How to Cut Sub Flooring with Linoleum

Put on safety goggles and a face mask to protect against flying debris and avoid dust inhalation.

Remove a piece of baseboard from the base of the wall nearest where you need to cut through the linoleum and subflooring. Use a pry bar to pull the baseboard from the wall, sliding the bar between the wall and the rear of the board and then pulling the board away by each nail location to prevent the baseboard from breaking.

Slide a ruler down the gap along the edge of the floor between the wall and the floor. Stop pushing the ruler when it clears the subfloor, you’ll feel a sudden lessening of friction on the ruler at that point. Measure the depth of the ruler into the gap to determine the combined width of the subflooring and the linoleum floor covering.

Set the blade depth of a fine toothed circular saw blade to the noted depth of the floor.

Mark the area that you wish to cut through with a piece of chalk. Use a straightedge to guide your chalk marking if you want to create a straight line. Cover the marking with clear masking tape to prevent chipping of the linoleum by the blade as you cut through.

Place the base of the saw onto the floor with the blade aligned with one of your marked lines. Start the blade and then cut through the floor along the line, pushing the saw slowly along the surface of the linoleum. Stop the blade at the end of the cut and then realign the saw to cut along the adjacent chalked line. Continue to cut the floor until you’ve cut the complete outlined area.

Slip the pry bar beneath the floor through one of the cuts and then apply upward pressure against the bottom to pull the flooring from the wood joists beneath. If the floor section is larger than about 3-square feet in size, then cut the area into subsections of about that size.