Quick trivial question - masking screw heads in a painted floor.

[David]

I'm in the process of lifting floorboards which were painted after being screwed down Screwfix bulk pack posidrive screws.

The painting has (obviously) filled in the screw heads and it is a right arse to clean them out before I can get the impact driver into the cross head.

I'm wondering it there is a way to avoid this, such as putting something on/in the screw heads before painting which will be easy to remove either immediately after painting or 5 years down the line when the boards need to come up again.

Cheers

Dave R

[Bill Wright]

It helps to put a correctly-sized posi screwdriver in the paint-filled slot and tap it quite hard a number of times. Then clean the slot out with a sharp pointed thing like a scratch bradawl, or those compasses you nicked from school all those years ago.

Bill

[Harry Bloomfield]

David brought next idea :

If they are recessed into the wood just a tiny bit, cut some circles of masking tape the same size as the head with a punch and put those in top of the heads, before painting. When the times comes, the tape should tease up with a sharp point.

[Chris Hogg]

Or even use self-adhesive dots

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Generally if you use the correct bit and in good condition, lots of pressure on the impact driver will get them out with the paint still there. Which is easy to do with floorboards.

[Pancho]

Not answering your actual question, but

I found this £22 multi tool:

Very useful for cleaning out paint and improving damaged posidrive heads so that they could be removed.

[tabbypurr]

A sharp point is way quicker

NT

[Pancho]

Quicker than a spinning sharp point?

Mainly I used it a bit like a dentist drill. Not only quick to get the paint out, but it could also cut a little to restore the posidrive groves just enough.

[tabbypurr]

yes. IME anyway.

NT

[newshound]

I'm with Tabs. I have one of these, I'd expect it to make a damaged crosspoint socket worse unless it was very bad indeed. An impact driver, with lots of pressure, will sometimes release a screw head that is fairly far gone. I've sometimes used them to make a straight slot for a conventional screwdriver (although even for that, I'd normally use a slitting disk rather than a rotary or stone).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup. Recently removed some pozi from a garden gate that had been there long enough for the wood to rot and had been painted several times. Into anything solid where you can apply plenty pressure, an impact driver will work just fine.

[Pancho]

Ok, I did this a couple of weeks ago removing door hinges, fully over painted with 20 year old gloss. The screws were actually Phillips not posidrive.

You made me doubt myself so I retested, on a door I hadn't removed. First using a nail and then a compass as a sharp point. Both of these were slow to pick the paint out. I was tempted to use the screw driver before it was obtaining a good seating.

I then used a diamond bit (pointy grinding thing) on the dremmel type thing. It dug the paint out quickly and easily. The screwdriver could then seat itself well and the screws came out with out problem.

Perhaps I was doing something wrong, with the sharp points?

I don't have an impact driver. I like the idea but can't justify the price, given I wouldn't use it much and already have an electric screwdriver and a drill driver.

I originally bought the dremmel to cut a straight slot (with a cutting disk) in a totally ruined screw head. Learning it could dig paint out was an unexpected bonus.

[tabbypurr]

It takes 1 - 2 seconds. Just push the point in over one side & flick it out sideways. Do that twice for your 2 directions in the cross head. You don't normally need to clear the head, just get the majority out.

He probably meant a manual impact driver, electric ones don't bite into trashed heads anywhere near as well as the old manual type.

NT