Floating floor and kitchen.

[EllenEL]

I am about to order 1100 sq ft of flooring and place in 3 bedrooms, hallway and open concept LR DR and kitchen. So far I have been set on floating Kahrs floors which are engineered click lock system. Hubby and his friends as well as kitchen cabinet installer all suggest floor should run under cabinetsas as a baseline. I have 30 year old house and 3/4 osb as subfloor.
I do not think I can put floating floor under cabinets which means what? I need a different floor?
Hubby insists on engineered wood not sure if he will change his opinion.
I really really do not want to make expensive mistakes like this. This is our retirement home so need it to last and be medium budget priced.
What are my worst considerations if floating floor goes in the kitchen after cabinets? I will have an island and perimeter cabinets.
Should I give up and find hardwood? Engineered wood that can be stapled or nailed and go under cabinets?

 

[C.J.]

Just wait until your cabinets are installed if you really want floating floors.

 

[EllenEL]

C.J. not sure I got it.
Initially I decided on floating floors and Kahrs because it is DIY friendly.
I did install floating floor in MB with your and others help which is much appreciated. It was fun but lets just say I know where bodies buried lol.
Unfortunately my hallway kitchen and LRDR is where we spend all the time so I can not monkey around with 2 weeks of floor prep and 2 weeks of laying floors in each room time frames. Plus I have challenging hallway subfloor that is bulging where addition is connected to old house. So am giving up on DIY for now.
Thus am not married to floating floor. Frankly I just want "a floor" at this time.
Am not sure why everyone I respect professional opinion telling me floor under cabinets is best?

 

[Mark Brown]

Flooring under cabinets is best.... right up until you are floating a floor then it is a universal no no. Its done all the time and people get away with it but why take the risk?
The cabinets have substantial weight and are over a large enough area to pinch that floor and disallow any movement along that direction causing an imbalance in the rest of the floorong when and of it does shift.

 

[JCobb]

I am about to order 1100 sq ft of flooring and place in 3 bedrooms, hallway and open concept LR DR and kitchen. So far I have been set on floating Kahrs floors which are engineered click lock system. Hubby and his friends as well as kitchen cabinet installer all suggest floor should run under cabinetsas as a baseline. I have 30 year old house and 3/4 osb as subfloor.
I do not think I can put floating floor under cabinets which means what? I need a different floor?
Hubby insists on engineered wood not sure if he will change his opinion.
I really really do not want to make expensive mistakes like this. This is our retirement home so need it to last and be medium budget priced.
What are my worst considerations if floating floor goes in the kitchen after cabinets? I will have an island and perimeter cabinets.
Should I give up and find hardwood? Engineered wood that can be stapled or nailed and go under cabinets?

I personally like the cabinet installers to put their bases down first, then install the floor. The cabinet kicks should cover the gap. That being said there is more and more cabinets that don’t sit on bases and they have legs instead. Just needs good communication between floor and cabinet installer.

 

[EllenEL]

You guys are wealth of information!
After consideration am thinking I should "dry" place and mark my bases ends, step off 1/2", lay strips to match floor height and let floor installers come close with a gap.
Then after the floor installed I get my base cabinets installed. This way I avoid molding which I totally hate.

 

[Mark Brown]

Honestly JCobb has it, im a perfect world the bases go in then floor then cab and kicks. More often, cabs go in and cab guys come back and slam kicks on.
These days, most cabs use funky plastic twisty feet so the kicks a lot of the time clip on and are a breeze to deal with.

Really, anything works