And another of my projects is going to involve lifting some hundred-plus-year-old floorboards. They aren't in the best of condition
- there's been woodworm at some time - and they're fixed down with what looks like hand-made nails. Obviously I'd like to retain as much as possible - unlike the plumber who replaced some of them with chipboard back in the 80s. What's the best tool to pry them up with least damage? I have standard wrecking bars, but they seem a bit brutal.
Andy
The nails you are referring to are "cut nails". You can still buy them.
If there is woodworm, you may as well take them all up and chuck them away. The wrecking bar is the tool. The joists should then be treated. (You might find the joists have woodworm too & need replacing if it's bad.) You'll have to remove the skirting first (which might also have woodworm & need replacing) Bit of a Pandoras boxsituation, these jobs can get bigger as they progress.
You can still buy tongue & groove floorboards if that's what you want. Some is identical sizewise to what you probably have but won't match as it's unworn, clean and poorer quality timber. They are much more expensive than chipboard.
You will need a floorboard cramp to lay them and let them dry out before laying or you will get gaps appear as they dry.
Make sure you have made arrangements for whatever wiring/pipes are going in under the floor.
Our first house had just this problem: cut nails, 7"? square edge boards, woodworm and a lenders requirement to treat!
As above, electricians bolster either side of the first board and apply leverage. Some of the nails will pull through and the bolsters will leave marks.
Once the first board is up, a thin wrecking bar for the open side and bolster on the other.
Usual warnings about buried services so start well clear of likely pipe/cable routes.
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I've just taken up tongue and groove boards from a 1930s house and it was almost impossible to get them out intact by levering them up. The oval nails were rusted into the boards and with tongue and groove when you lever up one board the next board tries to hold it down and breaks off the tongue or splits the board.
I understand that there is a specialist tool to extract sunken nails, which fits down around the nail and then grabs it, but I've only heard of it, not seen it.
An alternative is to use a drift to drive the nails down through the boards into the joists. Once you have done two or more full boards then the boards should start to lift.
This does rely on you being able to drive the nails in fairly cleanly, though.
In our case the joists were/are quite variable in density. In some cases the nails pulled out easily with the boards. In other cases the nails pulled through the boards, but were easily(ish) removed with a big nail bar. In a few cases the nails were set so firmly that I couldn't pull them out nor drive them into the joist, and had to cut them with a mini tool.
So - if tongue and groove then specialist tool or drive the nails through.
If they are not tongue and groove then you are lucky and should be able to get them up with care and gentle prising. A very thin flat nail bar is good for starting the boards before more hunky bars are used. If you are not T&G and drive the nails down through the first board then you should be able to get them all up with luck.
HTH
Dave R
On 19 Jan 2015, stuart noble grunted:
I remember seeing something like that being used by a cabinet maker in his workshop, probably 10+ years ago, and drooling over it; I asked where I could get one but the guy said he'd had it for years and had never come across one since.
The one I saw has similar jaws IIRC, but without the 90-deg lever. IIRC it worked by being bopped with a hammer lightly on the end; the impact being converted to a combined 'grip and pull' action. It was extraordinary how little damage, if any, it made to the wooden surface even when pulling out sunken nails.
David formulated on Monday :
I have only seen one, that was 50 years ago and it was old then...
It had a fixed jaw and a movable one with a short arm to clamp it on. The fixed jaw was on the end of a tube, in the tube a slide hammer. You put its jaws over the nail, hammered away until it sank the jaws into the wood, pressed on the short arm to clamp onto the nail, then levered the nail out. As you levered, the moveable clamping arm would tighten its grip.
stuart noble formulated the question :
That is what I was trying to describe lol
Er that's why you cut the tongue off before you start trying to lift a board. A jigsaw with a blade broken to such a length that at maximum excursion is just less than the board thickness is excellent for this. A multi-tool would also do it but be slower and not so well depth contolled. So would a circular saw but that would have a relatively wide kerf. With the other two the kerf maybe smaller than the interboard gap.
In message , Harry Bloomfield writes
I have one!
Works well on barbed wire staples or flat head nails.
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My Dad had one, with a similar answer. Wonder what happened to it?
Umm... perhaps a multi-jaw collet loose fitted inside a tube with a tapered interior such that tapping a protruding part of the collet advances it and clamps.....
They come in various lengths:
I have a special crowbar like tool made specially for removing floorboards , think I heard about it in this group years ago, cant remember what its proper name is though
its li8ke a crowbar wbut with a shallower smoother curve at the end.
Not like this one:
once I have a bit of floorboard up I slide a bit of wood under it and across where its up, then work along both edges with a crowbar bit by bit, sliding the wood down as the floorboard lifts. (not tongue and groove)
Bosch PMF multitool is very useful in this type of job.
[g][snip]
[snip] Removing the nails is the key here. Google 'packing case nail puller'. Go for the British one with the integral slide hammer. It will save much cursing :-)
Cheers,
You'll certainly be cursing the tool, which is ONLY suitable for packing cases IME
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