How to cut away wooden flooring from around kitchen units

[crazypierre]

Hi
I need to replace the engineered floorboards in our kitchen but the units were fitted on top of wall to wall engineered flooring.

I don't want to remove and refit all the units so am trying to work out how to cut away the flooring up to where the feet of the units touch the flooring.

I can remove the kick boards and the end panels easily. I need some sort of shallow circular saw that is shallow enough to fit under the units. Most of the mini circular saws I've seem come up at too much of an angle to fit under the units.

Does anyone have any tips as to how I can do this? I tried one of those multipurpose tools with the half moon saw that reciprocates very fast but it takes forever to cut through the boards. I am thinking something like one of those dremels with the circular saw attached but they're not powerful enough. Maybe an angle grinder with a wood cutting disc fitted?

Any advice gratefully accepted.
Thanks

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The best tool is going to be a mulitool, most other tools are not going to allow food cutting access. Use a plunge cutting blade I would be tempted to use the ones for hardwood. You may need two three depending on number of cuts required. Should take long, not as quick a circular saw, but you are not going to get one of them in the void.

 

[big-all]

its probably not going to work the new floor needs to go under the plinths and have expansion gap
so therefore you need to cut well under the units
a multi tool may have half a chance but needing several weeks several blades a bad back and skint knuckles and lying on your belly cutting
how much room do you have between floor and under cabinet ??

 

[big-all]

i have the dewalt 10.8v mini circular saw and at 16mm cutting depth you need around 160-170mm clearance to hold the saw under a unit
how thick is the flooring

edit should be bosch blue 10.8v saw

 

[crazypierre]

Hi, thanks for your tips. The gap is 15cm and the current flooring is 9mm thick. I don't need to go too far under the units, just up to where the plastic legs are.

I have an angle grinder which fits under the units. Would a wood cutting disc on it not work?

Cheers
Pete

 

[ladylola]

If I'm reading this correctly you want to remove the flooring to the legs and presumably replace . I'd personally use a fine toothed saw and rubbing it on the floor boards trim the bottom of the units to a point behind the plints allowing new boards to be slid into place.

 

[crazypierre]

Hi Ladylola
Thanks for your thoughts on this. Yes, your method would work but we plan to put down some ceramic floor tiles onto the concrete which is under the engineered floorboards. So, I need to cut away the floorboards as don't want to put the ceramic tiles on the floating engineered floor.

I'm leaning towards using an angle grinder with a 115mm cutting disc to cut away the flooring. It's narrow enough to fit under the units and I think powerful enough to cut through fairly fast.

Question for you all: I've seen cutting discs advertised on Screwfix as "mutlipurpose". Will these cut wood OK? Or are they just for metal and stone/concrete?

Thanks

Thanks

 

[big-all]

i don't like the idea off using an angle grinder they are dangerous at arms length never mind with you kneeling down in close proximity
they are far to aggressive for use in wood imho

 

[ladylola]

It might be best to dispense with power tools completely. Buy a cheap chisel or use an old one and simply chop away the flooring. I say a cheap chisel rather than your best one because you will at some point hit the concrete . It won't be that much slower in all honesty but you may find that using a drill to pepper the flooring with holes will make the job a tad easier and slightly quicker.

 

[Cabbyfan]

Multi tool. I bought a cheap one from Argos, best thing ever for lifting floorboards

 

[crazypierre]

Hi
I bought a multitool from Lidl, 30 quid.
I'll see how that works and will let you know.
Cheers all.
Pete

 

[big-all]

you need to angle the blade[rotate on the securing plate]
what you need to do is only just or not quite cut through the boards to not damage the blade
you need to hold the machine level and at a constant height this may mean using ply mdf or timber to space the machine body off the flooring to the correct height to not damage the teeth on the concrete as that will stop it cutting and increase the task into the next millennium
once you have nearly cut through you then adjust the spacers /blade to just penetrate the floor and if it does blunt in use you will have far less to cut with a blunt blade

 

[crazypierre]

Hi Big Al.
Excellent tips. I will try to fashion some sort of "cradle" for the multitool so it cuts through only about 8mm of the boards, then I can snap the planks off and not damage the saw blade.
Will let you know how I get on.
Cheers
Pete

 

[big-all]

snapping off is best
to be honest the blades wont last very long
you will soon have a collection off worn out blades that you can keep for the last o.5mm
avoid using the half round blades unless you very sure it wont get damaged as they are expensive
i would suggest you plan to wear out one blade per metres on average you may get far more or far less out off a blade it just gives you an idea off requirements
as in i wont buy five blades as they may last years i have now advised you you will probably need at least 5 blades

http://www.saxtonblades.co.uk/?gclid=CMzCssHX5sMCFSSWtAodn38AbA

 

[crazypierre]

Hi, thanks. It turns out it's not engineered flooring but laminate (so a thin laminate with the main body made of MDF I think.)

Hopefully won't be so tough on the blades.

Cheers