Complete design failure. This could and should have been accounted for initially. No bsndaid will ever work with those cabinets in the way.

Pull the cabinets and fix it properly.

I just figured out a bsndaid is a bandaid! Sophie is right. Fix this before you compound the problem by installing countertops.

Unfortunately, I agree with the initial comment, but without the rudeness. I am assuming this was a prebuilt cabinet unit. The only choice at this point is to see if the base of the cabinet unit can be corrected to match the width of the floor space to cover the open space that was left. The only other temporary fix would be to place a rug there, but that won't work with the floor A/C vent. I am sorry to not be able to offer any easy or relatively inexpensive fix.

Counter tops are in already. It was measured by a contractor for home depot and supposedly built to order. I'm at a loss....

Ouch! You may be able to find a trim carpenter skilled enough to build out the toe-kick and make it look okay. Otherwise you will need to re-finish the floors in the kitchen.

Do you have no recourse with HD? Their contractor did a poor job of measuring.

I agree, ouch! Yes, adjusting the toe kick was something I had considered as well. That may be your best bet. Good Luck!

No-- home depot said they did nothing wrong and is not taking any responsibility.

For future cabinet needs, I definitely recommend going with an independent cabinet designer rather than the big, multipurpose companies. A specialist in cabinet making would be less likely to make those kinds of mistakes. I would also seek recourse through Home Depot.

Oh, I just saw your comment - again, that is why I recommend independent contractors. I am sorry that you were taken advantage of in this way.

I agree with Summit Studio Architects, build out the toe kick and add shoe molding.

Find some existing hardwood in a closet, against a wall, behind the couch etc. Cut to fit. Done

What should have happened is that once demolition was completed, the gap in the floors should have been filled with plywood, with some custom stained pieces of wood at the edges where the new smaller toe kick exposed the gaps.

That is custom work that is well beyond the skills of a box store cabinet installer. An actual GC would have handled that, no problem. You didn't hire a GC. You were technically the GC on the job, actually.

At this point, it's become a labor intensive fussy job that will cost more because of that. Call a local sand and finish flooring guy who does custom staining. He will need to kludge some pieces into that gap after custom finishing them to match. The toe kick will need to come off, and you will need shoe molding that matches the cabinets installed after reinstalling the toe kick.

HD should order those parts no charge for being clueless. But you as the job GC also bear some responsibility here, so you need to pay the flooring professional's fee. You would have needed to pay him originally. It's just you'll be paying a bit more because of the increased difficulty of the incorrrct order of operations.

A handyman who installs lots of wood floor can probably help you by putting in something very similar or bring out the toe kick piece to fill in the gap. Yes a bummer, but focus on the end result, you are going to have a GORGEOUS kitchen!!!

Am I understanding correctly that the lighter wood is actually unfinished flooring or is it a truly indented gap? If it's the former, I think you'd be able to find a good professional floor guy to match the stain closely if not perfectly.

You don't need a perfect stain match there; you just need a very good one. You could call a flooring pro to try to blend just that one area, though it may not be worth their time (and your money!) OR you could have the entire floor sanded and stained OR you could try fixing it yourself. If it were me, since it's only a 1-1/2" piece under the toekick, I'd get an unfinished scrap piece of the same flooring, buy a couple small cans of stain and practice until I got a close-enough match. Good luck to you!

Correct- it's not a gap, it's unfinished floor.

Yes this is home depot's fault. If you want them to do something, first call the store manager. They want to stop any complaint from going up the chain. If they won't do anything, go to corporate.

Keep in mind that whatever solution they employ may not make the problem any better or will leave it just as bad, just different. I'd call a hardwood flooring contractor and have him come in, fill in the gap and then sand and refinish the floor. Get recommendations for someone really good. Hardwood floor guys see this problem all the time. Then leave a bad review on Google reviews and the Home Depot website.

It looks like most of you are way overdue for an eye exam. ;)

Just have that piece stained to match the rest of the floor , should not be a major expense.

You could stain that small area yourself and get very close to matching the existing floor. The entire floor should have been sanded and re stained before the cabinets were installed. Not the end of the world. And most of the above posters are so eager to rip someone they can't see straight..............................

Once sanded, stained and coated with poly, the unfinished portions that run parallel to the floor pieces should blend in quite well. Where boards run perpendicular to the base of the cabinet it will be harder to disguise, and look more like a touch-up. An inexpensive primed shoemold could be installed and painted to match the toe kick to cover a portion of the unfinished areas or you could use a finished Oak shoemold or quarter round (yuck!).

I don't see how anyone can reasonably claim this falls on Home Depot but they should have alerted you that the new cabinets wouldn't cover the exact same footprint. Toe kicks generally come 21" out from the wall. Your new cabinets may have been built to order but they're likely to be of standard size, not custom built. Building custom cabinets to cover the exact footprint would almost certainly cost a lot more.

I don't think building out the toe kicks is an option. They should be 3" deep from the face of the cabinet. Building it out would reduce functionality. Have the unfinished area lightly sanded, stained and coated. At some point the floors will be resanded and everything will be ideal.

"It's not a gap, just unfinished floor."

Stain the unfinished floor.

Oh heck I thought it was plywood. How many lineal feet are we looking at? That would dictate price. Parallel pieces easiest. Perpendicular hardest to blend from a pro that knows what they're doing.

