Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Cutting out laminate flooring currently under cabinets

The person who owned the house I'm about to move into before me put in new floors and cabinets in the kitchen. He did such a terrible job, that I'm having to replace the floors to make them look right. I've got a beautiful floating bamboo floor picked out that I think will look great.

The problem is that he laid the floors under the cabinets (not just under the appliance areas) .. and in needing to replace the floors I obviously don't want to pull out the cabinets. Is there a trick, tool or anything else anyone can advice me on as I embark on trying to cut the existing laminate floor at the base of the cabinets (under the toe kick)?

Luckily it's not a big kitchen, but this looks like it could be a complete and royal pain in my rear.

R

Go to www.craintools.com and click on specialty saws.

Look at the toe kick saw.

That's awesome ... never seen anything like that

Of course, I might have a hard time spending $200 + on a tool I will use this one time only ... hmm .. .I wonder if anyone in my area rents them ...

or a Sawz-All(sp?)

Unless they make an angeled blade for the Sawzall I won't get it under the toe kick ...

or a Sawz-All(sp?)what I would use. You can cut while bending the blade a little. If you back cut a little fine. Then you just butt the new flooring and shoe mold it.

What about using a Dovetail/Jamb Saw? It you hold it sideways you may be able to do it, but it may take a while.

What about using a Dovetail/Jamb Saw? It you hold it sideways you may be able to do it, but it may take a while.LOL I would like to see that :)

so using the Sawzall ... you think I can get close enough to the cabinet by bending the blade ... I'll definetly try that ... I don't have a Sawzall right now, but at least the Sawzall I can use for a bunch of other projects ... as opposed to the toe-kick saw ...

yeah ... I'm thinking the jamb saw would end up having me install new cabinets ...

but ... what about this one ... just came across it on Amazon ...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SUP4/qid=1148091984/sr=1-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-5742243-3116100?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=hi&v=glance&n=228013

anyone used this before? ... would it work?

That's actually a nice tool I had one before. However I don't think it's the right one for your job. Let me make sure I am picturing this right. You have to cut your existing flooring flush with the toe kick which is backset 3" or so right?

yep ...

cutting flush with the base of the cabinet .. which is backset with the toe-kick ... I dont' have the measurements in front of me, but 3" sounds about right ... and it probably about 3" tall as well ... so the tool needs to be able to cut perpendicular to the floor, 3" inches in, with the tool fitting below the 3" tall "over-hang" ...

right ok what I thought. sawz all..10" blade and you can cut it. If you do this sort of thing long enough you learn to get surgical with a sawz all. My one concern is you may end up scratching up your toe kick quite a bit. You may have to replace it. I could probably get away without scratching it but then I have done a lot of sawz alling (taking serious license on the english language here lol)

After you use the toe kick saw, you can e-bay it and get most if not all your money back.

After you use the toe kick saw, you can e-bay it and get most if not all your money back.Yeah and thinking about it from a laymans point of view, That might be a wise decision. I can't see anyone inexperienced not tearing up the toe kick laminate with a sawz all. Clearly the best and easiest tool for the job would be the specialty tool, cost not withstanding. Just hard for me to picture using a tool only once.

and quite honestly ... even though I'm completely comfortable with how the Sawzall works, I haven't really worked with one ... so I might just have to invest in the toe kick saw ... and take my luck on eBay ...

BTW ... if figured I'd post back how this all went.

What I figured out, was that the easiest way to remove the floors were simply to bend it up and it would break at the base of the cabinets. Since this stuff is basically cardboard it snapped fairly easily at the base of the cabinets as I bent it up. I was obviously very careful to make sure that I watched for any movement in the cabinets as I was doing this ... since I didn't really want to crack the granite counter tops ... and I did end up having to back over with a knife and my dremel saw to cut some of the edges a little cleaner

all in all ... more painful than I had wished for ... but pretty straight forward