This May Take Longer Than I Thought...

We're both impatient to see how the new floor is going to look so we started demolition tonight on the old underlayment. The previous renovators did a great job of making sure their work would be eternal. I don't think I've ever seen so many nails and staples. They laid 3/4" plywood over the tongue and groove plank sub-floor and then put 1/4" plywood over that. Then they glued roll flooring to that.

We started by cutting the underlayment along the walls that it went under (ones they moved and ones I stupidly built my new wall on top of.) This was my first chance to use my new Crain toe-kick saw. This tool really is a one of a kind item and it cuts a perfectly flush cut along the wall to the exact depth desired as you can see in the picture.

It has one nasty tendency, and that is to try and jump out of your hands and skate across the floor if you hit a hidden obstruction like a nail or staple. This is a little scary and creates quite a work-out trying to hold onto the saw on a project like this. It also doesn't get into inside corners very well and I had to finish up with the Sawsall.

Then we pulled up the roll flooring. and started prying up the plywood underneath.

After working about 3 straight hours, we had managed to get about 50 square feet taken up and hauled to the curb. (fifty square feet sounds a lot more impressive than "a five by ten foot area") Chance helped with the clean up.

I guess this is going to take a little longer than we thought...