Hardwood Floors question

Redoing my kitchen/dining/hallway with all bamboo hardwoods in a few days. I took the old laminate flooring out of the dining room a few days ago and noticed where the transition into the kitchen was there is 1/4" luan under the kitchen/hallway and there wasn't under the dining.

The luan seems to come up fairly easy, its just nailed down, not glued...Should i go ahead and take up the luan in the kitchen down to the bare plywood? Or put luan in the dining room to match the level of the kitchen and leave the kitchen alone? There is linoleum on the plywood in the kitchen and on the luan.

Opinions???

 

Was the luan used to even out one room to the next? - yes-Leave it.
Is the the floor under the luan nice and smooth? Yes- it can come up. No, leave it.
Do you need the extra height that it offers? Leave it.
Lots of possibilities.
If you are putting new wood throughout, you ideally want it to be all the same level from room to hall to room.
Also, if you add or remove luan, will you need to trim doors or add or modify molding? Sometimes that will dictate what you do.

 

New trim throughout after the floors are put in, so thats not a factor...

The luan was used to cover up linoleum in the kitchen. Then more linoleum was put on that. So the only reason for the luan was to cover up the old stuff and put new on. I think i'm taking it up...that way I can add screws in the subfloor to make sure no squeaks are there.

 

If it is sub floor, linoleum, luan, linoleum, then I would remove it for sure.

 

I think it will better to leave it alone. Most of the luan I've seen or used isn't plywood, in the strictest sense. As Tom said, plywood is made from multiple layers of thin sheets of wood pressed and glued together with the grain alternating direction.

 

I think cantstandstill was talking about the door trim, not baseboard. I dont know if you plan on pulling the door casing also.But in your case the bambo should be thicker than the luan and lineoleam, so the door casing and jambs will not be short. I would pull it up and adding screws to the subfloors is also a good idea. What kind of flooring is it? Engineered? Floating floor? Or are you nailing it down? You can leave the door casing and cut the bottoms the thickness of the flooring with a flush cut saw or one of those multimaster type tools then slip the flooring underneath, some guys even cut the door jambs and slip the flooring under those.

 

Cutting the jambs and sliding the floor underneath is the proper way to do it. Cutting around the jambs always looks sloppy and unprofessional.

Lay a scrap piece of the new flooring down and use that as a guide to cut the molding.

I'll second the multimaster tool. I used one I got from Harbor Freight for $17 to cut all the door jambs when I did my flooring and it worked awesome.

Here's a pic of the door moldings cut from when we did my laminate floors.

 

Good insight, just want to add to that, if it is a floating floor then you shouldn't cut the jambs, at least that is what i have been told, i still cut them most of the time because it looks better.
Lol $17!? My multimaster was over $300, that was before any knockoffs were being produced. That floor looks real nice, what kind is it?

 

Why would you not cut the jambs? The purpose of undercutting the jambs is to conceal the gaps when the floor expands and contracts (both glue, nail, and floating floors all expand and contract).

You still leave a gap to allow movement under the jamb. The jamb just conceals it.

Yep, $17. It still works too lol. I also used it to scrape up all the glue off the slab in my foyer where I pulled up the glue down hardwoods. I definitely got my $17 worth out of it. I think after buying extra blades, I probably have $30 in it now.

I wore out two wood blades during the project... mainly from hitting nails and stuff.

 

I just saw that you edited...

It's an 8mm "single strip" laminate from Lumber Liquidators. Has a pre-attached 3mm pad.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/Chilton-Woods-Oak-Laminate-Dream-Home-Nirvana-8CL/10023147

I got it on sale for $1.15 per sq ft when I bought it. It's usually $1.59.

I put down around 1,100 sq ft total. Tore up almost all the carpet in my house (except the two other bedrooms) and the sheet vinyl in the kitchen.

 

Cut the jambs

 

I worked with one guy who didnt want to cut the jambs when installing a floating floor, here was his reasoning behind it. First would be you need to allow for movement in the floor so you dont want the jambs to pinch down the floor. When you cut the jamb there will be a small gap between the floor and the jamb like you said, about the thickness of the blade. But now the jamb isnt bearing on anything and the only thing holding the weight of the door is the nails through the jamb and the casing. But in my opinion thats enough, the jambs will probaby never move even if you hung on the door. So ya i agree always cut the jambs and slide the flooring underneath, thats the way i do it when it is my call.

 

Quite often the jamb isn't even sitting on the subfloor to start with

 

Ya ushually sitting on the finished floor. Doesnt matter though. If you pull the old floor then the jamb will probably be floating anyway. I wasnt disagreeing, just throwing it out there that some guys notch around the jamb rather than cutting it when installing a floating floor.

x2

 

+1 macgyver and oz-t,

cutting the jamb will give the finished look you need at the doorways, since you can't cover the floor/wall gaps w/ shoe moulding or quarter round there... the jambs are generally tied into the door framing, which should rest on a footer which rests on the subfloor...

pick up a "backsaw" at the hardware store, ...it's a nice handsaw for cutting door jambs/trim..

 

Good luck on the floor OP let us know how it goes

 

No

Usually doors are hung before finished floors are installed , the hinge side jamb may or may not actually be in contact with the subfloor

 

backsaw ?

What's that Father Time ?

I have a Fien

 

Lol multimaster ftw

 

Or buy one of these for $20, it will pay for itself after a few cuts lol