Personally I would get him to do the float and tile up to the walls before I installed the cabinets. You can argue that tile does not need to go under the cabinets, but usually it's so cheap the cost is not an issue. It is certainly much easier for the cabinet installer to install over the finished floor. At least it always has been for me.

I asked about that when they were doing my floor (which needed a ton of floating) and the contractor said "either way is fine, we just do whatever works out best for the scheduling" and in my case it worked out better for scheduling to have cabinets in before floating the floors.

I'd definitely put floor in first going all the way to the walls. I have a friend who bought a house that had flooring only to cabinets. When the dishwasher died: major problems. Standard size dishwasher difficult to remove and new standard size ones wouldn't fit. Fortunately, she was able to find a slightly shorter, major expensive European dishwasher in Chicago that would work in her space.

You also risk doing damage to floor when/if you need to pull an appliance out for servicing.

Thank you for your feedback. Cost isn't really the issue regarding going wall-to-wall on the float (or the tile). It's the fact that the existing floor isn't that great and the Tile Guy seems to think that installation of cabinets over the float will probably crack it. (I guess I should be worried that LIFE over the float may crack it, huh?)

He is planning to do another float under the appliances (dishwasher, fridge and stove) so if I have him tile those niches before the appliances are installed, I would think that'd solve the problem of moving appliances out...

As always, I appreciate your thoughts. It feels better to know that it's not a cut and dry situation.

T

I will have tile wall to wall- partly because in order to tile the rest of the living areas, the kitchen needs to be tiled and we aren't in the position to have new cabinets right now. So, I will have the empty kitchen tiled and waiting for cabinets....... cost is not an issue, so it will work.

You shouldn't have problems with the tile cracking, but you never know. The tile guy is just trying to cover his you-know-what!!!

Good luck!

With tile, it's easier to drill the feet of the cabs to the floor [if needed] if you don't have to go through tile, or worry about grout lines. You can screw a cleat to the floor through the grout and mount the cabs to that, but it is an extra step.

With a floating floor, I've seen the concern expressed that the cabs will hinder the ability of the floor to move relitive to the subfloor and walls. Theoretically can cause the floor to buckle. Don't know how valid that concern is.

Even if the flooring doesn't go under the cabs, it should certainly go under the appliances for ease of access. If the flooring is extremely expensive per foot, a cheaper material of the same thickness could be used, but this is usually too much hassle for the amount of money saved.

Tina - given the expressed concerns about the condition of your floor and cracking, you may want to talk to your GC and/or Tile Guy about the deflection (the amount of bend/give) of your floor. If it has had wood and vinyl tile on it, it may not be able to support tile.

To know this, you would need to know the type, size and spacing of your floor joists as well as the longest unsupported span. You'll also need to know the type and thickness of your subfloor.

Floating will not help with deflection. The only things that would help are improving your joists and your subfloor.

I went through this with our floor, unfortunately when it was too late to do the reconstruction needed. For me it worked out well, though, as we are winding up where I really wanted to be - with hardwood floors throughout our home.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's one calculator