In all my renos, I have the flooring going in before the cabs.

In my experience, the $$ saved in flooring material is more than offset by the increase in labor cutting around the cabs.

Even if that were not the case, I believe it is best practice to put the flooring in first.

What type of flooring?

How thick above the sub-floor?

When I put in hardwood floors they go in first, then the first two coats of finish.

After cabinets are in and almost everything is done, a screening and another coat of finish.

According to my GC, you're right. We have hardwood now and we're refinishing them prior to the cabs being installed. We took down one wall and extended the hardwood in one room. The floor guys were here last week and patched in the floors. They'll be back next week to sand, stain and apply two coats of finsih. Then they lay down paper and plywood on the floor to protect them. After the cabs are installed and the kitchen is basically finished, the floor guys come through and put on the final finish coat.

Hope that helps.

Hardwood floor first, then cabs. When this topic has come up before, most agree with that schedule. Sometimes a few disagree.

What if you or the next owner decides to take, say, the peninsula or other cabs out? Or install different cabs. It's much better to have the floor run the entire room now pre-cabs than to try to patch flooring later if the new cabs don't line up with the old. If that makes any sense...

Thanks to everyone for the answers. Poohpup - sounds like you're doing something similar to me. We have hardwood throughout the house except for the new kitchen space and they're supposed to feather in the hardwood so it will all flow together. I'm going to send the GC my question now :)

I too had my hardwood patched in where walls were removed, ect. My carpenter didn't want it refinished until after all major traffic was done.....so floor was refinished after cabs, counters, backsplash. Carpenter will be coming back to put on the moldings ect!

Ditto here -- floors unfinished, then cabinets and all other work. Refinishing of floors is the last large project...and will be going away that weekend!

Hi Kammerek,

I've seen this topic covered here in the past. It seems that most people on this forum prefer to put the floor in first. We are not doing it that way - and it seems that all the contractors we talked with prefer to do the floor later. Maybe it depends on the type of flooring. We're getting engineered (prefinished) hardwood.

The floor people came in and installed new 1/2" plywood subflooring before the cabinets were put in. Then came cabinets,appliances that are inside of cabinets, light fixtures, countertops, backplash and then flooring. After the flooring they'll put in the appliances that sit on the floor (fridge and dishwasher). The reason it's done this way is to protect the floor. Our granite is being installed today, and they granite guys were so happy that they didn't have to worry about the floor when they brought in the large island slab with a heavy-duty dolly. Tomorrow, when they do the backsplash, the tile guy will set up a wet saw outside; and will go back and forth cutting tile, bringing in mastic, grount, etc... It's nice to not worry about damaging the floor before the kitchen is finished. I guess it you're doing site-finished floors and you plan to put another coat on them, it doesn't matter as much. you can always cover the floor and try to protect it, but if the floor isn't there yet, you know it won't get dented or scratched. Just another view...

Our cabinets were installed first without all the trims. They were set on 3/4 plywood in the back and little pieces under the front. They then will put the floor under the cabinets. The reason they do this is because it is new build and there is a lot of construction going on. They don't want the trades all over the floor as the hardwood is continuous through the house.

RAM board makes a wonderfully protective surface over new hardwood floors. Marble installers wheeled in this extremely, massively heavy 4 cm slab with nary a mark on the floor underneath the board. Appliances (including a ginormous built-in fridge) were also brought in this way without issue.

The right way to do the job is to install the hardwood first followed by 2 coats with the final coat done last...

I just talked to my builer about this today. He said for prefinished he puts the cabinets in first, and for on-site finished he puts the floor down first.

Thanks to everyone for the opinions.

I emailed the GC and he confirmed that the hardwood would be installed before the cabinets and finished afterward - he didn't say why it was reversed on his schedule, but in all honesty, it's a very vague schedule - maybe he threw it together because I kept asking for one - we're about 1.5 months ahead of the timeline he created for me - so you know how accurate it must be :)

Just watch the floor guys like a HAWK when they are sanding and finishing the floors!!!
Our house was all finished and we had been living in it for six months, but they had messed up the hard wood floors during construction. While we were out of town, they were to refinish the cherry floors in the kitchen and dining rooms. The "floor guy" (That was actually his trade name.) told us that during the job the GC insisted they had (previously) had "NO STAIN" on them. (He was an idiot: it was all right in his book.) When we got back, our beautiful dark cherry floors looked like blond oak. So the floor guy resanded them, removing all the polyurethane and accidentally leaving a bag full of sawdust mixed with polyurethane in the kitchen overnight. The next morning we arrived at 9 AM, as he had requested, to approve the stain for the floor: there were eight fire trucks in the drive!
We lived in a hotel for eleven months . . . with the cat! It didn't actually burn the house DOWN - it was too well built for that - but it had to be pretty well gutted to make certain there was no trace of smoke or smoke odor left behind! What a nightmare!
We are about to have those floors redone. You can bet that, while we could again have it done while we are out of town, we will under go the minimal discomfort of being right on the premises!!

We have prefinished hardwood as well and it was put in after the cabinets. We went with prefinished because it is harder/more durable. We are at the beach and the sand is very rough on the finish. Whether your hardwood is put in before or after the cabinets, be VERY careful afterwards ... My hardwood was scratched badly in 2 places ... With the range and with the washer (or maybe it was the dryer, don't remember).