Should Cabinets Be Installed Before Tile Flooring

Install plywood in remaining area to exact height of tile floor to finish cabinet install.

Should cabinets be installed before tile flooring.

Typically cabinets come before flooring. Floor covering or finish flooring is the surface that you see and walk on not the subfloor under the underlayment or underlayment between subfloor and finished layer. Mark the layout of the cabinets and all floor based appliances. On wood floors install cabinets on top of wood.

Put all the base cabinets in place then mark a line on the subfloor corresponding to the front edge of the toekick. Those are all good reasons to lay a kitchen floor after the cabinets are in. That way the finished skins are buried in the tile and grout and it is harder for water from mopping to get into and ruin them. But if you have to install the flooring first here s a method that will avoid some of the problems i just described.

The benefit of installing the tile assembly after the cabinets stone countertops and other dead loads are installed understanding that the floor was designed to handle these loads is to help ensure the system is placed into compression before the tile is installed meaning the force of downward pressure on the finished installation is minimized. In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. Install tile under cabinets and floor based appliances with a 2 inset this allows you to move the pattern and grout lines where needed. I prefer to install cabinets on the floated mortar including toe skins then have the tile installed.