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