Cabinet Installation in a Custom Home: What Happens First and Why Sequence Matters

Cabinet Day Isn't Just About Cabinets

When homeowners visit their custom home during construction and see the cabinets going in, it feels like the finish line is close. And it is — cabinet installation is one of the major milestones in the finish phase of a new home build. But what most people don't realize is how much work has to happen before those cabinets can be set, and how many trades need to be perfectly choreographed to make cabinet day go smoothly.

At South Eastern General Contractors, we've coordinated hundreds of cabinet installations across Fayetteville, Lumberton, and the surrounding North Carolina communities over the past 21 years. The sequence matters enormously. Get it wrong, and you're looking at damaged cabinets, misaligned countertops, and delays that ripple through every remaining trade. Here's how the process actually works.

What Has to Happen Before Cabinets Arrive

Cabinet installation doesn't start when the delivery truck pulls up. It starts weeks earlier with a series of prerequisite steps that set the stage:

Walls Must Be Primed (Not Painted)

Before cabinets go in, all walls in the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry room need at least one coat of primer. Why primer and not the final paint? Because the final paint coat happens after the cabinets are installed — the painter needs to cut in around the cabinets, fill any nail holes from the installation, and touch up any scuffs that happen during the install. Priming first gives the cabinet installer a clean, sealed surface to work against and ensures the paint adhesion will be consistent later.

Interior Trim Should Be Running (But Not Complete)

Base molding, crown molding, and door/window casings need to be in progress or substantially complete before cabinet installation. Here's why: the trim carpenter establishes the reference lines that the cabinet installer uses. If the base trim is set first, the cabinet installer knows exactly where the floor-to-cabinet relationship sits. If crown molding is in place above where upper cabinets will go, the installer can ensure the cabinets align with the crown line.

That said, the trim work in the immediate cabinet areas may need to be left unfinished — the trim carpenter will return after cabinet installation to scribe trim pieces that butt against the cabinet boxes. This back-and-forth between trim and cabinets is normal and expected in custom home construction.

Flooring Decision: Before or After?

This is one of the most common questions homeowners ask: should the flooring go in before or after the cabinets?

• Hardwood and luxury vinyl plank (LVP): These typically go in after cabinets. The flooring butts up to the cabinet toe kicks, and base trim or shoe molding covers the expansion gap. This approach protects the flooring from damage during cabinet installation.

• Tile flooring: In kitchens with tile, the tile usually goes in before cabinets. Setting cabinets on top of tile ensures the dishwasher height is correct (the dishwasher slides in at counter height, and if the floor height changes under the cabinets, the dishwasher won't fit).

Your general contractor should make this call during the pre-construction planning phase, not on the fly during the build.

Plumbing and Electrical Rough-In Must Be Verified

Before cabinets go in, the plumber and electrician need to verify that all rough-in locations match the cabinet layout. Supply lines, drain locations, outlet positions, and under-cabinet light wiring must align with the cabinet drawings. If the sink base is 36 inches wide but the drain was roughed in at the center of a 30-inch opening, you've got a problem that's much harder to fix after cabinets are set.

At SEGC, our project manager does a cabinet-readiness walkthrough that cross-references the plumbing rough-in, electrical rough-in, and the cabinet shop drawings before the delivery is scheduled. This one check prevents most installation-day surprises.

The Installation Sequence: Step by Step

Here's the actual sequence our cabinet installers follow on a typical custom home in North Carolina:

Step 1: Layout Lines

The installer uses a laser level to establish a perfectly level reference line at 34.5 inches above the finished floor height (standard counter height is 36 inches, minus the 1.5-inch countertop thickness). Every base cabinet will be set to this line. Upper cabinets get a second reference line, typically 54 inches above the finished floor (18-inch backsplash height above the counter).

