be done in either order what are the pros and cons of each order ?
thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| The obvious con of putting the floor in is the risk of damage to the floor by the cabinet installers. However, depending on your design you may have no choice. For example, if any of your base cabinets have feet the floor needs to be down first. When we added a new kitchen, our cabinet guy wanted the floor down first all the way to the walls and he installed the cabinets on top. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| Ani, there have been long threads on this subject that will help you decide. Unfortunately the search engine here is not working now. Try in a couple days - search for "floor or cabinet first". |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| We had a total gut - floors went in before cabs - everything was spec'd to include the height the flooring would add - so I would say it depends on the design/plans -did you account for the floor under or not HTH |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| Floor first. They can easily be protected when cabinets are installed. My floor now has a lot of dings in it, but not one from cabinet installation. If the floors are installed after there are a lot of issues to contend with. You need to allow for expansion joints and hiding them. The cabinets need to be put on plywood to raise them up. It isn't a good idea to facenail in front of cabinets, damage can happen (as the hole in my walls and oil sprayed can attest). There will be a lot of face nails. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| We just recently finished our total kitchen remodel. My one big regret is that the floor was installed before the cabinets. Our contractor felt very strongly about putting the floor down first since it is a lot easier to install both the flooring and the cabinets that way. I had done a lot of research here so I thought it wouldn't be such a big deal as long as we protected the floor once it was in. So that's the way we did it, and we went to great lengths to try to protect the floor. Well, we now have 3 or 4 large gouges in our floor from the installation of the cabinets, the oven, and who knows what else. I'm sure it didn't help that we were never home during the day to supervise, but you wouldn't think we would need to be. We even mentioned to everyone working here (on several occasions) to please be careful of the new floor. Sometimes I think that all that cardboard and other protection we had on there gave everyone a false sense of security that they could slide or drop anything on the floor with no problem. If you have HW floors, you're going to see scratches eventually, but if you have them installed after some of the other major work (and I recommend as late as possible) you eliminate a lot of the potential for actual damage. Next time we will gladly pay the additional labor cost to have the floors installed after the cabinets are in. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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Floors first.
Protect the floor.
Install the cabinets. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| We did floors first and I am glad we did. Yes, we did get a couple of dings in our floor, but it was much easier to have it all set up so that the cabinets could go right on top and work out well. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| Floors first! We did the opposite, due to issues w/ our flooring order - long story. Our island was dropped in a little off - enough to make installation of our hood an issue which required a bunch of extra work and expense! If the floors had gone in first, it wouldn't have been a big deal to move the island. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| I agree, floors first. Wood floors are different from tile, etc. When mine was installed, it was told that wood floors are "the floor", other floors are installed over a second sub-floor, but not wood. You want it in first so everything fits well. The floor usually isn't sanded and stained until the cabinets are in. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| floors first. when we built our house 17 years ago the contractor did cabinets first - ceramic floor was put in later. Now we are starting a kitchen remodel and would like to keep the floor - its in great shape and we really like the tile - but it does limit design options. Good thing is given our kitchen the same general layout is the one that makes the most sense. We may need to add a row of tile where we are putting in a Bluestar range (vs current separate cooktop and wall oven) - but luckily I have half a dozen or so spare tiles left . Matching the grout may not be exact but it will be in one inconspicuous area. So for nothing other than future consideration - floor first |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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OK, I see only one vote for floors later and that seems to be because of scratching issues.
If I do wood floors first, I have questions about whether I need to run the wood under the
a) cabinets
b) dishwasher
c) gas range I am concerned about running wood under the range due to heating issues and under dishwasher due to potential water leaking and me not being able to get to it.
How do people protect against that.
This is becoming a pressing issue, cabinets come in friday and flooring will be dropped off today...
Thanks |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| If you do floors first - 1. The HW needs to acclimate to the environment in which it will be installed - ck flooring forum, maybe 5-7 days 2. You would put flooring under all of the above - you can't have it under the cabs and not dw - it will throw everything out of level for one. It would be self defeating to not run it under - that is one of the reasons for running it first - much easier to lay the flooring - There are potentials for leaks in every kitchen w/every type of flooring - there is no bullet proof flooring. Even if it were not under the DW & that leaked it would still leak to the surrounding areas - even tiled floors have flaws related to leaks - grout is not waterproof and water will leech in btwn tiles & start growing some nasty mold in btwn the sub floor & tile (have you seen bathrooms gutted?) - Many gas ranges have feet & sit up off the flooring so no hw would look odd - those that don't have feet typically have a storage drawer - so the heat is far enough away with either to not be an issue w/the flooring. good luck |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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Thanks for the reply. My gas appliance does not have feet, but it does have a double oven. So the bottom one will get pretty hot.
What have other people who have double ovens done ? |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| Which will last longer? I know my flooring was changed at least twice since the cabinets went in about 30 years ago. Hardwood floors should probably be installed under the cabinets, linoleum floors after the cabinets. |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| Floors first!!!!! Our kitchen has gone through many changes over the past 100 years but the one constant has been the floor (there are places where the floor has been pieced in where walls have been torn out but mostly the floor looks great.) |
RE: what goes in first ? wood floor or kitchen cabinets ?
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| I'm so happy that the previous owners put wood floors down first (and under everything) as it's enabled me to revamp the layout without having to put new flooring everywhere :) |
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