Hi, new to the board...

Have a question about my contractor's work... remodeling our kitchen... is it customary for our/any contractor to install the hardwood floors after the cabinets, island, refrigerator, etc. are installed?

Or, is it better to do the hardwood floors before everything else is installed?

I figure the only drawback to "before" would be to protect the wood from unnecessary scratches...

What would be best... the contractor would like to do it after all is installed. Comments appreciated! TIA.

On pre-finished hardwood I prefer to do it last, for the reason you mentioned. Set the base cabinets up on cleats to match the thickness of the flooring to maintain the working height, and for the dishwasher.

The Island cabinet can be set before on the cleats or last, right on top of the new floor (if its not a floating floor).

I do work for remodeling contractors all the time. They make up a bulk of my customers. They almost always set the cabinets first. It makes my job a little harder but in the end, it makes for a better overall project. Why? The cabinets can be set without concern of the floors. This is very helpful because the cabs often need to be shifted around to accomodate uneven floors and out of square rooms. Many are going with granite slab counters. Without the cabs in place, they cannot template for the slabs. The manufacturing time for the slabs is about two weeks. Nothing can happen during that time because everything is waiting on the slabs. Remodelers like to keep things moving along. I often install the floors during the two week slab waiting time IF they are unfinished. If prefinished, we wait till everything is pretty much completed.