Step 2: Upper Cabinets First

Counter-intuitively, upper cabinets go in before base cabinets. This gives the installer unobstructed access to the wall — no base cabinets in the way while they're lifting, leveling, and screwing the uppers into the wall studs. Each upper cabinet is shimmed level, secured to studs with structural screws (not drywall screws), and then fastened to the adjacent cabinet with clamps and cabinet screws to create a continuous, aligned run.

Step 3: Base Cabinets

Base cabinets go in next, shimmed level and plumb on all axes. The installer checks level front-to-back, side-to-side, and across the run. In older homes with uneven floors, shimming can be extensive. In new construction on a slab or subfloor, the shimming is usually minimal — but never zero. No floor is perfectly flat.

Step 4: Fillers, Panels, and Scribes

Filler strips close the gaps between cabinet runs and walls. End panels dress the exposed sides of cabinet boxes. Scribe molding covers any irregular gaps where cabinets meet walls that aren't perfectly straight. This is detail work that separates a custom installation from a production-builder installation.

Step 5: Hardware and Adjustments

Doors and drawers are adjusted for consistent gaps and smooth operation. Soft-close hinges are checked. Drawer slides are tested under load. Hardware (pulls and knobs) may be installed now or after painting, depending on the homeowner's preference.

What Comes After Cabinet Installation

Cabinets in place doesn't mean the kitchen is done. Here's what follows:

• Countertop templating: The countertop fabricator visits to take precise measurements of the installed cabinets. Granite, quartz, and solid-surface countertops are cut from these templates — not from the original cabinet drawings, because real-world installation always introduces slight variations.

• Plumbing trim: The plumber returns to install the sink, faucet, garbage disposal, and dishwasher connections.

• Electrical trim: The electrician installs under-cabinet lighting, outlets with cover plates, and the range connection.

• Backsplash tile: If there's a tile backsplash, the tile contractor comes in after countertops are set.

• Final paint touch-up: The painter does a final pass around all cabinets, touching up scuffs and filling any gaps between the cabinet and wall with caulk.

Common Mistakes That Delay Cabinet Installation

Over 21 years of building custom homes, we've seen every cabinet installation problem there is. Here are the most common:

• Ordering cabinets late. Custom cabinets have lead times of 6 to 12 weeks. Semi-custom lines run 4 to 8 weeks. If the cabinet order isn't placed during the framing phase, installation will be the bottleneck that delays every finish trade behind it.

• Skipping the readiness walkthrough. Sending cabinets to a job site where the plumbing rough-in is wrong or the walls aren't primed wastes an entire day of the installer's time — and yours.

• Not protecting installed cabinets. Once cabinets are in, every other trade working in the house needs to be careful. Countertop installers, painters, tile setters, and flooring crews all pass through the kitchen. Moving blankets over cabinet faces and cardboard on countertops prevent damage.

• Wrong cabinet height for the appliances. If the cabinet designer and the appliance selections aren't coordinated, you can end up with a 36-inch range opening next to 34.5-inch base cabinets, or a refrigerator that's too tall for the overhead cabinet frame. These dimensions need to be locked before the cabinet order is placed.

Why Your General Contractor's Role Is Critical

Cabinet installation involves the cabinet supplier, the installer, the plumber, the electrician, the trim carpenter, the painter, the countertop fabricator, and the tile contractor — all of whom need to show up in the right order, at the right time, and with the right information. That coordination is the general contractor's job.

At SEGC, we maintain a detailed finish schedule that sequences every trade around the cabinet installation milestone. We know from experience that a one-day delay in cabinet installation cascades into a three-to-five day delay across all the trades that follow.

Start Your Custom Home the Right Way

Cabinet installation is just one example of how a custom home build requires expert-level coordination at every stage. If you're planning a custom home in Fayetteville, near Fort Bragg, or in the greater Sandhills area, choose a builder who manages these details proactively — not reactively.

Contact South Eastern General Contractors at (910) 565-4719 or visit southeasterngc.com to learn more about our custom home building process.