Cabinets On Top Of Floating Floor
Seal the edges of a piece of 3 by 3 foot plastic sheeting onto the floor with duct tape.
Cabinets on top of floating floor. In other words put legs on your cabinets and let them float on top of the floating floor. Since your floor will be floating on the subfloor and connected solely by the locking system it needs space to expand and contract with temperature changes. Install the cabinets first because heavy cabinetry cannot sit on top of a floating floor or it will restrict movement and increase the chances of flooring separation.
Depending on the look you want you could have euro style legs with a detachable kick or traditional cabinet legs which would cost more. If you install the floating kitchen floor over concrete test for moisture before you begin. Unless there are severe changes in the relative humidity the floor will not move very much and kitchen cabinets can be installed directly on the flooring.
Floating floors such as laminate are designed to be installed with an expansion space around the perimeter of the floor. One trick i use is to install nylon chair glides on the underside of the base cabinets. I have installed dozens of floating floors and cabinets.
A floating wood floor has to be free to expand and contract with seasonal changes in humidity and it can t do that with heavy cabinets resting on top of it. If installing a floating floor the answer is simple. However when installing a wood flooring nail down or glue down there are more factors to consider.
Installing over glue down floors is not a concern. This lowers the risk of peaking in the future. It is always recommended to install cabinets before floating flooring rather than installing cabinets on top of floating floors.
It s always recommended to install cabinets before your floors if you are doing floating floors. We install euro cabinets on leg levelers over existing wood floors and there hasn t been a problem so far. This space allows the entire floor to float from side to side when it expands and contracts due to changes in temperature and humidity levels.
If you install heavy cabinetry such as kitchen cabinets on top it will inhibit the floor from expanding and contracting and can lead to issues such as buckling and damaged locking systems. It is imperative that the expansion space be maintained not only around the perimeter of the room but also in each location where the floor meets a vertical surface such as a kitchen island. Floor covering or finish flooring is the surface that you see and walk on not the sub floor and not an underlayment.
