Installing kitchen on wooden floor - OK?

Dinarius

We're laying a wooden floor throughout an old kitchen and into the new kitchen/dining extension.

Flooring in the old kitchen will be onto existing joists. Flooring in the new kitchen will be onto concrete slab.

The flooring will be foil coated membrane (onto the cocrete slab)/waterproof plywood/engineered 4mm oak.

We are then installing a new kitchen.

Is it OK to install the kitchen on top of the floor, or should we install the floor around it?

The kitchen island has a stone top and will be quite heavy. About 1/3 of the island will be in the old (joist supported) kitchen and 2/3 in the new (concrete slab supported) kitchen.

Would we risk warping, or are we OK to lay it on the floor.

It would make it easier for everyone to be able to install the floor first and not have to calculate exactly what to leave out for the island.

Thanks.

D.

slimjimmc

I presume, since you're using engineered flooring, that you'll be laying a floating floor, so on that basis I recommend you fit the kitchen first then lay the floor around it.

With a floating floor the boards are not nailed or glued down onto the subfloor but simply sit ('float') on it. A floating floor needs to shrink/expand at will and the weight of heavy kitchen units could impede that.

You can run the boards under the electrical appliances and kickboards to give the impression of a full floor. Just make sure the units are supported by the sub floor (wood in old area, concrete in new area) and that no part of the floor is butted tight against any wall, pipe or kitchen unit.

In the old kitchen the floating floor must be layed over an existing wooden sub floor. Don't assume you can simply rip up the old floorboards and lay the new ones instead; most semi-solid flooring is not designed to support weight and should not be laid directly onto joists only.

I wouldn't bother calculating out the area for the island, you should allow for 15% wastage for off-cuts and trimmings, damaged boards or boards which might vary too much in colour/grain. Better to have some boards left over than run out, you can keep them to replace any damage that might happen in then future.

Dinarius

Many thanks for the reply. Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly.

I may not have made myself clear, but we will be laying the floor on 8x4 sheets of waterproof plywood, not on battens (don't even know if that's possible anyway.) The engineered boards will be secret nailed to the plywood. The floor won't be floating.

This is the way all the other wooden floors in the house are laid.

So, is it still necessary to *not* lay the kitchen units on it?

Many thanks.

D.

Joey the lips

Personally haveing fitted tiled floors and wooden floors your many years i find that the fllors are usually replaced 2 or 3 times in the life of kitchen on adverage. Many people replace the kitchen doors but keep the units in place.

If it were tiles and they were tiles of a good quality I would say lay the kitchen on it

personally I would never lay any wooden floor under a kitchen.

having said all this kitchen fllor legs can adjust slightly up one at a time allowing you get the floor out but if the floor is glued this can be virtually impossible

Really this is one of those choices you will have to make yourself


An alternative i would suggest is this

Have the floor installer bring the floor just under the kickboards., At the point where the face of the kitchen is have the kichen unit brought to the concrete floor but then have the timber floor fitted and lay an outer face on the kitchen unit down to the fitted floor.

This way to all the world it will look like your kitchen is fitted under the units but they will not have the difficulity of removing the floor. If you choose this option silicone sealent and beads of timber will have to be layed on top of the floor under the kickboards to keep moisture from going under the floor and silicone will have to be layed at the outside base of the kitchen face.

Hope i have not confused you

slimjimmc

Dinarius wrote: »

Many thanks for the reply. Not sure if I'm understanding you correctly.

I may not have made myself clear, but we will be laying the floor on 8x4 sheets of waterproof plywood, not on battens (don't even know if that's possible anyway.) The engineered boards will be secret nailed to the plywood. The floor won't be floating.

This is the way all the other wooden floors in the house are laid.

So, is it still necessary to *not* lay the kitchen units on it?

Many thanks.

D.

Ok, that changes things a little. Fixing the flooring to plywood will help prevent the boards warping during expansion/contraction and it helps that engineered flooring is more stable than solid wood flooring anyways so, with regards to warping, imo it should be ok to fit the kitchen on top if you really want.

However Joey raised a good point. If you ever need to replace the flooring before the kitchen you'll need to either rip out the kitchen or perhaps cut away the old floor around the units. There are a multitude of reasons why you might need the replace the flooring prematurely e.g water damage from burst pipes, leaking washing machine, etc. The veneer can only be sanded a few times so depending on wear & tear over the years you might be looking to replace it before the kitchen (Hmmm, that may be a good excuse to replace both, depending on how you look at it ).

Dinarius

Thanks to all.

Will probably lay the kitchen on the floor. It makes it easier to organize the timing of the different jobs and doesn't commit us to an exact positioning of the kitchen island during installation.

As to traffic on the floor, there's just the two of us. No kids!

Thanks again.

D.

Dinarius

Back again.....!

This time I want to ask about sourcing wooden flooring in the Dublin area.

It transpires that the flooring we were going to buy from Buckley's (at a very good price it must be said) comes in lengths averaging 1.2m. In such a large space as ours, such short lengths will look like wooden tiles instead of wooden flooring!

Four years ago, when we first renovated the house, we go some fabulous solid wood flooring from a place called Gerry Farrell Joinery in Inchicore, Dublin. They don't seem to exist any longer.

Any suggestions for sources of flooring (engineered will do fine) that is available in lengths of at least 2m+?

Thanks.

D.

Tigger

pm sent

antoinolachtnai

One other issue to consider is the possibility of flooding. Although it is unlikely, if it does happen, it can be a problem. A washing machine fault in particular will have a detrimental effect on your floor