Wood – Is American Cherry wood flooring durable enough for a kitchen and living room

If it's not visible, just got for a manufactured board, e.g. plywood, OSB, etc. For 3cm, you may be looking at two pieces stacked on top of each other. If it's on concrete, install a moisture barrier first. To secure the boards, I'd avoid the temptation to use a Ramset and permanently drive the names into the cement, since the next time the flooring is redone, you can take the opportunity to do it right and pull everything up and go wall to wall. Instead, secure it with a few cut nails. Again, this all assumes that none of this is visible.

_{(source: jmnails.com)}

1. Ripping out the old carpets.
   Very easy, just cut and pull. 45 min tops by yourself. 20 mins with a helper.

2. Prepping the floor.
   Likely to be a real pain. Every home I've ever seen built has the wall texture and then the paint applied with nothing covering the floor. As soon as you pull the carpet up the floor will have multiple layers of this stuff on it. If not cleaned your glue or tape is just going to adhere to the paint and eventually pull the paint off the floor. At that point your vinyl is floating and not stuck to the floor. In addition you'll need to pull up the tack strips which is a 20 min job.

3. Setting the vinyl "fake" hardwood flooring panels.
   Making the cuts in sheets is not that easy. Individual square panels marketed for commercial applications are much easier.

4. Removing the vinyl flooring after I move out.
   Depends on if you glued it down and how well it adhered. A good bond will require a lot more work to pull up.

5. Reinstalling the wall-to-wall carpets.
   New tack strips must be installed. You should not use the old ones. Probably 1 hour. Carpet pad must be cut and glued down. Probably about 2-3 hours. Cutting and fitting the carpet itself isn't easy. A pro takes 3-4 hours by himself for 300 sqft. You need a carpet stretcher as well and using it correctly is definitely a special skill.

I've done a lot of DIY but I'll never attempt to install carpet myself. I suggest using either commercial carpet tiles or a floating wood floor instead of vinyl. A floating wood floor does not require you to prep the floor once the carpet is up, just lay down a vapor barrier(plastic) and start locking the sections of flooring together. Very easy with a helper but you will need something to cut the boards with.