On a recent remodeling job, I had to frame some interior walls over a nicely finished hardwood floor. There were a lot of door openings in the bottom plates that I would have had to cut out with a reciprocating saw once the wall was in place. That would have risked nicking the finished floor with the sawblade. To avoid that problem, I set the depth stop on my sliding miter saw and precut the underside of the plates most of the way through on the layout lines for the rough opening. That left me needing to make only shallow cuts at every doorway, and it eliminated the risk of damage to the floor. This worked so well that I’ve started doing it on all my bottom plates. It’s just as easy to do with a circular saw.
Seth Vasser, Wintergreen Remodeling, Washburn, WI
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #242
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