Installing Hardwood Floors Around Kitchen Cabinets

Often without planning these appliances can get locked in when the hardwood guy is done installing the floor.

Installing hardwood floors around kitchen cabinets.

Durable if you install solid hardwood flooring in your kitchen you ll have one of the most durable flooring choices around. To start you ll need to expose as much of the kitchen floor as possible by moving the appliances to another room. This is more common with solid 3 4 inch floors opposed to thinner hardwoods. Today s hardwood is better than even a few short years ago.

The actual extra amount of hardwood used under the cabinet area is minimal and will make installation easier and faster than working around the cabinet footprint. It may be tempting to just work around your stove or refrigerator since the floor under these never sees the light of day anyway but doing so can cause problems down the road when you cannot move the appliance over the hardwood lip install an appliance with different dimensions. I have an existing kitchen and want to redo the floor to be hardwood floor and replace the cabinets. Remove the cabinets and screw a plywood filler piece to the subfloor about inch.

To keep the floor flush consider installing a different cheaper type of flooring underneath cabinets and appliances or even plywood risers. Because manufacturers are continually trying to produce the best materials for their customers many of today s flooring choices come treated to make the product stronger water resistant and longer. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick. Since it is much more likely to have some type of cabinet upgrade rather than actually needing to remove the hardwood i would install the hardwood wall to wall and install cabinets over it.

My question is how to insure the cabinets are will be the same height since hardwood floors will be installed under the dishwasher and the oven. 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. Possible damage to the cabinets during the installation is a possibility. But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described.