Flooring Before Or After Cabinets. Before you start remodeling your master bathroom or installing a brand new kitchen you should first stop and ask yourself a question that has been puzzling people for years. This is particularly true for sheet products like vinyl and linoleum.
Installing flooring before your cabinets is the best choice for most hardwood floors. There are a couple quality items to consider when installing the cabinets before flooring. 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.
There always needs to be a gapalways.
If you are installing a hardwood floating floor or any floating floor such as cork or laminate you should install the floor AFTER the kitchen cabinets are installed. This is particularly true for sheet products like vinyl and linoleum. The flooring contractor will. Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick.