How To Install Wood Flooring After Cabinets

How to install hardwood floors around kitchen cabinets.

How to install wood flooring after cabinets.

The potential of mismatched flooring one downside of installing risers or different flooring is that you add a complication if you wish to change the kitchen footprint in the future. First it s important that the cabinets are the standard 36 inches above the floor and it s important that the appliances are at this same height so that there aren t issues later if when you want to change the appliances e g. You would not want your dishwasher to be trapped underneath the floor and. If you re installing hardwood floors in an existing kitchen it is possible to run your hardwood floors up to the base cabinet toe kick.

Why it s better to install the hardwood floors before the cabinets. To keep the floor flush consider installing a different cheaper type of flooring underneath cabinets and appliances or even plywood risers. Traditionally hardwood flooring is more commonly installed prior to the cabinets and sanded and finished as one of the last steps but with the increasing popularity of prefinished hardwood flooring the risks of damage during installation becomes greater. But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described.

My worry about doing that would be if your floor isn t 100 level and flat the cabinets will still need to be shimmed and it will show. Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick.