The order things happen in.

Flooring before or after kitchen cabinets?

Cabinets first, then flooring up to them, is the more common order for a floating floor, because a floating floor must be free to move and cabinets screwed through it pin it down. For nail-down or glue-down hardwood, running the floor first and setting cabinets on top is normal and makes a future cabinet change easier.

The deciding factor is which floor you have chosen, so decide the floor before the cabinets are ordered. Getting this backwards is how people end up with a toe kick that does not fit or a floating floor that buckles a year later. The choosing guide covers running one floor from the kitchen into the living room.

Do you paint before or after flooring?

Paint the walls first, then install the floor, then do the final touch ups. Painting first means no drips on a new floor and no masking of a finished surface. The touch-up pass afterwards deals with the scuffs that installing baseboard and moving material inevitably leaves.

Do you install baseboards before or after flooring?

Flooring first, then baseboard, in almost every case. The baseboard covers the expansion gap the floor needs at the wall, and it hides the cut line. On a floating floor this is not cosmetic: the baseboard must sit on the floor without pinching it, so it is nailed to the wall, never down through the boards.

Removal and reinstallation of baseboard and door casing is part of the job here rather than a separate charge, which is worth checking with anyone you are comparing.

What do you do if the subfloor is not level, especially under vinyl plank?

You correct it before the floor goes down, and there are published numbers for how flat is flat enough. For glue-down and fasteners under 1½", including most vinyl plank and engineered work, the tolerance is 1/8" in 6' or 3/16" in 10'.[1] For nail-down with longer fasteners it is 3/16" in 6' or ¼" in 10'.[1]

How it gets corrected depends on what is wrong: planing high spots, screwing down loose panels, self-levelling cement in low areas, or grinding a slab. The guidelines say flatness should be measured across the span of each room, not spot checked, to get the overall topography.[1]

Where a subfloor cannot be brought to tolerance, the guidelines call for replacing it or adding a second layer rather than proceeding.[1] Nobody enjoys hearing that. It is still cheaper than a floor that fails. The subfloor page has the six ways it is done.

What is under the carpet in an older house?

Usually plywood or plank subfloor, tack strip around the perimeter, hundreds of staples, and sometimes a layer of older flooring nobody mentioned. On stairs it is often unfinished construction-grade treads and risers that were never meant to be seen, which matters if you are planning to expose them.

Occasionally there is original hardwood under there in good enough condition to sand and refinish, which is the cheapest good outcome available and worth checking for before you buy anything. Old resilient tile or sheet vinyl under the carpet in a pre-1980s house is a different conversation, covered on the removal page.

Flush mount floor vents: are they worth it, and do they work with vinyl plank?

They sit level with the floor instead of on top of it, so nothing catches on them and the eye is not drawn to a metal grille in the middle of a new floor. They work with vinyl plank and with wood, and the decision has to be made before installation because the opening is framed as the floor goes in.

Max's take: it is one of the few small upgrades people notice every day and never regret. Retrofitting one afterwards means cutting into a finished floor, so it is a now decision.

How long does a flooring installation take?

Two things set it, and neither is square footage on its own: how complicated the space is, and which floor you have chosen. A square room with a sound subfloor is the fast case. A staircase is the slow one, and it is not close.

Complexity. Open floor goes down in long runs. Everything that interrupts a run costs time: doorways and transitions, closets, a kitchen island, hearths, angled walls, and rooms that have to line up with each other so the boards carry through without a break. Stairs are a different job altogether. Each tread and riser is cut and fitted individually, with a nosing and returns, which is finish carpentry rather than flooring, and it is why stairs are scheduled and priced separately from the flat work.

Floor type. A floating floor over a prepared subfloor is the quickest to lay. Nail-down solid hardwood is slower because every board is fastened at set intervals along its length, not just at the ends.[1] Glue-down is slower again, because the adhesive sets the pace and the floor has to be left alone while it cures. Sanding and refinishing is measured in coats and the drying time between them rather than in area.

The variable nobody can quote over the phone is what the subfloor needs, because it is hidden until the old floor is up. A subfloor already inside the published flatness tolerance adds nothing. One that needs planing, screwing down, levelling compound or replacement adds a real day or more.[1] Removal is its own block of time, and in a pre-1980s house with old resilient tile it can pause the job entirely while the material is tested.

So Max gives you the schedule at the estimate, at the house, alongside the number, once he has seen which of those apply to your rooms. An average lifted off the internet would be wrong for your house in both directions.