Our single family home has 3/4" gypcrete throughout the main floor. The gypcrete was poured about 7 years ago. From what I've read, I'm a little concerned about the long term durability of the stuff plus I really have my heart set on replacing the carpet and tile that we currently have with 3/4" hardwood. So, we've tentatively decided to take the gypcrete out. We took it out in a closet just to see what we were up against and it looks like it's a messy job, but doable. The cabinets in my kitchen were installed over the tile and gypcrete. My question is can we leave the cabinets in place and just chip the tile and gypcrete up to the cabinets, install the new hardwood floor and then add a piece of trim molding around the base of the cabinets to compensate for the approximately 1/4" height difference that will exist between the cabinets and the new hardwood floor? Or, must we remove all of the kitchen cabinets to eliminate all of the tile and gypcrete before we install the hardwood and then have the cabinets reinstalled? I'm hoping the cabinets can stay, but we do want to do things the right way the first time.

My other thought is, should we just really think about scrapping the idea of removing all of the gypcrete and focus on floating an engineered floor instead and just hope that the gypcrete lasts as long as we want it to?

No reason to remove the tile and gypcrete under the cabinets. Like you mentioned, just trim out the cabinets after the wood is installed. You can even install new toekicks ,if needed for proper expansion.

I'm assuming your gypcrete is poured over a plywood substrate and is about two inches thick? What about your walls? Are they built on top of the gypcrete as well? If so thats gonna be a bummer and will weaken your wall structure. I'd get a kinowledgeable professional in there to check it out first.

Ardex makes a topping you can use to strenghten the surface and set tile to. It's like 6000psi if memory serves correct. I have even glued wood to it. So check it out first.

Thanks for the replies. The gypcrete is only 3/4" inch thick poured over OSB. The home was framed first, then the gypcrete was poured, so I don't think removing the gypcrete would affect the structure of the home. I do see that if we decide to remove all of the gypcrete that we may need to rehang many of the doors throughout our main floor because they will most likely not sit on floor level anymore.

You may end up having to sheet out over the osb with plywood or osb underlayment, depending on the condition of the subfloor under the gypcrete. Either way, your removing 3/4 gypcrete and installing 3/4 wood, your doors shouldnt need to be re-hung. If you install underlayment over the existing osb...You will need to trim doors and reset exterior thresholds.