Are your current cabinets sitting on the current floor, or does the floor come up to the toe kick of the cabs and stop there with older flooring or plywood under the cabs? If the latter, is the footing on the new cabinets the same as your old cabinets? Our wasn't. Our new cabs have a smaller footprint than the old. Hmmm.

In our case, we didn't figure that out until we put in the new cabs and discovered a gap of 1 to 1-3/4" in front of all the new cabs. At that point we had to rip up the old floor and install new, which we hadn't planned on doing right this minute. In fact, because we had to do a new floor, we don't have a working sink yet. The sink isn't hooked up because we can't put in the dishwasher until the floor is in. The floor in the kitchen can't be completed until the adjoining part of the living room is done, and that couldn't be done until the termites we found in the baseboard next to the garage wall got taken care of. The termite guy was here yesterday, so now flooring can progress. The moral of the story is, I don't know, Expect Surprises? How about Check the Floor Before You Tear Out the Old Cabinets?

dianalo, can you leave the floating floor just under the cabs and bring the new floor up to them? If your floating floor is no longer connected to the entire surface, maybe that would eliminate whatever the problem is with cabs on floating floors. It sure would be easier than removing the bottom cabs and replacing the floor under them. When we put in the new cabinets, we placed them on plywood the height of the bamboo flooring we're now installing. Remains of floating floor might work pretty much the same way as a separated footing.

They need to remove the toekicks and cut it back as close to the legs of the cabs as possible. It is an awkward position for the floor remover to be in. It also wears out the blades from what I am told. It should help the problem of locking the floating floor with the cabs' weight into a rigid position, but is a hassle for the person we hire to do it, which translates into not being a cheap job.

We had a pergo floor installed once and we were told the same thing dianalo said - the cabinets cannot sit on the floor as a floating floor needs to move.

Oh, dear! Suzanne, that's just awful. We currently have a tiled floor, does that change anything? When removing the baseboards in our hallway to paint them, I noticed that there were quite a few bugs crawling around in there. I vacuumed it out and sprayed bug spray but that does have me a little worried that there may be a problem.

hi ynnei..

We have Pergo in our kitchen. It was installed AFTER the cabinets went in. This is the order my GC said it should be done, and I totally trusted his experience. It seems like a perfect installation to me.

KA:)

The first thing you do is to find a good layout for your kitchen. What you have doesn't have to be repeated unless it works really well. A better configuration can be had when you are doing a replacement. Once you have your layout, then you can worry about the materials that are suitable to the layout. I would not personally place laminate in a kitchen. And there are plenty who would not place laminate in their home, period.

If you choose a floating floor like laminate, that floating floor is the absolute last thing to go in before your quarter round. The quarter round covers the expansion gap between the floor and your baseboard. If you want to bug proof the area, place boric acid into it before you install the quarter round.

ynnej- "bugs" behind the baseboards could be any number of things. If they were termites, they would have eaten some of the baseboard which you'd definitely notice.
Termites:

There are all kinds of things that like to live in carpets, but some of them are transients. We've had infestations of earwigs, flying ants, and little tiny beetle thingies over the years. The transient kinds are just passing through and disappear on their own after a week or two. Those kinds you just deal with as they appear. Some other things though you want the exterminator to come have a look at as they can either damage your home (wood, carpet, clothes) or potentially you, although that's pretty extreme. You should probably have a peek behind the baseboards again to see if they're still there.

As far as your Pergo goes, have a piece on hand - or at least the depth measurement - when the new cabinets are installed. Your installer can make sure the footing under the cabs is the same as the flooring + underlayment so the cabinets will be at the correct level when the new floor arrives.

There are many types of laminate flooring, some pretty awful and some really nice. Pergo falls comfortably on the nice end. My daughter's rental has a laminate floor that, knowing the landlord, was the cheapest thing available. Even that looks pretty good and performs well in her kitchen except for the transition from the family room to the kitchen. That is not the flooring's fault though. The landlord tried to nail the transition strip down into the concrete slab - it just doesn't work that way. Unless you check the reviews and find that Pergo quality has suddenly gone downhill for some reason, you should feel comfortable in your choice.

Thank you all for the advice. The bugs were mostly ants, along with a few earwigs. They all seem to be gone now. I know some people wouldn't install it in kitchens, but I am so sick of cleaning grout and really don't like the look of linoleum, vinyl tiles, or cork. Hardwood is not in our budget. I actually like the look of Pergo, especially their exotics collection.

Hi again ynnei..

I had Pergo throughtout the rest of my house...loved it so much I put it in my newly remodeld kitchen..Like you, I hated the dirty grout lines.

Now with Pergo in my kitchen, it looks brand new after I sweep and mop it down with a little vinegar and water.

I hope you are as happy with your Pergo flooring as I am with mine.

KA:)

Thank you, kitchenaddict!

Hi, we used Shaw wood laminate--a different brand. There are different levels of quality and thicknesses within each brand. We really like our floor so far!

Order of construction related to the floor:
1. Demo
2. Scraped up parquet floor glue and vinyl.
3. Installed black paper & 1/4 plywood over entire floor. Staple gun with compressor very helpful for this step.
4. Install cabinets & then countertops.
5. Install Shaw wood laminate floor.
6. Install appliances. Our slide-in stove and fridge sit on the flooring. The dishwasher does not.

Thank you colorfast, very helpful!