Lifting up Laminate flooring

[bp]

Hi

I have done somethnig which I originally thought was a good idea but now am not so sure.

When I decided to put down laminate flooring in the front room I decided to replace the skirting at the same time. This was to prevent me have to fix beading all round the edge to cover the gap you have to leave for laminate floooring.

Now the kids have cracked two planks of flooring in the middle of the room. The skirting was glued and screwed to the wall. I screwed the holes below the surface of the skirting and filled them in and then painted over them (proper job I thought). Now I cant tell where the screws are to remove them. I cant see a way to remove the flloring without removing the skirting.

Thinking about It I dont a way of just removing the odd plank either as I have a fireplace and bay window. It looks like I may have to remove over half of the skirting ( which I dont really want to do)

I cant fix the boards in situ - they are too far gone.

Is there a neat trick that will get the boards up with removing the skirting.

Thanks

Bhupesh

[Andy Cap]

When you remove the skirting ;-) you can find the screws with a cable/metal detector. It's how I found the hole for the rotary clothes line, in the grass.

[Mike Dodd]

One technique I remember reading to remove a single board is to drill 4 holes in it, one by each corner, then cut between the holes to form a rectangle that can be easily removed (removes ~70-90% of the material), then by prying (maybe weakening with a couple of small drill holes) bend and snap the remaining material along the long edges into the hole left by the process above.

That's to take the board out.

To replace with the new board, carefully cut the lower lip of the "grooved" part of the replacement board to allow it to drop into place easily. I'm guessing glue will be your friend at this stage.

[Steven Campbell]

Depending on the screws used you could use a magnet to find them. I done something similar but the magnet found them fine. Have a look at the skirting and guess where you would insert screws if you were just fitting the boards now. Chances are it will be there or there abouts.

[John Rumm]

With a small circular saw set to board depth cut away a board leaving a small margin at each of the joins. If it is click together stuff then the remaining bits can be pulled free. If glued, then use a chisel at an angle to knock the remaining wood away from the glueline. You will need to rip the lower part of the groove away from the replacement boards to be able to get them back in the hole. Glue in place (even if it is a click together floor system)

[Chris J Dixon]

I thought it was just me ;-)

Chris

[John]

I suspect that the replacement will be slightly higher due to it not having the bottom of the groove to apply a tension to it + the thickness of the glue and the upward push of the underlay stuff.