Hello all,

I am about done with demo - removing carpet, old foyer wood, linoleum, etc - and have one more question with that. The builder did not put the linoleum in the kitchen directly on the OSB subfloor. They put an 1/4 or 1/8 inch thick sheet of plywood down on the OSB (with millions of little staples about maybe 3/4 inch long) and then glued the linoleum to that. This has been good since I dont need to get rid of glue, but has presented 2 other challenges.

1. The cabinets were put in after the floor - so the thin plywood and linoleum both go under the cabinets. The linoleum is easy enough to cut off at the cabinet - the plywood not so much. I cant fit a chisel in under the toe kick, and the offset door jamb saw I have doesnt seem to do it. I have read about toe kick saws but it seems they scare the pee out of even pros. I would like to make that my last resort. Any ideas (besides removing cabinets of course)?

2. Those millions of staples I referred to above... when i rip up the plywood the staples actually rip through the plywood and stay in the OSB. I can remove them by sticking a screw driver and plyers in there... but it takes a LONG time. I am not one to cut corners and will put in the time if ness, but can I just get a nail set/hammer and drive the staples all the way into the OSB? Any downside to this? Will they squeak or work there way out over time? I hate to think they are under there but it would be MUCH easier to hammer 'em all down. Thoughts? Has anyone experienced this before?

Thanks once again!!!

To many times. Now you know what an installer has to go through on a daily basis. We have a myriad of tools , expensive tools to deal with those situations.

Anyone else?

I usually take all the staples out.My flooring supply companies have special staple removers that speed up the process and I also use end cut pliers to grab them and roll them out .The idea is not to leave anything behind that your flooring stapler / nailer can hit and deflect upon.

As for cutting plywood against a cabinet , the fastest tool is a sawzall. The idea is that you can bend the blade slightly as it cuts which usually gets me enough room to fit the blade in where it needs to be. i also have a fein saw that will do the job but the blades are expensive and don't last long. So I use the sawzall as it's faster and cheaper.

Hey Paul, did you see the new offset attachment for the sawsall?