Install Tile Floor Before Or After Cabinets

But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described.

Install tile floor before or after cabinets.

Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick. In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. Cabinets are installed after the finished floor. Floor covering or finish flooring is the surface that you see and walk on not the subfloor under the underlayment or underlayment between subfloor and finished layer.

All you have to do is pull the kick off remove the old floor covering install the new flooring then put the kick back. Makes the tile installation much easier due to not needing to cut the tiles around the base of the cabinets. The benefit of installing the tile assembly after the cabinets stone countertops and other dead loads are installed understanding that the floor was designed to handle these loads is to help ensure the system is placed into compression before the tile is installed meaning the force of downward pressure on the finished installation is minimized. The finish can be applied after the cabinet installation lessening concerns about marring the floors during the remodel.

If they want to change flooring at a later date you don t have to remove the cabinets. Installing the floors before the cabinets has some advantages. The flooring contractor will not have to work around existing cabinetry so the work can go that much faster.