How do u cut a 2x4 piece of subfloor(plywood) with just a handsaw

Question

The top thick part of the handsaw gets in the way.....(all I have is a handsaw nothing else don't say use a jigsaw) and no u can't pull the wood apart its pretty thick (half inch maybe)

Answer 1

You need to make a pocket cut to get started.  Hold the saw nearly parallel to the floor and cut back and forth.  As the saw begins to penetrate the wood, you can increase the angle.  It's gonna take you a while to make this cut.  Borrow or rent a circular saw or Sawzall.  You can go to the rental yard, come home, make the cut, and return it before you finish the cut with a handsaw.

Answer 2

It sounds as tho your into a pretty big job with no tools?  Scare me! The equipment you need is not that much money just by an off brand your not going to use it that much.

Answer 3

You need a circular saw.  Ask a neighbor.

Answer 4

I agree, ask a neighbor.   Someone has to have something electrical to help you.  If not, the only thing I can think of is to clamp the wood to a table of some sort to keep it stable and cut it from there.  Hope that helps.

Answer 5

You are not going to be able to make this cut with just a hand saw, as it is not the right tool. You might as well try to hammer in nails with a s***w driver.

Ultimately, you need a circular or skill saw. You can set the blade depth to 1/2, just enough to cut through with out cutting the underlying joists.

To do it by hand, you will need to drill a hole in the wood with a large bit (at least 1/2) and use a keyhole saw to get the cut started. Once you have ripped a large enough cut to fit the hand saw in, you can finish the cut with that. You could also drill a line of overlapping holes through till you get a large enough gap to fit the handsaw, but it will look like cr@p.

Answer 6

youd have to use the largest drill bit you can find and make holes close enough to eventually make a slit so you can fit the saw in.

lots of time involved