Removing Laminate Flooring Under Cabinets

Typically cabinets come before flooring.

Removing laminate flooring under cabinets.

In most cases given standard flooring heights you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. When installing laminate flooring in kitchens and bathrooms you cannot place cabinets or any hardware that is meant to be bolted permanently to the floor on the laminate. Installing laminate flooring under cabinets is a very common question for homeowners. Remove the cabinets and screw a plywood filler piece to the subfloor about inch inside the line where it will be under the cabinets.

It s possible to replace kitchen tiles on the floor or wall without removing cabinets even if they re built on top of old tiles. The best way to do it is to use a heat gun to soften the adhesive and pull the laminate off in sections starting with the edging. How to cut old flooring at the cabinets. The trick is cutting the tile around the cabinets using the proper tools.

I have been installing laminate flooring since the product first became popular. However both are doable with patience and a steady supply of heat. Screw a strip of the same thickness to the floor next to. This piece should be at least 2 inches wide and about inch thicker than the total thickness of the flooring including any vapor barrier or cushion.

Builders have an ongoing debate about whether it s better to install a hardwood floor before or after you put in the cabinets. Just be aware if you go this route that if you replace the cabinets someday you ll have to redo the kitchen flooring as well if the cabinets aren t exactly the same footprint. For installations that go over existing flooring in kitchens where cabinets are already installed i leave a 1 4 gap for expansion and trim out around the cabinets with matching quarter round from the flooring supplier. However this process can be difficult labor intensive and time consuming.

You ll want to add shoe molding to the toe kicks to cover the laminate edge. Or you can cut the laminate flooring at the cabinet edge and but the new stuff up to it. Some mdf cabinets have a plastic coating and removing a plastic coating from kitchen cabinets is usually easier than removing a wood laminate. Stacy asks i want to remove my existing flooring but the cabinets are built on top of it.