What Should You Get First? Floors or Cabinets
If you’re planning a major renovation of your kitchen, you may be wondering whether the kitchen floors or the kitchen cabinets should be installed first. The simple answer is, it depends. Although there are strong arguments for installing the floors firsts, there’s one exception where it’s best to begin with the cabinets.
Appliances
The first thing you should understand is that appliances are a standard height of 36 inches and should generally be installed over the flooring. That’s because if you need to replace the appliance, you don’t want to have to rip out your floors as well. So, if the appliance is 36 inches in height from the floor, your cabinets, including the counter, must be the same height. Installing the kitchen cabinets over the kitchen floors will help standardize the height and minimize problems in the future.
Flooring
If your flooring runs throughout the entire kitchen, you have greater flexibility on your cabinet placement if you decide to change the cabinet footprint later. For instance, hardwood floors can last lifetimes, so you’re more likely to update the cabinets again before you ever have to consider reflooring. If you installed the cabinets first, you’ll have empty patches that will need to be matched to the existing flooring. That may prove extremely difficult.
Cabinets
One specific scenario where it’s advisable to install cabinets first is when you’re using floating floors. Floating floors are attached to each other rather than to a subfloor, which allows movement and expansion with changes in humidity. Installing cabinets over floating floors will constrict the floor’s expansion, increasing the potential for it to break or buckle.
Subfloor
When you’re considering the installation of your kitchen floors, a general rule of thumb is that if the floors are attached to the subfloor, then install it first. So, unless you’ve opted for a floating floor, installing the floor first will help ensure that your kitchen cabinets are the standard height and that you have the flexibility of changing the cabinet footprint in the future.