We are moving our kitchen to a new area of the house to better fit with our lifestyle (creating a large great room and gathering space). It will be great! We live in a 1894 converted schoolhouse, which has created some special considerations.

The current floor, though it has "character", needs to come out, as there's not enough wood left to refinish, has huge gaps, and is very uneven. We decided to put in radiant heat and then, after much research, engineered on top of that. It seemed that a floating installation was best on top of radiant, as it allows for expansion and contraction of the wood.

We have been waiting to complete the floor process/project before moving forward with the construction of the cabinets, so that accurate measurements could be taken. (The counter will have a couple of windows pretty much right at counter height.) Per recommendations from our radiant guy, we are not running the radiant tubing under the cabinets nor island (waste of heat, attracts mice and bugs, isn't as good for food storage, etc.) The radiant will be laid in "tracks" on top of the floor.

However... now, at the 11th hour, our floor installer brought up concerns about installing the cabinets and island on top of a floating floor-- that the weight of the pieces would cause buckling because parts of the floor would "float" while others would not move with the cabinets and island on top. (I'll admit, it does make sense.) He suggested gluing the engineered floor down to both keep it stable and not be effected by the weight.

The floor guy says he can't in good conscience lay the floor as a float, so alternatively...

My questions:

1) can engineered flooring be glued down over radiant heat? I have read some posts where this was a disaster, but maybe that's not always true. What would you suggest to put down between the radiant and the engineered? Are there any other things to be sure to or not to do if you glue down engineered floors over radiant?

2) could we set in a sort of "plug" that's the same height as the engineered along the footprint of the cabinets and island? The island has an extension on the sitting side that has and overhang with legs-- would you just put the legs on the engineered floor and not worry about those 2 spots of weight? How precise in the footprint do we have to be for the plug? could it be a tiny bit smaller so the floor would LOOK like it goes under the cabinets? how else could we elegantly mask where the floor meets the cabinets?

3) got any better ideas??

We have FINALLY begun to make this project a reality, so it's disappointing to come up against snags now. I can't find much info about installing islands and/or cabinets on floating floors (radiant heat or not), so your advice is very much appreciated.