[Clueless]

I am putting in a floating floor, either cork or Marmoleum. Our previous floor went up to the cabinets and under the appliances. This time, I'd like the flooring to cover the floor and the cabinets to sit on top.

Is this a potential problem?

Thanks for your help!

[dafogle]

I don't think there are problems with the flooring being installed under the cabinets. Flooring installers will tell you the floor is the last thing to be installed (and that the floor gets installed under the fridge and possibly oven - but not under the cabinets.

I asked my flooring guys why - and they said its' to save money. Some people really want the flexiblity of flooring everywhere - so if you redesign and change things you don't have to mess w/ the floor. If you're using cabinets without toe-kick you definitely want the flooring under the cabinets. I think you're using varde in some places - I don't think the varde uses toe-kick.

HTH
Doreen

[kelly]

Hi Clueless!

It's a good question, and we do have some other threads which spoke to it. Essentially it's your choice. If you are going for the "leggy look," e.g. not using a toekick, you'll want to have your flooring go all the way to the wall. If you are using a toekick, you can go either way. Just know that if for any reason you move cabinets, you'll have to fill in with matching flooring, so if that's at all a possibility, buy extra so it will be the same lot and match.

If that's not likely, it's certainly cheaper and faster to go up to the cabinet edge. Very common. If you do go with the flooring to the wall, take the thickness into account in all your verticle measures.

[DulcineaK]

my flooring guy begs to go wall to wall cause it's easier and costs less to install, sure you're paying for the product that goes under, but you're not paying for all the cuts around and such.

next time i do it i'm going all the way!

[Chuck]

What Dulci said - it's much easier to install wall-to-wall, and the money you spend on the hidden material is made up in savings on the labor. There are no problems in having the cabinets covering or on top of the flooring, and you'll save hassles down the road if you ever need to reconfigure your cabinets and need to patch in the missing flooring.

[animes2k]

We chose not to run the flooring under the cabinets for a couple of reasons (as explained by the flooring guys):

- For the slate, considering the size and weight of the island we didn't want the tile to crack. It was also considered a bit of a waste of $5/sqft tile + $5/sqft installation to go under the island and cabinets. We did, however, tile under the fridge and range. Also, our tile is wayyy less than "even" from tile to tile, much less on the same tile.

- For the floating engineered hardwood it was again a consideration of cost and weight. We only have a small area that would have been under cabinets. They still would have had to cut the flooring to length, but against the wall instead of around the legs of the cabinets (which got covered with kickplate) and there would have been more gluing/cutting to exact length/etc required with that full-floor install. The weight issue was a consideration, since it could cause bowing or other deformation of the wood.

[fisheggs]

Another key issue that got discussed on the THS forums in detail yesterday - if you install the flooring first and then have any workmen coming in and out of the house, you have to take great pains to protect it from scratches and gouges from their dirty boots and dropped tools.

[garbo]

I am in the process of installing a floating engineered wood floor myself. I am NOT installing a toekick, but rather Capita legs on my base cabinets.
It requires far less cuts and lays down very quickly if you run wall to wall...I am able to use far more full plank lenghts.

The difference in materials cost was minimal when I figured it out...plus less chances for mistakes with less cuts being made.

I like the look of the exposed metal legs. I have a Varde piece as an island already (which has exposed legs) which is what inspired me to raise up the new cabinets I am installing.

Good luck!

[DulcineaK]

garbo, ita. plus when we talk about material costs often people who install just to the legs/toe kick also buy extra for future possibilities, so the actual cost of material isn't even saved

[Clueless]

Thanks, everyone.

I called Forbo and they said that Marmoleum Click can be installed wall-to-wall, even with heavy cabinets and furniture atop it around the perimeter of the room, as long as the planks are laid in a staggered fashion.