Skip the overdone and ill suited to anything but a Soho loft waterfall entirely.

Unfortunately, my wife believes the waterfall is essential, so skipping it is not an option.

Then it looks like you don’t get your new floors. Unless you get a far more skilled and qualified flooring contractor.

If you remove the waterfall first, and it is too short for the new flooring… You could pull all the island cabinets up and cut the bottoms off by the difference (1/4 inch or so). Then put then back down and attach the waterfall.

Waterfall has to come off, which means paying the cabinet company to come back. There is the risk of breakage so I hope you don't have a busy pattern.

The LVP we selected and the tile are the same thickness... or would be if it wasn't for the adhesive used to secure the tile to the floor. Probably only 1-2mm difference altogether. But even if they were the same I don't know if the LVP would be solid enough for the waterfall to rest on.

The builder really screwed us by not making the waterfall go all the way to the subfloor, and given the way it is connected to the countertop, I'm not even sure we could have it removed permanently without having to completely redo the countertops on the island.

Thanks, Joseph, your answer gives me some hope that we might be able to do this without having to redo the whole kitchen. Do you think it's possible to cut the tile with the waterfall in place, or would it need to be removed in order to cut the tile?