Good morning, ainelane. Your goal, should you choose to accept it, is to absorb DIY knowledge by watching and reading, and to acquire every possible household repair/construction relevant tool over the next decade or two. Then you will be able to claim self reliance as well as save expenses on tasks within your expanding skill set. The side filler pieces, where required, are essential to avoid having the side screws pull the diswasher sides away from the door, so they need to be deep enough (front-to-back) to overlap the screw positions, as well as snugly fit the side gaps. "Unless one of the upper locations shares real estate with one of those visible cabinet screws, you've got no worries." And if it does, move the cabinet screw and fill the hole with a fast setting, drillable wood filler. kas

It is a requirement. You still need it and here is the reason why: We ALWAYS ASSUME that the "underslab" vapour barrier HAS BEEN or WILL BE compromised at SOME POINT in its life. We don't know when, we don't know how badly, but it will happen. Heck, it can happen WHILE they are POURING the concrete. Or when they are spreading concrete. Or when tree roots grow underneath the concrete, etc. So, the moral of the story is: always use vapour barrier (6mil poly sheeting = $0.11/sf at HD) over slab on or below grade when installing rigid flooring. It is the CHEAPEST FORM of "warranty saver" you will ever have. I promise you, that vapour barrier will come in REALLY handy at some point in the house's life span.

No you cannot use a soft underpad under vinyl - especially one that already has an integrated cork backing. Vinyl does NOT like underpad....ever. There are some of the thicker products like CoreTec that allow for it (2mm cork is allowed under CoreTec 1....but none of the others because of their cork backing). You have few choices here. I'm going to guess you have sheet vinyl or vinyl tiles. Linoleum (the real stuff) is quite rare and very expensive so it isn't an 'every day' product. Sheet vinyl rarely had asbestos in it...but sometimes the cut back adhesive had asbestos in it. The vinyl tiles (especially 9"x9" tiles) were the one's to have asbestos issues. That being said, you won't have any problems if the vinyl/lino is dated from the 90's. Asbestos was 100% banned by the late 80's. Anything built after that should be lead and asbestos free. That means you can take a quick look at the age of your house to determine the LIKELIHOOD of asbestos (including popcorn ceilings, drywall, blown insulation, etc). Some pictures of what you have would be REALLY helpful. Some of our flooring professionals on the forum can 'spot' asbestos containing products a mile away. Of course the easiest course of action = small T-molding for $15/linear foot and you are DONE like dinner! Sometimes cheap and cheerful wins the race.

The concrete slabs of yesteryear do NOT have moisture barriers underneath them. They are sitting on wet earth. And the earth has SOOOO much water you can see it from space (we are a water planet...the ground is floating in oceans of water). A concrete slab is POROUS and acts like a big sponge. As water in the swimming pool we call 'ground' (the stuff your slab is sitting on) moves through the slab, it evaporates once it hits the surface. We call this 'wicking'. Once you 'cap' the top of the cement slab (ie. lay vinyl planks over top) you plug the escape route for the water to evaporate. This creates a back up of water just sitting there inside your cement sponge...filling it and filling it and then filling it. Something HAS to give. Water is the most damaging force on earth (look at the Grand Canyon...that's due to water). The water pressure in the slab became SOOO high (how high SJ?) that it broke the bond of the SLC causing it to lift up. That's what happens when the slab is not conditioned enough prior to laying down new concrete. By 'conditioning' I mean shot blasting, applying a couple of layers of moisture barrier (two coats is a good place to start) and then a coat of primer and then pouring new concrete over top (everything given the full time to cure of course = days or weeks). The above process is expensive (can be $5 - $7/sf) but well worth it. I'm sorry you have gone through this. Your installer did the best s/he could with the information s/he had. Sadly, these old basements are tough to deal with. They required a 'wet basement' specialist who will come in and do the assessment (moisture readings...inspection...etc) and then recommend/do the work required to get rigid flooring over top of the wet slab. I'm sorry but this is a complete do over. The carpet would have been the better choice because carpet 'breathes'. It would have let the moisture through and the slab would have been happy-happy because it could keep doing what it had been doing for 80+ years = wicking plenty of water into the house.