squeezing old floorboads together (again)

I know this has bee ndiscussed before, but I wanted to hear what people think of a new possoble way to do it.

I have a 100 year old house with 4" floorboards. The shrinkage gaps are several mm and I'd like to squeeze up the boards. However, I'd prefer not to lift them all because (a) I would have to rip out the skirting boards which is not easy to do without damaging them and (b) I'd need to prize up the boards which is also hard to do without splitting them.

Ideally I'd like a way to pull out the nails without lifting the boards.

Has anyone done this by: drill out a circular 'plug' around each nail, hammer the nail owen a bit (or pull it out) and then plug the hole with a plug cut from an old board of the same set? I could then slide the boards up without ever lifting them up off the joists or out from under the skirting.

Or does someone know of a tool that will pull flooring brads without wrecking the surrounding wood?

Robert

Reply to
RobertL
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This type of thing maybe?

surface. Fine for packing cases, but I wouldn't use them on floorboards.

I don't think the plug idea is very practical. How would you stabilise the drill, and how many nail heads would you hit with the cutter? IIRC those things are slightly concave on the inside.

The other option, if you have access to a sawbench and some spare boards, is to cut loads of strips. You inevitably need some about 2mm thick to make up the width, but I'm sure the H&S police wouldn't be happy with a fence set to 2mm. Also, gaps are rarely uniform, and taper slightly over a distance, so the whole thing ends up a dog's dinner. Not ideal if you're having bare boards.

I think you'll find removing the skirting and lifting the boards quicker and cleaner in the long run. Once you've got one up, the rest are normally a doddle because you you have good access to one edge. With a couple of pry bars, there's no reason why they wouldn't come up cleanly.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

I agree.I think you'd be kidding yourself if you think any way but lifting them is going to be quicker or better . As said above once the first one is lifted then the rest should be easier .Problems might well be the skirtings which prevent the ends lifting if they are full length boards ( remove skirtings to make it easier) and also if the boards have been "secretly nailed " through the tongues or grooves . When relaying them a flooboard cramp is a great help ( a pair at least) . You can hire these .I got them from HSS. Even doing all that you might still have a few gaps .Tapered slices off an old board tapped and glued in to the gap should help the end appearance

Reply to
anythingyoulike

Nail lifter will do the least damage. But there's no way to do it without some damage. Personally, I'd fill the gaps.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Just to add if you move floorboards across the room because they've shrunk you might well end up with cutouts for pipes etc not being in the middle of a board anymore.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If they are plain boards and the edges touch, they'll creek as you step on them and the edges rub together. Been there, done that, and had to run a saw down to make a gap between each board, just as they had been before I replaced them.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Yup - tried one - took it straight back to the shop. The tool has to chew through the surface to get at the nail - as you say, fine on packing cases.

In older properties you may find you have cut nails rather than modern round or oval wire nails, and these old nails may be much more difficult to shift.

My technique is to put 6mm spax screws in with an impact driver (missing a joist of course), all the way through the board, with the screwhead standing just proud of the board, at the point I want to lift it. Then use a crowbar hooked under the screw head, and bearing on a bit of scrap timber. Enables me to lift stubborn boards with only a screw hole as damage.

Reply to
RubberBiker

Same here. I solved the same problem at home using the same technique as used on wooden boats. Pack the gap with string using a caulking iron to pack it down, then fill with Sikaflex. Sikaflex has the advantage that it's available in a range of colours and it can be sanded after application. It's commonly used on boats to seal the gaps in wooden decking.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Dunno about the UK, but skirting boards are cheap here in the US - I'd just take them off, and if they get trashed just replace them (last time I did it, cutting new ones and fitting to a room was a very quick job)

I suspect getting the first floorboard up without damaging it is going to be the difficult one - but if you have several mm of gaps bewteen each you're going to be adding a new bit of board along one edge when you're done anyway. The other boards should come up easy once you get started, I think.

What's the reason for doing this - are they just noisy? Presumably it's not for cosmetic reasons if you're thinking about trying to make up plugs...

Crawl under floor. Drill up through joists to tip* of nail. Using a hammer and convenient piece of metal rod, hammer nails out from below. If strutrual integrity is compromised, replace joists.

  • Locating the tips of the nails accurately is left as an exercise for the reader.

(that was my backup humourous suggestion as I couldn't think of a good one involving an angle grinder :-)

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules

Target seeking drills that automatically home in on nails, pipes and cables are readily available at your local store.

