Please help...Restoring hardwood floor...how to cut close to cabinets???

Question

Hello:Thanks for reading this post.  I need your help in restoring my hardwood flooring.  Just bought an old house and the old hardwood floors have been covered over with plywood and vinal (sp??) flooring.  I know how to get the plywood up from most of the house, but do not know how to get up close to the existing kitchen cabinets.  I do not want to pull them out.   None of my saws will get close enough to the cabinets.  How do you cut out the old plywood up close to the cabinets?If you have any ideas, please respond or email asap as I need to work on this tommorrow (Saturday).Much thanks,Richard

Don Young · Accepted Answer

If you don't have too much to cut, a good sharp handsaw would do it. Sharpchisel or utility knife are possibilities. A long blade on a reciprocatingsaw would be faster and easier, but not as neat.Don Young

Joe Bobst · Answer

There are power saws made for this purpose. Ask at a tool rental place for atoe kick saw. HTHJoe

Richard Holliingsworth · Answer

Thanks folks for the ideas. The handsaw won't fit under the toe kick. The recip saw would work, but really make a mess of the newly painted cabinets and still wouldn't fit very well under the toe kick.

The "toe kick saw" would really work great, but my local rental shops don't carry one, and I don't have 250 buck to purchase one just for this job. However, I did notice that the saw looks amazingly like a standard abgle grinder. I have a 4" model that I can fit a cutoff blade to and I THINK it will fit under the toe kick and do the job if I go real slow. I'm not terribly concerned about the flooring under the cut because it will all be covered up by the new trim.

Thanks to Joe for the idea.

Richard

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DanG · Answer

I know a young fella that has been off work for over 6 weeks now with over 100 stitches and possible permanent loss of use of one thumb for doing the same thing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing. . . . DanG

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Richard Holliingsworth · Answer

Well, I bought and tried the angle grinder with a 4" untra thin (approx.

1/16") metal cutoff blade, and although it did work, it was very nasty, smoky, and burned the linolium (SP?) and plywood very badly. I didn't feel it was overly dangerous if MUCH care was taken, but after a few minutes of filling the house with smoke, I decided to try the recip. saw instead and it worked much better. It did get into the flooring a little and scratch up the toe kick a little, but when I finish the floor and replace the mouldings and quarter-round, it won't show. Only a problem if I (or someone else) ever pulls all the cabinets out, and even then I'm being carefull not to scratch up the flooring any more than possible, so it should be fixable with sanding.

Just thought I'd let the group know. If you run into this problem, better find a toe kick saw to rent and save yourself the aggrivation.

Richard

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Please help...Restoring hardwood floor...how to cut close to cabinets???

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