Hey All,



I'm currently working on a new house we just bought. I removed a wall this past weekend in our living room/Kitchen to open up the space. We are going to match the hardwood in the living room area and lay in the kitchen. The kitchen has ceramic tiles laid and then a layer of plywood underneath directly on the subfloor. I tore a small piece up and it looks like the plywood is stapled down. I'm wondering what the best way is to get the tile and plywood up so we can lay the hardwood on the subfloor like the living room.



Do I chisel off the tile and then attack the plywood? or can I possibly take pieces of the plywood and tile off at a time?



ALSO we have the cabinets still in place and I really don't want to move them out. The tile doesn't go under the cabinets but at a quick glance it looks like the plywood underlayment might. So would I just take out the floor close enough to the cabinets and then chisel next to the cabinets??

Thanks!

You've got to remove the tile first. Almost impossible to remove both full sheets of plywood and tile - factor in the plywood under cabinet thing and it's a must to remove the tile first. Get a heavy duty 6" scraper with a 4' handle and/or beat the tile off with a hammer or small sledge hammer. How the tile comes off really depends on how well it was applied. Fortunately, tile does not stick to plywood as well as backerboard.

Once most of the tile has been removed then set a circular saw to the depth of the plywood layer. Cut in both directions to make ~ 24" squares. At the cabinet base, cut the plywood flush with the cabinets an edge cutting saw like a soniccrafter. Then pry the plywood squares up.