Reply to
RubberBiker

thanks for all the useful comments and suggestions. In my case the skirting board is unobtainable now so to replace it with a copy is VERY expensive, plus I want to conserve the originals. Having said that, the skirting boards are nailed to the walls into wood blocks set into the brickwork (as was common in 1880) so it is possible to prize them off undamaged if you are careful.

Caulking is a very intersting idea. I'll look in to that.

many thanks,

Robert

Reply to
RobertL

Dunno about your area but if you speak of the tall( 8" or so) skirting with the decorative top I replaced some of mine ( Victorian Tenement Flat in Glasgow) with MDF cut to size by a timber merchant and topped with replacement mouldings that match exactly the originals .This skirting is also nailed to battens fixed to wooden tapered plugs fitted between the bricks .These are almost guaranteed to come away from the wall when u remove the skirting

Reply to
anythingyoulike

100 year old skirting boards could be very difficult to match. The ones in my living room are 12" high made up of three pieces with mouldings which aren't standard. I've also seen them made of plaster.

It's also a pretty skilled job to fit them neatly to an old house where nothing is square.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Ha ha! Right next to the hammers pre-coated in nail-head repellent...

Reply to
Jules

Dear Robert

I have done this many times both personally and professionally during dry rot contracts. I agree with the majority of posts - either lift the boards or fill the gaps Filling the gaps is not difficult and is best done with thin strips of floorboard cut off (with a 1 degree or so wedge angle ) and hammered in with glue and a batten I dont like that approach as it looks tacky unless you like light strips between darker boards

It is not difficult to lift boards if you have the right tools

take off the skirting with care. Use a stanley knife or similar to make a break at the top with the wall paper etc be brave and at one point in the middle put in a wide thin bolster between it and the plaster with if possible a thin steel plate behind the bolster to protect (as much as poss) the plaster and ease out the skirting at the top if you are near a fixing move away till it comes out a few mm do this sequentially along the top until you can get in a thin small crowbar (called a baseboard lifter) and then ease out the middle work to the two sides/ends get an assitant to pull out the middle till it bows and then take ouot one of the ends then the other denail and set aside do the next skirting to the right or left to suit so you now have two sides - if necessary to get access

now you need a Fein multimaster to cut the nearest to the wall board if not in two pieces and lift it up using the aforementioned baseboard lifter behind the back of the board where it was under the skirting Use a professional board lifter (this is a 1.2 m long handle about

1.5 " thick with two levers of aluminium shaped like a cam that rests on the joist and can roll under the board and lift it without damage ease up the board with the lifter sequentially unitl it prizes loose label it ! Carry on to the last board Lay sound deadening quilt relay using cramps or folding sliding wedges

Chris

Reply to
mail

Haven't seen those. Can you post a link? This is about the closest I've seen

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Reply to
Stuart Noble

Thank you for this helpful reply. I have not seen such a tool but it sounds ideal with the leverage taken on the exposed joist next to the board. hence no damage to the surface of any board.

Robert

Reply to
RobertL

Even if you hammered up a board from underneath you'll likely get damage to some through splitting, etc. Old boards are usually nailed with cut nails which ain't designed to be removed.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

=A0 London SW

I have found that either the floor brad (cut nail) head pulls through the timber board (as is the case with the majority in old thin softer timbers) and is left in the joist or (as is the case in newer timbers in good condition left in the floorboard) and only where the angle to the grain is poor or the wood was particuluarly friable do I find it splits. I guess this happens in about 10% of the jobs we do - perhaps less and is never a big problem in the sense that it is only the occasional board that is thus defective. The skill is in gently tapping with a hammer on the other end of the board once one had part of it up acting as a fulcrum. If one does this the board "shakes" itself free of the nails without damage. So, recapping, Lift one end and work your way down about 1.5 m (enough to act as a lever) and put a fulcrum such as a steel bar or even a floorboard off cut under the part lifted board as close to the fixed down end as possible. Then gently hit the lifted end downwards with a hammer. This will "spring" the board from the nails nicely without any damage at all. Chris

Reply to
mail

If a cut nail pulls through the board it is then damaged as you can't use that same nail hole again. My advice stands - don't remove old floorboards unless you really have to as they will never replace as neatly as when new. Since I'm not a bare floorboards fan - unless a hardwood floor designed to be on show - I always use screws on replacement of old or new (if badly damaged). Then you *can* remove them later without damage.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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