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Should Kitchen Cabinets Go in Before or
After Wood Flooring
Installing Wood Floors in Kitchens comes
with Inherit Risk, but Little Matches the Beauty of a Wood Floor Kitchen
By Mark J. Donovan
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Question: Mark, I visit
HomeAdditionPlus.com frequently as it is loaded with good home improvement
information. One thing I couldn’t find on your site, however, is in regards to a
question I have on whether or not you should install kitchen cabinets before or
after installing wood flooring. I’ve received conflicting advice on what I
should do. The kitchen cabinet installer told me I should put the kitchen
cabinets in before the wood flooring to mitigate water damage to the wood floor
in the inevitable event of a water leak under the kitchen counter and cabinets.
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Another person told me that it’s best
to install the kitchen cabinets after installing the wood flooring. I was hoping
you could weigh in with your thoughts on this question. It would be much
appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Answer: G.H., Installing wood floors in kitchens certainly comes with
some justifiable apprehensions and fear, and water damage is a major one. In
addition, kitchen floors are heavily used and take a lot of abuse, particularly
if the kitchen is a major entry point into the home. Also, kitchen floors have
to contend with heavy objects occasionally falling on them, such as the frozen
piece of meat, silverware, glasses and plates. Nonetheless, many people still
install wood floors in kitchens on a regular basis. Wood floors can provide
incredible beauty to a kitchen. Depending upon the hardness of the wood type
they can also be quite durable. They can also be refinished if they eventually
become significantly marred.
In regards to your specific question on “should kitchen cabinets go in before or
after wood flooring”, this question stems around water damage concerns. It’s a
legitimate concern. However, with proper preventive maintenance on plumbing
fixtures and kitchen appliances you should be able to mitigate the risk of water
damage to your kitchen wood floors.
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This said, I would recommend
installing the wood floors first. I make this recommendation for a few reasons.
First, you'll save on the wood floor installation costs. The wood floor
installers will be able to more quickly install the wood floor because they’ll
have fewer cuts to make, as they won’t have to work their way around the
perimeter of the cabinets.
Second, they’ll also be able to do a better job of installing the wood flooring
by simply having to trim the ends along the wall line.
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In addition, due to the extra room to
work and fewer cuts required, the boards will be installed tighter together,
making them less prone to water penetrating down and underneath them in the
event of a small leak.
Third, in the event of a leak under the kitchen cabinets, normally the water
damage is limited to directly underneath the kitchen cabinets or very near to
them. If the leak is limited right underneath the cabinets, then the affected
boards may not need to be replaced as they are out of site. If in the event some
of the boards are damaged near the kitchen cabinets, then the repair is limited
to just that area.
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Finally, installing the kitchen
cabinets before the wood flooring effectively buries the cabinets ¾ of an inch
into the finished floor. This doesn’t sound like much, however if the cabinets
are not tall and you and your family are, it can be an annoyance to have the
effective lower height cabinets.
Many kitchen cabinet installers would prefer to see the kitchen cabinets
installed first, because it’s easier on them. If the wood floors are installed
first, they need to be more careful not to damage the wood floors. With a little
upfront preparation, e.g. installing protective paper over the wood floor, and
being a little careful they should be able to install the kitchen cabinets
without damaging the wood floors.
So install your new wood floor before installing the cabinets and enjoy your
remodeled kitchen.
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