Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
How would you cut this flooring?
Tim Greif - West of Chicago
I currently have oak floors throughout the first floor, including kitchen and powder room. I'm considering changing to tile in the powder room. Problem is, the oak floor runs perpendicular to the door. I'm struggling with how to make a clean crosscut of the oak boards in place so that I get a nice finished edge to butt up against the tile. Any ideas would be appreciated. Or maybe just leave it as is.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
Keith Newton
Well to start, the transition should be centered under the door.
If you are a circular saw challenged person, use carpet tape to stick a 1x4 1.5” over from the cut to guide the saw base. You can set the saw the right depth, and slowly plunge cut with the butt end of the saw against the jamb.
After that, scribe a line off the end of that cut to follow with a multi-tool.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
Dick Coers
I'd probably rough cut the line, then a small router off a straight edge to clean up the cut. A circular saw will likely splinter the oak with the blade rotation coming up.
easy
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
see what Cohen does with a chisel in his table post.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
Barry Irby
The first thing I would do is get some rare earth magnets and slide them gently across the opening to see where find nails. Roll them slowly and they will stop right on top of the nails. Murphy's Law dictates there will be a nail in the way.
The cut should be under the door, but there should be enough latitude to avoid the nails.
I have made this cut many times and usually use a circular saw and finish up with a multitool. I have also done it with a router.
I would cover the join with a threshold strip. I have made many and one like this would be about a 1/4' thick. If necessary it would be thicker on one side than the other.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
Steve jenkins
I tacked a wooden straight edge to the side that will be removed and used a mulitool for the whole cut. I should say my wife did. She wanted to do it and it came out fine. We put in a threshold piece and tiled to that.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
Mark Nowicki
Why not use a transition trim?
Shluter had a good selection
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
pecker
Dewalt makes a flush cutting jigsaw blade that allows you to cut right up to the jamb. You would need a straight edge, and perhaps something to hold the saw up so you don't cut through the subfloor.
Re: How would you cut this flooring?
AlMorgan
I'd too would recomend doing it with a circular say. But I would approach the cut differently, rather than make one cut, I would make a scoring cut ...say 1/16th to 1/8th...and then multitool the rest of the cut.