Flooring before (replacing) kitchen?

martinsurrey

keystone wrote: »

You assume 1) OP is having a high end kitchen and b) that they are having an island. Is that likely in a flat?

Cheers

OP is having solid wood floor laid, replacing engineered wood, over a large area (living dining kitchen), so thats a decent sized area, so the budget is £x,xxx+ so my guess is its not a off the shelf shed kitchen, could be wrong, but would rather point out that a high quality finish on a good quality kitchen will need flooring done first.

if they had said replacing Lino with Laminate, I would be more inclined to think it was a lower end kitchen they were going for.

as I said, it also covers end units, which a lot of kitchens have (I just posted a picture of an island, put clearly said "also end units with quality sides")

keystone

Yes I know - you don't need to labour the point. Perhaps this discussion would be more appropriate as and when OP declares a) the area concerned and b) what he's having fitted. You never know I might agree with you in then light of such information. As it happens I've not long finished tiling a 50m^2 kitchen/diner/utility/downstairs loo in an extension and am well aware of the challenges that an in situ island can present when you have to go around it.

For the moment I'm posting on the basis of what OP has said not speculating.

Cheers

martinsurrey

keystone wrote: »

Fit the flooring after you have fitted the units.

keystone wrote: »

For the moment I'm posting on the basis of what OP has said not speculating.

Cheers

no your first 9 words were an unequivical statement, which must have included some sort of speculation on your part or it would have been

"fit the flooring after you have fitted the units unless your kitchen includes..."

dont want to go on about this, I was just being helpful about something that catches people out, and could have been missed if your first 9 words had beeen taken as fact.

not a personal dig, but needed to be highlighted.

keystone

Its in a flat! And my words clearly also say that its a waste to put the flooring of whatever description under the units. And it looks like it is.

Cheers

DirectDebacle

Fit the floor then the units.

If you must stagger the work then consider staggering the work by fitting the floor in the living/dining space first and finishing when you are ready to fit the new kitchen or vice versa. In that case buy all the required flooring at the same time to ensure uniformity of colour/grain. Discuss with the supplier beforehand.

By fitting the units to the floor they will all be at the same level and there will be no issues with beading around them to cover expansion gaps.

SternMusik

I echo the previous poster. Fit the flooring first. Much better finish. Also, having recently had a leak where water penetrated much of my kitchen subfloor (horrible chipboard) which subsequently had to be ripped out (including kitchen) I was very keen to get the floor covered right up to the wall on all sides.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Engineered flooring can be sanded, the number of times depends on the type/thickness of top hardwood layer but usually at least three times (are you sure it is this rather than laminate?).

If there are budgetary constraints then you may want to consider sanding rather than replacing your existing floor, test a small area first rather than incur the expense of hiring a floor sander.

I understand that you have a cosmetic preference for wider planks, this look can be acheived by engineered wood and it would be more stable as others have said. Personally, I don't like wood in kitchens at all but if I did go for it, I'd go for engineered.

Yes, do the floor first although bear in mind that it will need to be protected from subsequent works.

Hugbubble

Hi

Sorry for not replying sooner (busy at work blah blah and forgot to check back).

Thanks for everyone's replies. I'm sorry I seem to have kicked off a disagreement.

Let me try to respond to everyone's questions.

1) We are not considering the type of very high end kitchen that a previous poster suggested- the kitchen part of the open plan living space is probably a rectangle of about 8 foot by 7 foot (at a guess??) and that is from wall to wall, including cabinets. We're thinking Ikea, wickes, howdens (suggestions/ recommendations welcome!) And there isn't really any scope for reconfiguring the cabinet layout (see 3 below)

2) We'd hope to get the kitchen bought and fitted for around £2k, maybe a little more if we upgrade the (integrated) appliances

3) There will be no ends of units- I've described it as open plan, but the kitchen is actually boxed off slightly so only the fronts of cabinets are visible (I think the "walls" hide the services, and possibly some girders or something- its a mill conversion)

4) Yes it is a flat, but we would like it to look high end. As I mentioned, it is a mill conversion so it has double height ceilings, in the living space alone it has three windows the smallest of which is 6 feet across (the others are 10 feet-ish each), and the living space is big- probably 30 feet by 25....so it has the potential to look stunning. And the flooring continues into the (separate) hall so we'd need to do that too. For this reason I know getting the flooring replaced (with either solid wood or good quality engineered) would probably cost a minimum of £4k with fitting...

5) Yes it is definitely engineered wood currently (we had a minor repair done to a small part of it which involved sanding).



I hope this gives more information. As a response to the very helpful comments here, I am going to look into the possibility of (getting someone in to) sanding & revarnishing the current floor. Does anyone have an idea of how much traders charge for this?

Hugbubble

Hi

Top layer on engineered floor is ~4mm. Is this good enough to sand and revarnish?

Thanks for any replies...