Installing Flooring Around Doors: Tools and Techniques

Problem: Luke from Ambler wanted to know the trick for installing flooring around the bottoms of door jambs. He doesn’t want to notch the tiles around the bottom of the door jamb—good move!—and wants to know how I make this cut.

Answer: I use a Japanese style pull-saw. Irwin makes them. I’ve also had great service from Shark’s 10-2450, especially in tight corners. The reason: the blade teeth go all the way to the end of the saw and they cut on the pull stroke, so I can literally cut out of a corner with almost zero clearance.

The flexible blades enable me to move my hands along the floor. The razor sharp teeth make quick, clean cuts, and because they cut on the pull stroke, putting tension on the blade keeps it straight in the cut. Sweet.

Getting a cut to match your flooring is usually pretty easy too. For wood, simply use a scrap of the material as a guide. For tile, I like to use the thickness of the tile plus ¼ for thinset as my rule of thumb. And, when figuring this out, make sure you include any subfloor you might lay beneath your finished flooring.

Under cutting the doorjambs makes for faster, easier flooring installation and a better result.

Cut smooth.