I am trying to remove wood flooring in the kitchen. Part of cabinets are on top of wood flooring. We are replacing with tile. How can I get appropriate amount of wood flooring out without damaging cabinets. They are relatively new with heavy granite on top.
I did some Google searching and here is one way that I found:
I actually had to do that task once but I didn't research it beforehand and I didn't know there was such a thing as a toe-kick saw. In my case, it was a very small apartment kitchen (not an eat-in kitchen) with only about 6 feet of hardwood that needed to be cut out under 6 feet of kitchen cabinets. A 7-inch circular saw "almost" would get in there to allow a 45-degree angle cut at the base of the cabinets, but not quite. It may have been possible to rent a larger diameter circular saw to try the same thing, but I didn't try that. The good news was that: 1) the hardwood floor under that 6 feet of cabinets was parallel to the front of the cabinets (not perpendicular); and, 2) I was okay with just removing the hardwood CLOSE to the cabinet base and then laying the cement backerboard up to the level of the remaining hardwood floor surface -- and then I tiled over the backerboard and the little bit of hardwood that was left next to the cabinets.
But, if you have enough room under the cabinet overhand to fit a toe-kick saw in there, that sounds like the best way to go about it.
Good luck.
Toby:
The way a pro would do this is with something called a "toe kick saw", like this one:
'Crain 775 Toe-Kick Saw | Tools4Flooring.com'
Or, just Google "Toe kick saw" and read all about them.
You can rent a toe kick saw from Home Depot, but if they don't have them, phone up any retail carpet or flooring store and ask to speak to the Installations Manager. Ask him who sells flooring installation supplies in your area, and whether they rent toe kick saws. Most likely, the places that sell flooring installation supplies will rent toe kick saws.
A toe kick saw will cut to a maximum depth of 3/4 inch approximately 1/8 inch away from your cabinets, so that you don't actually disturb the wood flooring the cabinets are sitting on.
An oscillating saw can also be used if you tape off the bottom of the cabinets to protect from damage. It was slow going and went through about four blades but was able to cut within about 1/16th inch of the cabinet bottoms. Thank goodness for molding because the cut was not a pretty sight and laying on the floor for a few hours was not exactly restful.
As metion above toe kick saw is best because you can get a clear cut with that and also it help you to cut wood floor without damaging the cabinet. Or contact with any floor stripping company they will surely tell you the right way. 'What your stock broker doesn’t want you to see'
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