Tile Floor Before Or After Installing Cabinets

Cabinets are installed after the finished floor.

Tile floor before or after installing cabinets. Typically cabinets come before flooring. No wasted tile and appliances can me moved for repairs without problems. In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. 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.

Install tile under cabinets and floor based appliances with a 2 inset this allows you to move the pattern and grout lines where needed. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick. Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. The finish can be applied after the cabinet installation lessening concerns about marring the floors during the remodel.

Install plywood in remaining area to exact height of tile floor to finish cabinet install. 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 flooring contractor will not have to work around existing cabinetry so the work can go that much faster.

Installing the floors before the cabinets has some advantages. 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.