Does the tile come first or the kitchen cabinets first ?

[alan]

I thought it was the latter - cabinets in place first and then cabinets but does to stove design *exposed feet* - Wolf stove...I guess I will have to tile first.

[Colbyt]

When I do a job floor tile comes before the cabinets. The only reason not to do it this way is saving a few bucks.

Wall tile comes after cabinets and countertops because tile is easier to trim than cabinets.

Colbyt

[No]

[c_kubie]

Floor first and do the entire kitchen area.

The cabinets will look better when sititng on tile as opposed to trying laying tile as close as possible to cabinets.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

When adding a new floor do you advocate ripping out the base cabinets? If you are putting in a very expensive floor, going under cabinets can cost big bucks for nothing.

[kzinNOSPAM99]

If you have any full height pantry cabinets tiling under them may cause you to have to trim the cabinet base. just something to keep in mind.

[Rudy]

We tile "up to" the existing cabinets, then the wife installs the same 3" tile baseboard trim as opposed to wood or mdf.

R

[G Henslee]

Nonsense. There are several reason why floor tile (which is a FINISH product) is set afterwards.

What reasoning...

[G Henslee]

Egg-zackly.

[G Henslee]

A voice of reason..

[kzinNOSPAM99]

we're about to lay porcelain tile now that the cabinets are installed.

I would think that grouting is a very messy process. Are there any tips for protecting the nice maple toe kick facing and caps other than common sense masking? Installer is planning on a uniform 3/8 in grout line along the base cabinet/tile interface. This matches the line width between the 18 sq inch tiles.

Perhaps it's more clever to tile up to the base cabinet and cover the gap with shoe moulding, though admittedly the grout line would look pretty slick as long as it doesn't make a mess of everything.

thanks in advance for comments ml

[Charles Spitzer]

blue masking tape.

[G Henslee]

There are degrees of messy ;o) However grouting doesn't have to be a slop-it-all-over-the-place affair.

If the wood is raw I would definately recommend it be taped off to protect it from staining.

If the setter's careful he can grout right up to that wood and not harm it. It takes a little care and cleaning with a clean damp sponge as you go, just as it does with the tile install process, but any haze left over will come off easily with a clean cloth or cheese cloth and a little lemon oil. Same as is quite often used for removing the haze off of the tile itself.