[siggyfreud]

Hey all,

Wife and I are currently in the middle of a flooring project at home. I've laid a few laminate floors before with success, but we've run into an issue here that I need some advice on.

We're replacing our entry, hall, living room, and kitchen with a laminate floor product. Entry, hall, and living room are no problem, it's just been carpet/padding over plywood subfloor.

As we approached the kitchen, we realized (after inspection) that the builders (home is 2 years old now) put down an additional particle board subfloor underneath the vinyl that is in the kitchen. So the kitchen has the plywood floor, particleboard, then vinyl.

This was all laid before cabinets, meaning the cabinets sit on the additional subfloor layer.

So here are my questions:

1. What is the right way to do this project (even if it's more work to do it right)? Remove the lower cabinets, remove the particleboard, lay the new laminate flooring, and reinstall cabinets? Or try and cut the particleboard out around the cabinets in place, and then lay the new floor.

2. If it's the latter, what should I use to get close enough to the cabinets to cut out the particleboard, keeping in mind the cabinets have a recessed toe-kick area that might make it hard for big tools to get into.

I appreciate your time and attention on this one :glasses:. Cheers all!

 

[rjniles]

Use a toe kick saw to cut under the cabinets. Look at Harbor Freight.

 

[siggyfreud]

Didn't even know that was a tool (doh!) .

Thanks.

Would this be the way you'd want it done in your own house, as opposed to pulling the cabinets?

 

[oh'mike]

If removing the lower cabinets is not to big of a job---then that is an option--

Usually it is easier to score the underlayment and remove it with the cabinets in place.

under cut saws can be a bit scary---be careful--

I have had good results using a Sawsall with the blade upside down---also--an oscillating multi tool might do the job---I've never tried that, however.

 

[JazMan]

Would this be the way you'd want it done in your own house, as opposed to pulling the cabinets?

Yes it is since you're going with laminate. If you were installing something else we might give a different answer. Laminate is loose laid and needs to move.

Jaz

 

[listo]

Why can't you just lay it on top of the subfloor? Keep in mind if you lower the cabinets and there's a backslash you will have to lower that as well. Or put spacers between the cabinets and countertop (then your stove will be low nevermind)

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

[siggyfreud]

No backsplash. When they built it we asked them not to put one, so that we could once we decided up upgrade the countertops.

They reason I'm not going right over it is we'd have two different floor levels. Our floor plan is very open, so there wouldn't be a good transition point. It would transition in the left 1/3 of a big open area that transitions from the living room to the dining/kitchen.

Any tips for operating the saw? I assume mask the cabinets bases somehow to avoid scratching them.

 

[joecaption]

There is no need to mask anything, It's not going to be able to cut into the inside corners all the way, I use an oscillating saw for that for more control.