I'm planning to replace the flooring on the entire first floor with a 3/8" engineered hardwood, stapled, and I'm stumbling on the best way to go about doing the kitchen part of the install. The vinyl that's currently in there goes underneath the cabinets, and I'm not sure what to do about that.

On one hand I could score the vinyl along the toe kicks and pull that up, leaving the vinyl under the cabinets in place, but I'm not sure what's underneath the vinyl. I suspect it's 1/4" underlayment of some sort, which won't work as an underlayment for the hardwood because I need to go parallel with the joists which requires minimum 3/8" underlayment on top of the 3/4" plywood subfloor. That means I'd have to rip up the underlayment underneath the vinyl too and replace it with 3/8", and I'm assuming with the cabinets in place it will be very difficult to cut the underlayment at the toe kicks and pull it up.

I also thought I might be able to just put the hardwood directly over the existing vinyl, but wasn't sure if that's an approved installation method, especially since I have no idea what I'm stapling into underneath the vinyl.

The last option I can think of would be to pull the cabinets out giving me access to the entire kitchen floor. Then I can pull up the vinyl down to the subfloor, lay my 3/8" underlayment, lay an additional layer of 3/8" where the cabinets go (no sense in putting hardwood under the cabinets where it'll never be seen) and lay the hardwood everywhere else, then put the cabinets back. That's obviously going to be the most work, but there are only 5 base cabinet pieces so I don't think it'd be TOO terrible. Additionally, wifey has been wanting to replace our beat up laminate countertops, so I could do that at the same time after moving the cabs back into the kitchen.

Sorry if I rambled... just trying to figure out all my options and do this right! Any other ideas, or opinions on the best course of action?

Dude, not to be rude but you definetly need to do some research before attempting this. Theres plenty plenty of answers here for your questions. I know I don't have time to write an essay for ya, maybe someone else does. But first if I were you I'd have that vinyl tested for asbestos if its old, then check and see if there's another older one buried under it.

No worries, and thanks for taking a second to respond I did look around a bit for some answers before posting, but most of what I found had to do with the "floors or cabinets first" question in new construction, not pulling up existing floors with cabinets already installed. I'll take some time to do some more research.

As for the asbestos issue: the house was built in 1986, so I'm pretty confident there's not going to be any asbestos in there.

First you should do some exploratory surgery to find out what you have for layers. I usually take my circular saw and plunge it in an inch or so and remove around a 4 inch square. If there is 1/4 inch underlay and if it is luan you can easily score it with a sharp utitily knife and just snap it off. And hopefully you don't have particle board underneath.

Even better, there's an HVAC floor register along one wall in the kitchen; popped it out and took a look at the cross-section of the floor. Looks like 1/4" of underlayment and just the single existing layer of vinyl. Here's a picture... looks like Luan to me?



Assuming I just score it and pull it up like you said, lay down 3/8" plywood and then the hardwood overtop, do I just put some shoe molding to cover the gap between the finished hardwood and the toe kicks? And, I don't have to worry about the fact that the hardwood will essentially "box-in" the cabinets, since it'll end up being higher than the current finished vinyl?

Thanks!

Yes, I would just score the Luan at the cabinets, and go with the 3/8 ply.
Typically installing hardwood floors, the cabinets are usually somewhat boxed in. What you want to avoid boxing in are appliances, ( dishwasher, compactor ).
Yes, I install shoe on cabinets and avoid quarter round, for cosmetic reasons.

Excellent... thanks again for taking the time to help me out, much appreciated!

I would bet the cabinets were installed before the vinyl, that's just my opinion though. If I'm right, make sure you say something so I can say "I told you so"!

Hey Mack, the HO was talking about installing engineered staple down, what thread are you posting to??

Looks like another fly by spammer...maybe that's why the site traffic is up

Keith - we gotta get that nofollow going on stuff like this