Message Boards

Hi all,

We've purchased a home that has a kitchen/great room combination. The great room has carpet on it and the kitchen has a wee bit of tile. We're going to remove the carpet and the tile and put in engineered flooring throughout.

We've committed in our heads that the base cabinetry has to come out to remove the tile under it. This bank of cabinetry has a gas stove top, built-in oven and microwave so we'd rather not remove them if we don't have to.

Anyone taken on a project like this that might have another approach?

Any handy dandy tools rental recommendations for removing tile?

Cheers
Mary

Dumb idea putting flooring under kitchen cabinets, and this is a good example of that.

However, if you don't block up the cabinets, you may not get the dishwasher in/out in the future, and you WILL have to repair or replace it someday!

For just a small amount of tile, use a masonry chisel to crack the tile in front of the cabinets and then remove the tile. When putting in the new flooring, use a quarter round to blend the flooring to the cabinets; it will cover any gap, and can be removed easily if necessary.

Be careful selecting engineered wood flooring. Some are good and some are not. By all means let it acclimate to the room and subfloor before fastening it in place. IMHO a floating engineered flooring is the best idea.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bob Fleming,

Two examples I have seen of bad engineered flooring installations:

One was the whole first floor of an expensive home where the flooring strips were cupping. I think it was because there was no moisture barrier under the flooring over the concrete slab.

Second one was one where I watched a supposed pro installer lay cheap vinyl sheet goods as a glued down moisture barrier, So far, so good. But then he glued down the engineered wood flooring without letting it acclimate to the room humidity. When I came back about six months later, the flooring had gaps all over. It was cheap pre-finished flooring and by then it had dulled badly.

I know that there are several schools of thought about how the proper way to do things and they often vary from country to country, province to province, ect. I've never been involved in a professional kitchen renovation where the flooring hasn't gone under the cabinetry.

Our engineered floor is top quality Canadian made, 32 year wear warranty. For sure we'll acclimatize the floor before installing and screw down the existing sub floor. Don't think we'll need new layer of sub floor as the house is only 4 years old. We'll decide once we have the carpet and tile up and asses the damage from removing the tile floor. The builder is still in the area, I'll go visit them and ask how the tile was installed.

Thank-you for your suggestions.

Toe kick saw, with a diamond blade.

The floor is long gone and replaced but thank-you for your reply Floorguy.