You can, of course, should you? What does he perceive the benefit of tile and the drawback of wood? What is the subfloor situation?

Sounds like he's pushing his own preference. Some people really hate the idea of wood in the kitchen. I used to be against it, but it was the one thing my DH wanted. The dogs are stratching it up but I don't care. I love the way it looks and how it feels under foot. I think wood would look great with those cabinets.

Subfloor is just slab. So he was going to install my cabinets directly on slab, run the engineered wood up to the cabinets and put down quarter round. Another solution I'm considering is may be running plywood underneath my cabinets except have the last inch or so of the front of the cabinet not have sub floor under it so when they install the floor it can still go under my fancy toe kicks does that make sense?

The problem with tile is I intentionally avoided it as much as possible in our house. I hate tile.

He thinks the benefit of the Tile is we could put the cabinets directly onto it and don't have to worry about the Tile moving but is glue down wood flooring going to move?

An idea I came up with is to do a plywood subfloor but cut it about a quarter of an inch maybe a little bit more short of the cabinet depth and run the wood floor right up to it. The fancy toe kicks would rest on wood, while rest of cabinet would be on plywood. There would still be quarter round on the sides of cabinets.

Aktillery yours runs under your cabs and is glued down engineered?

Is it engineered wood floors? If so there would be no movement on a slab and I see no reason whatsoever for why you can't put the cabinets on top of it. I hate tile in the kitchen. Anything you drop on it that is glass or porcelain will break. I love my engineered wood floors on a slab that doesn't have any movement that we've noticed for the past 7 years we've lived here and we've not managed to have any water damage either even though it is in the kitchen.

I don't know enough about flooring but why would glue down wood flooring move?

i think running the wood up to the plywood is fine. I had considered that for my own house but just put the wood under the cabs since it wasn't that much space.

I don't think the issue is movement, but water. Water on tile won't do anything but get your toes wet. Water on wood will buckle and ruin the wood. Hence why I bet he won't warranty the floor in the kitchen.

It is a good idea to put something under the cabinets to raise them to the level of the wood floor. Plywood works. So does concrete board. If you don't raise them, installing a dishwasher becomes a pain.

He's full of bull pucky. We have engineered wood floors glued down in our kitchen with cabinets over them. They are perfect.

And in five years our kitchen floors are just as gorgeous as the day we installed them

I would not run wood (or tile) only up to the cabinets and then put a quarter round down. As said, big problem getting a dishwasher in and out if it needed repaired or replaced. You would also be holding the cabinets hostage behind the floor.

Yes. It would have been a pain to cut all the boards (much more labor) around all of the various cabinets. My husband and a friend laid all of our engineered wood down themselves throughout the entire house! Their poor knees!

Here is another photo of our pantry if that helps.

gw · More Info

I love you all! We're doing glue down! I can't picture my kitchen without y'all!!

Artillery what is your flooring. It's beautiful and it looks like it might be what I'm looking for. Brand please too.

Artillery- your flooring is pretty. As are your cabs and kitchen. What color are the uppers and lowers of your pantry?

amber, good for you!!

I am certainly not an industry expert but my recollection is that when you lay a wood floor over cement slab you have to use a moisture barrier in the middle. I cannot believe that laying a moisture barrier is more work then all of the work that would go into a tile floor. But I can believe that it might be more costly in terms of materials. You really should research this point - once you decide on the flooring that you want, read its installation instructions- so that you are well-versed and can have a coherent discussion with the GC... I would also ask him point-blank if he has ever done this. It could be he has not and that he does not have a sub who knows how to do it well either...