"Just have that piece stained to match the rest of the floor , should not be a major expense."Yup. That's the ticket. Agreed, not a Home Depot issue.

Could be two to three hundred bucks and more (may have to come back to re coat too. Also looks like an oil based finish) from a pro that knows what they're doing for let's say 15 parallel lineal feet. Handyman is likely to make it look like a patch job. Finding a pro difficult.

I don't see what's the big deal. It would be fairly easy for a handyman to get a piece or two of unfinished flooring, rip it to width, nail it down with a finish nail gun, stain and poly.

thatsmuchbetter: Good thing you're here to diss us, life would be so uninteresting without folks like you! Thanks!

@Carolina

"And most of the above posters are so eager to rip someone they can't see straight"

I would get a good handyman/carpenter to see if they can do some spot staining to mask the color difference. For the bits by the toekick, that's all you would need. I don't know where the other spots are, but if they are all just at or near the edge of a toekick or an appliance, just get a stain to match as close as possible. It won't be perfect, but it won't be noticeable if the color is the same.

It may not be a big deal geoffrey. Just depends on what kind of expectations Stacy wants out of it.

Uptown Floors: I read the thread more carefully - it's just unfinished - not the subfloor. This should be real easy to stain & poly. No one is going to be peering down by the kick molding.

Put in a 1 inch thick board as a toe kick. You can paint it any color you would like. I had to do this in an apartment due to people flooding the kitchen and the original kick board being ruined. I ended up liking it so much, I did it in a bunch of rentals. I painted them black and they took a beating and still looked great.

Why can't you just cut a piece of hardwood flooring to fit and stain and poly. You'll never notice it.

That install is an example of why I recommend small contractors instead of going with big box store subcontractors. I want to know that the person who views the job and gives me a price quote will be the same person who will at least be supervising the crew, or preferably leading the crew. Dealing with the same person eliminates the internal finger pointing that leads to an unsatisfactory installation.

In any case, the installer is responsible for the raw end of the toe kick showing in the second photo. I don't consider that a finished job so I'm not surprised he left the unfinished flooring as well. The shim sticking out isn't right either.

I would try to match the stain and finish that small piece of flooring to closely match the remainder of the floor. The difference in sheen won't be very noticeable under the toe kick. As mentioned above, parallel boards are much easier to work with that perpendicular. Building out the toe kick is an acceptable choice as well...that isn't a sacred space. Old house cabinets have no toekick and it doesn't impede on the use of the cabinet.

Big box installers will not do anything that isn't set out in the order. One lady I spoke with said she had big box guys tear out her kitchen cabinets and they found black mold underneath the sink base where there had been a leak. They packed their tools up, told her that she'd have to get someone to spray it with bleach and that they'd be back when that was done. They weren't paid for and didn't want to handle a "dangerous" substance like that.

Any decent installer would take the initiative to get a spray bottle with bleach in it, spray it on the black mold, let it dry and then go back to work.

And that contractor could be cited for incorrect mold remediation. Bleach is exactly the wrong thing to use, and that is exactly the cavalier attitude that spreads contamination through a home. That is a lawsuit and fine waiting to happen.

A box store very rightly will not touch anything that they are not certified to do. That example of knowing your limits should be one that any contractor should follow.

However, the contractor should also take the initiative to become certified in lead, asbestos, and mold remediation. But if he isn’t, the liability is HUGE to even touch any of that. The fines are very big, and can bankrupt a small contractor.

Not saying box store contractors do everything right, that would be foolish, but the box stores have endured enough Federal fines to know how to approach situations that might trigger more fines. Learn from that, or you may join them in incurring citations and fines.

Sophie, my point was that if a big box installer has to do something in the course of the installation that isn't on the order, he drops what he's doing until payment for the extra labor goes through in terms of a purchase order from the store. That's no way to have to go through a kitchen remodel.

And for a spot of black mold no bigger than my hand, bleach is what contractors use around here. I doubt this explanation will get me out from underneath your wrath, though.

Doesn't seem to be a big deal to fix this. It's not a "gap" - it's just an unfinished 1.5" of flooring along the toekick. Definitely a do-it-yourself for anyone that is even a little handy.

For the floor how about a piece of quarter round either painted the color of the toe space or stained like the floor. As for the floor...wider part where the 4" space is, get a stain that matches as well as possible and finish it to cover up the unpainted boards.

Thankfully, it's unfinished exposed wood.

Solution

1. Stain then seal exposed wood to match
2. then apply white finishing quarter over seam to go around base cabinets

Avoid matching quarter round to floor.

Keep floor colors flat on the floor.

Match trim work to cabinets.

See the difference.

Find a close stain and stain it

The real shame is that her husband didn't jump in, and say I can fix this. That's what is caring for your wife is about.

Sorry Geoffrey but caring for your wife is treating her as an equal and not assuming that a husband should jump in and fix something. This is a homeowner task, not a husband task

No husband, just a single mom winging it...

It looks to me like standard red oak flooring. Any contractor can get it..then stain it and it'll be fine. You can practice with colors on a spare piece before you stain it..and remember the poly will alter the color a bit, too..but it's an easy fix.

She doesn't need to "get" any red oak. She simply needs to put a finish on what is now showing from the new cabinets.

10 days, umpteen posts later and Chess advice is still the correct answer. It's under a cabinet, get a stain that is close and have at it.