Cutting in luan subfloor

Hi, I have plans to install 12" commercial vinyl tile onto a 3/8 inch luan subfloor which will be air stapled over older maple hardwood base floor in a kitchen. what is the easiest way to cut the luan to fit around door frames, and openings, should I cut the bottom 1/4 inch of moldings off and square the cuts or should a 'rotozip' material cutting type tool be used to approximate the edges, or mabey an old fashioned utility knife. Also can this type of base floor be flashed? - beernuts

rochester.topcities.com/house/repairs.html

 

Ordinarily, one removes the shoe mold and replaces it once the flooring is installed. Door frames are trimmed in place by cutting off an appropriate amount of the bottom and sliding the tile underneath. Doors will have to be removed to be trimmed.

Hope this helps.

 

How do you prevent new sheet flooring from cracking at some later date over a subfloor seam? Is there anything to watch for when butting two pieces of Luan together? I noticed that the old floor (real Linoleum, laid down in 1951) has a crack where the first subfloor (3/4 ply) is seamed.

Is there any advantage to taking extra time ripping up the old Linoleum down to the 3/4 ply? It looks like it's adhered with some sort of tar, and it has staples in it, from a previous layer of Luan and vinyl flooring that was ripped up. The staples have been hammered down into the Linoleum. So I am assuming that we just want to ignore the Linoleum and lay subfloor on top of it.

 

Ok - I am going to cut away the moldings it seems easier that way.

Also should the tiles be polished somehow?

Thanks - Beernuts

(To CCarden make sure the staples are long enough to hold the new subfloor and the base floo r is flat / level )

rochester.topcities.com/house/repairs.html

 

Ideally, you should be using 1/4 to 3/8 inch mulitiply nailed down with ring shank nails or screwed in. Countersink the nails or screws and fill the holes and seams with a floor leveler like Mapai Fine Finish or Ardex SDF.

Luan has oils in it that can migrate through your vinyl and discolor it. It won't fall under the manufactuer's warranty if you use an underlayment not recommended by the vinyl manufactuer.

R&R the baseboards and undercut the door jams.

Don't even think about removing the black tar looking mess. Its called cutback adhesive and it has asbestous in it!

...its all about the floor prep