Plunge saw for chipboard flooring?

[Harnser]

I need to cut access holes in T&G chipboard flooring to get to the wiring, and take up the flooring in the bathroom to expose the rusting galvanised pipework. I'd bought a DeWalt multitool and thought it'd be up to the job but it's a bit weak for cutting along joists.

Looking online, everyone says use a circular saw. My OH, a trained first aider, is not keen on me getting a circular saw.

Lidl have had a plunge saw and track this week for £70 - will that do the job?

 

[Maccapacca]

It'll do but it's just another type of circular saw so there's no difference. You can set the depth of a circular saw any way so it'll do the same job. Suggest you buy whatever you'll use again and again. Multitools are only really good at the small awkward areas a bigger saw can't get to.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

To answer your question, yes - it would have done the job but as @Maccapacca said, a normal circular saw will also do the job, it needs a bit more care not to chop your leg off with one but if used safely it isn't an issue. You can still get dangerous kick back on a plunge saw if you are doing it wrong, the main difference is that it's less hand held and the track gives you perfectly straight cuts every time but all the normal safety precautions need to be taken because they are still circular saws.

One of those mini circular saws which were pretty much made for this job will also do it.

 

[thenewoc]

Just go for a compact mini circular saw but ensure it has sufficient cutting depth capability. The Guild one in Argos is £50 and can do up to 27mm in wood. Still use the multitool to do the corners so you don't have to overrun with the circular saw.

Be aware that the chip board may also be stuck down to the joists so you may require a crow bar too. The chip board joins don't necessarily follow the joists either as they usually run the other way so only the ends sometimes line up. Therefore you will also need some wood to attach to the underneath of the remaining chipboard either side of the hole so it half overlaps to provide support when a new piece of chipboard goes down. When I did it I used some wooden stud work lengths as they were the most reasonably priced, not very wide though so you have to be quite precise to get enough on both sides of the join to have enough room to screw through without being too close to the edge.

 

[kinobestew123]

I've done it with a multitool. I found the narrowst plunge blade with the roughest teeth possible the best. The wider blades were hopeless. I held it at an angle and it went along through ~18mm chipboard with not much trouble at all.

I would have used my circular saw but I needed to be flush against a wall.

 

[azazl187]

A plunge saw is a circular saw but on a rail. Get a standard circular saw, set to +1mm depth of the floor and cut your hole out.

Easy

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Not quite, the plunge saw is specifically designed to plunge into material and has a riving knife to prevent kickback and is generally safer when doing that kind of cut.

A normal circular saw isn’t and is designed to cut from the edge of the material and you have to manually pull back the guard to expose the blade. It’s just more dangerous to do this kind of cut but yes it can be done.

 

[Showboat]

You can do this with the multitool, it will take longer and maybe a few blade changes. You can take it slowly and ensure you are doing it right.
Better than spending £50+ on something you wont use again and potentially damaging yourself / floor / bathroom!

 

[Scrutinize]

Plunge saw set to correct depth of cut c18-22mm is the way to do this.

Alternatively a mini circular saw with depth guides like the below is good.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-emcs650-650w-85mm-electric-mini-circular-saw-220-240v/906fx

Finally, a jigsaw (short blade) plus multitool for the joist sections works well.

Normal fixed Circular saw etc is not good for a number of aforementioned reasons.