I'm planning the installation of hardwoods in several rooms in our house. Currently the kitchen has 5/8" ply with 1/4" luan, vinyl flooring, 1/4" luan and then to finish 1/4" laminate wood look alike. Apparently the previous owner did not like the vinyl flooring and installed another layer of luan over the vinyl topped with laminate. The total for all this is 1" over the existing 5/8"ply. (removed the heat duct and measured). My plan is to remove everything and go back to the 5/8 ply and install either 3/4 solid or some engineered hardwood. PROBLEM: the door frames have all been cut back to accept the previous installations of flooring. (cut back about 1 1/8" above the 5/8 ply). If I now install 3/4" solid I'll have an ugly gap between the new 3/4" flooring and the door frames.

Anyone ever run into this and is there a solution?

After the Hardwood is installed..... Take some 1" painters tape, and tape the floor, following the profile of the casings and jambs. Get some non-shrinking wood spackling paste. Fill the gap with a narrow putty knife following the profile, then pull the tape. Wait till the spackle sets, then detail and paint.

I would buy some trim work and make up the same type existing jamb, then slice off slivers to glue into the gap. If it's painted, putty, sand, and paint.
Other option is just add 3/8 ply to the 5/8 and have a stronger subfloor.
Hope this helps.
Bob

Howard, Bob,

Thanks for the advice. I may try both ideas to see which works best, although I was thinking about the "slivers" idea. The additional 3/8" ply is a great idea but at this point the budget may not allow it.

My mission today is try to determine if the luan/vinyl, etc. goes under the cabinets. (when the house was built, were the cabinets placed before or after the flooring). If I'm going to rip everything out back to the 5/8 ply this will be a problem if the cabinets are placed on top. Any suggestions on how to find this out?

Thanks again,
Bill

Ah, I think I can pull out the dishwasher to see what's going on under the cabinetry.....

Standard countertop height should be around 36". If your closer to 35" I would say that there's nothing under your cabinets except subfloor and most likely one layer of luan. Luan is easy to score with a knife and it'll break at the cut.