is there a special tool?

Wonderbar?

Something like this:

Vise Grips.

--Andy Asberry--

------Texas-----

Best thing that worked for me was to take a pair of cobblers pliers and belt sand the outside flush so that there is only a bevel on the inside. You might be able to raise them with diagonal gutters also.

" snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Your girlfriend found a solution to her fix-it problems :-)

This is a perfect question for Ask This Old House

I was reading around, and the advice I saw is to sink the nails pretty deeply, and then use a good quality wood filler tinted to match.

I don't see the nexus with the problem or solution :-)

-- Oren

"The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!"

Flat bars or wonder bars are the tool for this job. I would get a small flat piece of metal to help in protection of the floor boards. You can use the tops of steel cans for this or a flattened can (like corn and green beens come in) to lay on the floor under the pry bar. I have had good luck with restorers bars or bars like these:

By ring nails, I assume you mean the large-head ring shank like used for siding?

I'll second the wonder bar recomendation. Stanley makes a tiny one, plated finish so it doesn't stain the work, that would be perfect for this. I'd also buy a sacrificial good quality 1" putty knife, for the ones the wonder bar won't get under. A piece of cardboard or plastic under the fulcrum point will reduce the dents in the wood. No matter what, it is gonna leave marks, but you already have the dents from the heads to sand out/fill amyway. After the first 4 or 5, you will get the hang of it.

Other alternative- a good center punch and a six-pack of sharp bits. Dimple each nail, drill the head till it detaches from the shaft, and then sink with the punch and putty over, if needed.

aem sends...

I should have mentioned that the adjoining areas have been tinted different colours, so she intends to get someone in to resand and refinish the flooring. When I had mine done the guy used the sawdust from the first coat mixed with the filler and went over the entire floor surface with it - it worked wonders and essentially hid all the holes and imperfections, etc. that I had in mine. So it does not have to be a perfectly marr-less (is that a word?), solution but I am defintely trying to minimize the damage.

Thank you all for the wonderful ideas and links. I'll be ferreting about to see what I can find from these sources.

regards. (hi-ho, hi-ho .....)

I'd maybe try a Dremel with a cutoff wheel. Just cut the nails off at the surface, then if possible pound them in further with a nail set & hammer. Fill the holes, or maybe the refinisher will do that.

clipped

I have read about using sawdust to patch holes. Can you use a small grinder .. Dremel bit .. to cut the nailheads down? Fill with small wood plugs prior to sanding or with sawdust afterward.

Besides the numerous types of nail pullers at Amazon.com, there is this new and different sort at Hartvilletool.com that you might want to look at: Cat. No. 74668. At $24.99 it is more than some, but I bought it for pulling finishing nails backward out of trim moulding so it can be reused and it is nice heavy duty tool for that. HTH

Joe