Do Kitchen Cabinets Go On Top Of Flooring

Accommodate for the flooring thickness in your toekicks.

Do kitchen cabinets go on top of flooring.

If installing a floating floor the answer is simple. Laminate flooring is a floating floor so we do not recommend installing kitchen cabinets on top of laminate as they could pin the floor down and prevent it from expanding and contracting with temperature changes leading to buckling and separation at the joints. Installing over glue down floors is not a concern. On new kitchen installs or where the cabinets are not yet installed or are being replaced i always install the flooring first then install the cabinets on top and trim out with quarter round or base shoe if needed to hide gaps due to un level floor conditions or make up a separate kick cut to fit and install when the cabinets are in place.

Kitchen base cabinet install on top of flooring decision flooring goes in last. But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described. Installing the cabinets on the flooring could bind the floor due to the weight of the cabinets. Installing kitchen base cabinets before flooring can be a money saving advantage.

However when installing a wood flooring nail down or glue down there are more factors to consider. If you are going to put in a hardwood floor and it is a total of 1 1 2 and you want 4 toe kick then the kick should be 5 1 2 tall and the cabinets should be 37 1 2 tall from the concrete. Open frame kitchen cabinets can look more modern or more traditional depending on the design of the kitchen and the hardware of the cabinets. Cabinets are not recommended to be installed over a floating floor especially cabinets that have a heavy granite counter top.

Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. For example most of the costly finished hardwood flooring is usually placed sight unseen underneath the cabinets. Will the open frame kitchen cabinet trend last in 2020 and beyond. Go ahead and install your kitchen cabinets directly on the cement subfloor.

Why pay top dollar for imported hardwood that remains hidden. It is always recommended to install cabinets before floating flooring rather than installing cabinets on top of floating floors. 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. A floating floor goes in after the cabinets.

Install the cabinets first because heavy cabinetry cannot sit on top of a floating floor or it will restrict movement and increase the chances of flooring separation. I predict that open frame kitchen cabinets will go back to being centrally display cabinets in due time. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick.