OK, here’s the deal.
We’re removing the old carpet, old laminate flooring and old linoleum from the first floor of our house. All will be replaced with a quality wood laminate flooring throughout. However, the kitchen and eating area (linoleum flooring) sits on an additional half-inch, particleboard subfloor.
My professional finish carpenter neighbor says a toe-kick saw is required to remove the subfloor before I will install the new flooring. That way the kitchen cabinets remain intact, along with the frig, stove and dishwasher.
Anyone with experience with a toe-kick saw? Since this is a one-off job, I plan to rent one from Lowe’s or Home Depot.
Its basically a skill saw set up so the blade can go right up against a wall. Normally you use them to cut out thresholds and such where you can’t remove the doorjamb. The ones I’ve used couldn’t fit under a toe-kick on the cabinets. Are yours unusual and flat faced?
I’m not sure if I would bother for that project. It’s usually only 1/4 Luann under linoleum For the cabinets I’d pull off the toe kick and break the 1/4 off at the cabinets with a crow bar.
The stove I might want to cut flush but that depends on how it lines up with the counter. If it isn’t flush I’d remove it and laminate under it.
On the Dishwasher and refrigerator I wouldn’t want to but the laminate against them because that can make it very difficult to replace them in the future. It would be better if you pulled up the particle board underneath and installed laminate there too.