Cabinets On Top Of Wood Floor
Lay the finish flooring straight onto the subfloor with no additional underlayment.
Cabinets on top of wood floor. Possible damage to the cabinets during the installation is a possibility. Engineered wood a sandwich of wood veneer on top and high grade plywood below is slightly thinner than solid hardwood. Cabinets are not recommended to be installed over a floating floor especially cabinets that have a heavy granite counter top. You d have a tough time cutting out the strips that extend under the cabinets if you ever wanted to replace the flooring.
Demo the cabinets demo the floor install the hardwood sand with stain 2 coats of poly install the cabinets install the countertops then add the 3rd and final coat of polyurethane. A floating wood floor has to be free to expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity and it can t do that with heavy cabinets resting on top of it. 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. 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.
However when installing a wood flooring nail down or glue down there are more factors to consider. An underlayment adds another 1 4 inch to 1 2 inch to the total flooring thickness. Install cabinets first to avoid this issue. The proper installation would be to install the cabinets and then install the flooring around the cabinets.
Go ahead and install your kitchen cabinets directly on the cement subfloor. 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. This will help take care of minor scratches that may occur during the rest of the kitchen construction. If you install wall to wall flooring the panels may run out of room to expand.
This is more common with solid 3 4 inch floors opposed to thinner hardwoods. Many types of floors including click lock hardwood and floating flooring expand due to changes in temperature and humidity. Installing the cabinets on the flooring could bind the floor due to the weight of the cabinets. Often without planning these appliances can get locked in when the hardwood guy is done installing the floor.
Use engineered wood flooring rather than solid hardwood. That s not the only problem.