We are having hardwood floors installed next to a brick wall and fireplace. Reading the HW forums undercutting the brick is the right thing to do. Our hardwood installer claims it is not possible to undercut less than 2" with his saw (which would compromise the wall's integrity). We had a concrete mason take a look at it and he said he could undercut 3/4" with an angle grinder.

My questions is what is the proper/best way to undercut the brick?

The concrete guy suggests using an angle grinder. I see a lot of posts saying to use a specialty undercutting saw like a Crain 812 or 825 with masonry blade. None of my contractors have heard of this specialty saw. I would think the angle grinder is not as "clean" as the undercutting saw and will look ragged.

We live is San Diego area so if anyone knows of someone who can do this right let me know!

Thanks!

I use the crain 825 with the diamond blade because of it's lower profile. And yes it is ajustable from zero to almost 2 inches.

http://www.craintools.com/pages/more_pa ... _more.html

Cuts through rock, tile and brick like butter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13772863@N08/page3/

I have heard the Crain is an excellent tool to do the job. Have you ever tried to use an angle grinder? If so was there a big difference in how the end result looked between the angle grinder and Crain undercutting saw? i.e. cleaner cut, less ragged, more precise.

Thanks for the feedback!

Typically angle grinders have no depth control and no dust port for dust control. Not a very good tool for it. Dust is very bad for you and you can fill a room up with dust in a minute.

With the crain you simply make two passes, one at the bottom and one up at the height of the floor, then snap off whats left.

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... hearth.htm

An angle grinder would also be a problem to adjust height, and all around uniformity of the cut. I use the Crain 812, would be lost without it.

I was thinkiing about that statement yesterday. Wondering why any hardwood installer would have a saw that only cuts two inches deep??? Thats totally unnecessary to go that deep for anything. Perhaps he didn't read the instructions on his undercut saw about how to ajust the depth of cut.

I thought the same. He uses the saw to undercut door jambs but apparently it does not have a depth adjustment since 2" is all he ever needs. He says it is a Crain saw so I will need to find out what model number. I would think a depth adjustment would be standard for any saw. The Crain undercut saws (model 812, 820, 555) all had depth adjustments from what I could see on the internet which would give us the 3/4" undercut we need.

If it's a Crain, he can undercut the brick, using a masonry blade, period.
He may have taken the depth adjustment off the saw, ( some guys do this cause it kinda gets in the way). Even if he's done this, it's no big deal to keep the depth within the realm of where you want it by eye. If it's an older model...It may not have the vac attachment, no big deal, all you need is another person down there with a shop vac hose, sucking up the dust as it shoots out.

What Howard said, with a dust mask and eye protection, goes without sayin, but had to say that.

Maybe 2 shop vacs, masks, eye protection, ear plugs, and fans blowing outside