Which should be installed first—cabinets or flooring?

You can imagine that if you are carrying out a comprehensive renovation of your kitchen, you will replace the walls, cabinets, wholesale laminate flooring and electrical appliances in the kitchen, but in the process of renovation, which should be installed first—cabinets or flooring?

Cabinets come before flooring

In many cases, if the standard floor height is known, people will choose to install cabinets before installing the light wood laminate. The floor covering or finished floor is the surface you see and walk on, rather than the sub-floor. The floor covering will generally be cut into a suitable size, which can be connected with cabinets, and a gap will be left between the manufactured hardwood flooring and cabinets. This gap is used to install skirting boards or shoe molds. Here are some advantages of installing cabinets first:

You'll use less finish flooring

Installing cabinets before installing laminate wood flooring can save money. Most expensive finished hardwood floors are usually placed in invisible places under cabinets, so why pay for invisible floors hidden under cabinets, and in order to keep the floors clean, you can consider installing a different cheaper wood look laminate flooring under kitchen cabinets and electrical appliances, even plywood risers.

You'll minimize the height of flooring

Sometimes, when we renovate the kitchen, there is no need to dismantle some existing cabinets and electrical appliances, because they can still be used, so we only need to replace the marble effect laminate flooring, and consider installing some thin floors, such as vinyl, bearing plates or ceramic tiles, which can be placed directly on the cabinets, and the uneven edges will be covered by 1/4 circle or bottom molding.

If you use some thicker floors, such as solid hardwood. Then there will be a problem, because your cabinet counter may not be the standard height of 34 inches to 36 inches, which can be alleviated in two ways. One is to replace the solid hardwood with the waterproof engineered hardwood floor, and the engineering curtain is a little thinner than the solid hardwood. You can lay the facing floor directly on the subfloor without cushion. The other way is to pay attention to the height from the lower side of the countertop to the finished best engineered flooring. Some dishwashers, ovens or other electrical appliances need a general position to be replaced when necessary. If the finished floor is too thick, you may have to raise the table top or remove the floor to replace the electrical appliances.

When to install flooring first

If you have some unique designs for your decoration, such as installing some strange equipment height or abnormal structure, and the total height of your waterproof engineered wood flooring needs to be higher than the normal height, you can consider installing the floor before installing cabinets. If you first install basic cabinets and electrical appliances directly on the sub-floor, and then install engineered wood planks around cabinets and electrical appliances, then the heights of cabinets and electrical appliances are all wrong. It is difficult to reach the standard table height of 34 inches to 36 inches. The way to correct this situation is to place some plywood under cabinets and appliances. Of course, the floor covering itself is also a riser.

Reference:

The spruce, Should You Install Flooring Before You Install Cabinets?