General kitchen overhaul will help to increase and update the available floor footage. Total remodeling has other advantages. They include home value addition and overall appeal to potential buyers. Kitchen remodel is normally a big undertaking. To achieve a kitchen of your liking, you need to meticulously plan for the remodel. Various homeowners’ are normally in a dilemma when deciding which to place before the other. Is it the floor before the cabinets or vice versa? This blog tries to decipher the various advantages each order has over the other.
Installing the Flooring First
Advantages
Most people prefers having the floorings installed before the cabinets. This will avoid the hustle of trimming material around the bases of the cabinets and other appliances. Many worry that installing the cabinets before the floor will make it difficult to change them in the future. This is because the old cabinet footprint will be evident. This seems to be the main advantage to why they start with the flooring. A kitchen remodel should be in a way that is easily adaptive in the future. Have a continuous floor around the cabinets will make your kitchen look tidy, clean and saves one from needing to install quarter rounds with your cabinets.
Disadvantages
This order of installation has some drawbacks. First, it wastes a lot of resource when floors are installed all throughout the kitchen and under the cabinetries. There is no need to install flooring materials as under the cabinets and appliances is not visible. Secondly, when remodeling the floor in future, you will need to remove the cabinets and appliances. This makes it a costly undertaking in any future desires to renovate it for the successive homeowners.
In addition, the choice of flooring materials also affect the order of installations. Certain materials requires enough space to expand and contract with changing temperature and moisture. Example is the wood flooring. Having a floor under your cabinet will cause the wood to buckle as it tries to expand damaging the whole floor. For this reason, most contractors recommend installing the flooring after cabinets and other appliances are in place. Additionally, you cannot install a floating floor before cabinet installation. The heavy cabinets and appliances will restrict their expansion and contraction causing the floor to disintegrate.
Installing the Cabinets First
Advantages
Installing your cabinetry will avert many challenges that you would have faced if you had started with the flooring kitchen remodel is normally a big undertaking. To achieve a kitchen of your liking, you need to meticulously plan for the remodel. Various homeowners’ are normally in a dilemma. First, you not going to spend on a flooring that you will not be seeing. Secondly, you are also less likely to damage your new flooring when you start with cabinets. You can damage and dent your floor if you had it in place when installing your cabinets.
Disadvantages
Having a cabinet before the flooring will leave a footprint that will stick around for most of the future renovations. You also have to do extra work cutting the flooring to fit the cabinets and appliances. This makes the installations more tedious expensive and time consuming.
Preinstalling appliances will trap appliances with built in switches. This will make it difficult to switch them on and off. You can overcome this situation by purchasing appliances that have no in built switches.
Generally, each installation process has various advantages and disadvantages. Although most contractors prefer going for the flooring first. This sequence has a lot of disadvantage. Consider the material you choose, your kitchen appliances and any future renovations that you foresee. This will help you come up with a personal choice that will fit into your budget. Seek advice from contractors on the installation sequence they use often.
