Lifting Chiboard Flooring

[Jeff Gaines]

In my quest to find the problem with my lighting I am going to have to lift some flooring upstairs.

I can get to it and lift the carpet/underlay OK. It is nailed Chipboard and I really do not want to punch the nails through it. The ceilings here are pristine Artex and I do not want to crack them. The place was built in

1983 so there must be a possibility there is asbestos in the Artex if old stock was used.

Is there a method/tool that will enable me to pull the nails out without ruining the floor or ceiling please?

[nothanks]

If you know where you need access you could use one of these

to cut a hole, rather than lifting the flooring - they work well. It just so happens that I was thinking of selling mine because this house doesn't have chipboard flooring.

[Clive Arthur]

I haven't tried this, but how about drilling or grinding the hail heads so the chipboard can be levered up, then pull the nail shafts out? Use screw when you re-lay.

[Andy Burns]

Small holesaw (without pilot drill in the arbor) around the nails?

[NY]

Beware of glued boards. When a rat died in our loft and the smell was at the point where we thought we'd have to move out for a while, I discovered that the chipboard boards in the loft had been screwed down, but removing the screws did not allow the boards to lift - even a board at the edge where any tongue-and-groove would not apply (even if chipboard was made with tongue-and-groove).

Fortunately I discovered that the rat had very kindly died *just* within the distance that I could reach by going right into the eaves and shoving my hand *gloved in a plastic bag* back under the board. Any further and we'd have been stuffed. Half the battle was trying to find a small enough mirror to look back under each board to find the corpse, and manipulating a torch with my other hand.

I cursed the parentage of the bozo who had decided to glue the boards down, as opposed to just relying on the screws. What's the point in using a removable fixing like screws if you are then going to glue the boards down and make the fixing permanent (as if nails had been used)?

[Chris Green]

I've always simply sawn a square out somewhere (after working out where the joists are), then lever up from there if you haven't exposed the area you need.

Put battens under the boards around the hole to support the sawn out piece when you replace it.

[RJH]

Reduce movement and creaking? Although in loft space?!

Agreed though - PITA if you need to lift them. About to discover the same in my kitchen . . .

[John Rumm]

+1 yup, if you use it with the pilot to make a hole through a scrap of ply etc, then you can use the ply as a guide in place of the pilot.

[John Rumm]

I find you don't always need to lift a whole sheet - just getting an access hole though will often do it. I have a floor access hole saw that does the trick nicely. It cuts a 5" hole, and then mills a rebate around the periphery of the hole. You can then just drop a steel repair disk back in to to fill the hole.

[Tricky Dicky]

Our first house was built in the early 70’s and had 8 X 4 18mm chipboard floors, I lifted several of these just by punching the nails through and the ceilings below remained sound and crack free.

I suspect a 1983 house will not have glued boards so you should not have too much of an issue lifting the boards. The modern trend is not to lift whole boards but to use floor board saws as described by John even for plumbing with the advent of plastic pipes. If you do have to lift boards owing to have to pass through several joists then do not cut sections smaller than 2’ wide as you will find it hard to avoid flexing afterwards. Someone has already described how to refit sections.

As for seeing under floors in awkward spaces your mobile phone is your friend.

Richard

[Jeff Gaines]

Many thanks for all the responses so far :-)

It strikes me this might be a good excuse to get myself an endoscope to attach to my tablet so I can try and find the connection/transformer before I start lifting boards. Is that a plan? Any recommendations for a make/model?

[Pancho]

Some of my my old chipboard went spongy, it was supposed to be glued but wasn't.

I levelled a floor, so needed to get it all up. When I put it back down, I glued and screwed it. I glued it at the joins, and gripfill underneath to stop it squeaking,

So curse me if you want :-)

FWIW, getting the boards up, I pulled the old nails. It wasn't that hard. To get them going, I used a tack puller. I broke a few of the tack pullers, but they only cost a few quid. The moment you have enough space, you can use a proper nail puller.

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, Jeff Gaines [e-mail] writes

I used the smaller version of these pullers. You whack the back with a hammer to get the jaws under the nail head.

Oops. Watch the wrap.

>

[Andy Burns]

Most of it's not needed ... just the code after slash dp slash

I think I'd need to see a lot of nail-pulling in my future to buy these with a 'beak' and slide-hammer

[charles]

when I fitted chipboard in part of my loft, I found it came with T&G ends. That makes it difficult to remove ones in the middle.

[Pancho]

Mine is years old and wifi, but USB would be just as good, the wifi is a pain. (it creates a wifi hotspot that the phone wifi needs to connect to).

Also, my endoscope camera has a focal length of 2cm, which can make it difficult to use under floor boards.

For a nail puller, the links you have been given are good, but I also used these:

They get a nail started, so you can then use a bigger puller. They break, so three is a good number.

[Jeff Gaines]

Many thanks Tim & Andy :-)

I suspect the issue with those pullers is getting them through the wood to the nail head? I will keep searching, if I know exactly where I need to get it will narrow the problem down.

[John Rumm]

Waiting for the thread on how to recover a mobile lost under a floor now :-)

[Jeff Gaines]

Many thanks :-)

Funnily enough I'd just found the staple remover as I thought they'd start the hole as you say. What about a 4 mm or so plug cutter to cut round the head so I can get a decent puller in followed by a claw hammer?

[Andy Burns]

There will be a bit of damage ... this chap is normally into pretty good quality woodworking, so if he uses them, it's the tool to minimise that damage ...