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Kitchen Flooring/Kitchen Cabinet Installation Question

Christine Clemens

14 years ago

Let's see if I can explain this. The existing solid oak flooring in the kitchen is a bit higher than the adjoining hallway flooring. (I don't really know why it was done this way) My question is this: What happens if I install new cabinets and then come back later to install new flooring. I would want to remove the extra layer of subfloor to make the floor level with the hallway. Does that mean the cabinet will then be sitting higher than they should? I know this is a dumb question.

We will be taking down a wall between the kitchen and the family room and I am trying to avoid replacing the flooring right now. I realize I would have a new transition piece between the den and kitchen but I think I could live with that for a while. When I do the flooring I want to do all of the main floor of the house at the same time which is another 1200 sq. ft. I am just trying to postpone the expense.

Hope this makes a little sense.

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Comments (7)

Fori
14 years ago
Hrmm...if you'll be doing all the new flooring, couldn't you just raise the low floor instead? It's a can of worms either way you go, isn't it?
jdesign_gw
14 years ago
If you really plan on changing the floor later I would cut a line just behind the toe-kick so you can remove the existing sub-floor cleanly in the future. 36" is standard counter top height but that can vary plus or minus by an inch or two depending what your comfortable with.
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kitchenredo2
14 years ago
We had the opposite issue - the flooring in the room where we have relocated the kitchen is 1" lower than the flooring in the adjoining living room. We didn't realize this until we removed a wall between the new kitchen space and the new living room space.

I did not raise the kitchen floor b/c it was too much money to do so (we also had other structural expenses that had priority over the floor). We have a transition piece between the two rooms (the opening is about 4'). It seems to be working well (we aren't back in the space yet).

If you went back and changed the height of the floor after you do the kitchen, would you remove the cabinets to change the floor? I wouldn't think you would do that. Then your floor would be a different height under the cabinets than in the rest of the kitchen.

I would do it all now or do a transition piece and keep the heights as they are.
Christine Clemens
Original Author
14 years ago
Well the flooring in the adjoining family room is eventually what I want to have everywhere so it would me nice to have it match. I think they really want to nail it to the subfloor and not the extra board. I guess this answers my question (darn it!)
Christine Clemens
Original Author
14 years ago
Well the flooring in the adjoining family room is eventually what I want to have everywhere so it would me nice to have it match. I think they really want to nail it to the subfloor and not the extra board. I guess this answers my question (darn it!)
Christine Clemens
Original Author
14 years ago
Sorry for the double post and the cross post!

jdesign - that is a good plan. I may still be sitting here in 20 years with the same oak floor but it sure is nice to plan ahead. I guess you are right that in the scheme of things I won't really notice the height of the cabinets.

kitchenredo - it is good to hear that the transition looks good. I started out thinking that everything had to be done at the same time so it would be perfect! Then as the $$$ started adding up I relaxed my vision a little bit. I think I can live with the oak for a good while.
Christine Clemens
Original Author
14 years ago
Well the flooring in the adjoining family room is eventually what I want to have everywhere so it would me nice to have it match. I think they really want to nail it to the subfloor and not the extra board. I guess this answers my question (darn it!)

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