Replacing Floor - HELP - DIY Chatroom

Tom5151 · 09-22-2009, 06:16 PM

Hello,

My wife and I have a cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin. It’s old. We are slowly renovating the whole thing.

It has a subfloor with some type of particle board underlayment over the top of it throughout. The subfloor is fine. We sprayed in closed cell foam insulation in the crawl space between floor joists so I don’t want to touch the subfloor but the underlayment is dried and cracked and bowed in some places and I would like to replace some or all of it before we put down hardwood floors and carpeting. My question is how do you remove the underlayment if the bottom plates for the walls were built on top of it? Do I just cut as close to the walls as I can and then just butt up the new underlayment to that? Are there special tools for this? Would a flush cut saw help me? Also what about room transitions? For example the same piece of underlayment extends from the hallway into one of the bedrooms. The underlayment in the bedroom wasn’t bad so that floor has already been carpeted but the underlayment in the hallway isn’t so good so I need to cut it out and replace it. It will receive hardwood in the future. How do you cut the underlayment across the door opening and make it flush up with the new?

Sorry if these questions are confusing. I am just trying to figure out how to replace the underlayment when the walls are built on top of it and when some rooms need replacing and some don’t.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

oh'mike · 09-24-2009, 07:06 PM

I suggest that you use a sawsall ,put the blade in up side down.

Do a shallow skim cut deep enough to cut into the underlayment.

What you can't cut with the sawsall,you'll be able to get with a chisel.

Tom5151 · 09-25-2009, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh'mike

I suggest that you use a sawsall ,put the blade in up side down.

Do a shallow skim cut deep enough to cut into the underlayment.

What you can't cut with the sawsall,you'll be able to get with a chisel.

Ah...well thats a creative idea. I was going to use the circular saw and get to within about 1.5 inches or so of the bottom plate but your approach may get me right there...thank you.