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Advice please!

View the thread, titled "Advice please!" which is posted in UK Plumbers Forums on UK Plumbers Forums.

Hi, how do you guys cut chipboard flooring? By that I mean what do you use?
My boss has always told me to use a multi tool but it takes forever! I've asked to use a circular saw but he says that risk of cutting cables and pipes is to large!

Your opinions and methods please
 
Hammer and chisel....
Just kidding, you might get more help on the joiner uk forum 😉
Seriously though, you can set the depth on a circular saw? set it to the depth of the chip board -2 mm and take it from there?
 
I decide where the hole is to go, then bash out a small hole with a claw hammer to see if there
are any pipes or wires - then find the two joists mark out nice square - set circular saw to
shallow and off you go. Centralheatking
 
It all depends on the house and where I'm cutting. You can have an educated guess by having a look around the property, pipe runs, location of boiler and hot water tank, plug sockets etc for cable runs. From there it will either be a jigsaw or the plunge saw.
 
It all depends on the house and where I'm cutting. You can have an educated guess by having a look around the property, pipe runs, location of boiler and hot water tank, plug sockets etc for cable runs. From there it will either be a jigsaw or the plunge saw.

Festool??

i mark out and run the circular saw shallow and just run the multitool along the cut to sort out the last few mm.
more forgiving when it hits a pipe or cable
 
I use my fein and carry a bit of 3 x 2 for bracing before the piece goes back down. I look at it as the plumbers version of key hole surgery, that is once ive stopped cursing because its chipboard.
 
I decide where the hole is to go, then bash out a small hole with a claw hammer to see if there
are any pipes or wires - then find the two joists mark out nice square - set circular saw to
shallow and off you go. Centralheatking

bit 'old skool' CHK, zip bit 20mm, measure depth,set circular saw,attempt to find joists away you go.. Then spend an hour in the shed,the neighbours shed,the mates shed,trying to fing some 3x2.
 
I decide where the hole is to go, then bash out a small hole with a claw hammer to see if there
are any pipes or wires - then find the two joists mark out nice square - set circular saw to
shallow and off you go. Centralheatking

tend to use a big hole saw like the sparkies use for downlighters, then if its wrong u can pop a hole filler back in and move else where, more caring me 🙂 Did hear of a muppet once drill through a carpet rather than lifting it, as the customer had said they were going to replace it soon!!!!!!!!
 
There is an estate round my way about 10ish year old that has the chipboard bonded to the fabricated joists. Every board that crosses a joist has to be destroyed to lift it and obviously replaced with a new board when the work is done
 
There is an estate round my way about 10ish year old that has the chipboard bonded to the fabricated joists. Every board that crosses a joist has to be destroyed to lift it and obviously replaced with a new board when the work is done
They arnt the Thorncliffe by any chance
 
Multitool all the way for me.

There's a range of bits that make it fairly easy going!

Got to love it when the builders glue the tops of joists!
 
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Personally I think it's good that the builders glue them down, from a buyers perspective, not a plumbers. It stops them creaking
 
Personally I think it's good that the builders glue them down, from a buyers perspective, not a plumbers. It stops them creaking

Just makes it very difficult to take the up without completely destroying the boards.

If I'm going to be taking up flooring that has been glued and fixed as mentioned the I just cost for replacing what floor has been taken up as it's unlikely it will go back down 100% the way it was.

Nothing worse than a punter winging that you've left the with a creaky floor!
 
Personally I think it's good that the builders glue them down, from a buyers perspective, not a plumbers. It stops them creaking

in the late 90's working on a new estate,one of the sparkies forget a cable run, the main builder bashed holes in every ceiling for this reason,cheaper to pay a plasterer than start ripping floors up
 
Just watched a YouTube video of this looks a really handy jig. Are the inserts to "make good" really as good as they look. Ie you'd be happy to walk on it??
 
Set the snorter blade to the thickness of the board (chipboard flooring is either 18 or 22mm)
Rip down the middle of the board and on the edges. Don't cut the t&g edge.
Punch any nails through the board
Pull it up.
Use 3x2 cls to dwang (insert noggins) between the cut edges. A paslode makes this a lot easier.
Relay your board. If you want or think it may need access again screw it down.
If not pva around all edges, sit the board in, ping it with the paslode, brush the sawdust into the cut joints adding more pva if needed.
Jump up and down on it if it makes you happy.
Easy :smile:
 
I love the name 'rip snorter'....years ago a builder on a job asked to use my rip snorter and I didn't know WFT he was talking about.

I don't carry all my powertools around with me in the van all the time so its unlikley I will have my circular saw/buzz saw/rip snorter/skill saw or similar with me so I use the jigsaw and Fein.

With the circular saw the time saved in cutting is spent cleaning up the mountain of saw dust it kicks out, it is also one of the most lethal powertools going and is best left out of it.
 
So I now know a 'rip snorter' is a circular saw, shame I came on here as townfanjon,
I wish I had come on here as 'Rip snorter' !!!, can you change your user name ??
 
Depends on the size of hole, small hole to see whats going on, asses stuff then multi tool, for new pipe runs then its got to be circular for me, set it shallow and adjust it a couple of times till i'm through.
Have been caught out once that way, trimming up floor boards and I guess the plumber who fitted the pipes decided it was easy to gouge out the underside of the boards than cut the notch deeper!! that gets you moving!!
 

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