Removing a floorboard

[AlanD]

Fein Multimaster

[Slider]

Expensive though. A cheaper alternative is the Bosch PMF-180E. Does the same job.

[RobertL]

I guess you considered this: saw through the floorboard next to another joist and do not attempt to remove the bit that's under the stud wall. Then nail a block onto the side of the joist to take the sawn end of the floorboard.

Robert

[Miles]

Hi,

I need to take up some floorboards to get at a pipe that runs underneath.

However, I've found that the far end of the board runs under a partition wall. Under the partition wall is a joist, and the board is nailed to the joist. The bottom of the partition wall may also be nailed into the board: I can't tell at the moment.

Any ideas how I can get the end of the board out? Is there a specific saw I can use to cut through the nail, and that's thin enough to get into the (non-existent) gap between board and joist.

Thanks

Miles

[Stuart Noble]

It might be easier to cut the board short of the joist and fix a batten to it to support the board when you put it back. Depends how far under the wall the joist is.

[Bruce]

An even cheaper alternative is the Worx 250W Sonic Crafter from Argos, or Screwfix, at £69.99. It comes with a 3 year warranty that covers DIY use but excludes professional use.

[Frank Erskine]

That's not cheaper - the Bosch sells in B&Q for about 60 quid - less

10% on a Wednesday of you're an old fogey...

[Bruce]

Not available in my local B&Q, not listed on their web site. Screwfix, part of the same company as B&Q, offers the Worx.

Doesn't the Work have wider compatibility, for instance with Fein accessories?

[mail]

Dear Miles I do this sort of lifting for a living. The way I do it is as follows:

Mark the two sides of the joists under the stud wall and in the next door room using a pencil and a thin rule to poke between the boards to get the exact location of the joists If necessary take off a bit of or all the skirting so you can get access to both sides of the wall Behind the skirtings will be a bit of plaster which you can take off up to half the height of the skirting on both sides Using a Fein or any other multimaster cut the board down as close to the centre of the joist on one side it avoiding any nails which you will see from the holes as the stud wall allows It may be necessary to cut at an angle but that all depends where the nails are

Leave a bearing on the joist Only in desperation cut flush and put on a scotch or batten - that is the route of the DIY or lazy builder!

raise the rest of the board in the normal way

Go to the other side and cut a short lengh of board off to the next nearest joist to the stud wall in the centre of the joist as described above

If the nail heads have pulled out with the board fine - take the board back down and take out the nails with pinchers but this is most unlikely in 999 /1000 it will have stuck in and you now have to use a sabre saw with metal blade to cut them out (absent that a pad saw with hack saw blade and lots of hand action with a glove on!)

you now are left with a stub of wood one joist wide with the stud wall on top If you are lucky there wont be a nail there so just get a mallet and tap the board out one side or the other If there is a nail (sod's law) it will be a big 4" one and you have to use your 300mm long sabre saw blade to cut it out A hacksaw would be a real pain but with patience possilbe

Knock out the floor board sideways with a mallet or drift clear of the stud wall and you are there!

once you have dealt with your pipes reverse the actions Chris

[The Medway Handyman]

Whats wrong with doing that? It would take 80% less time than the over elaborate method you describe.

[Simon Stroud]

Dear Miles I do this sort of lifting for a living. The way I do it is as follows:

Mark the two sides of the joists under the stud wall and in the next door room using a pencil and a thin rule to poke between the boards to get the exact location of the joists If necessary take off a bit of or all the skirting so you can get access to both sides of the wall Behind the skirtings will be a bit of plaster which you can take off up to half the height of the skirting on both sides Using a Fein or any other multimaster cut the board down as close to the centre of the joist on one side it avoiding any nails which you will see from the holes as the stud wall allows It may be necessary to cut at an angle but that all depends where the nails are

Leave a bearing on the joist Only in desperation cut flush and put on a scotch or batten - that is the route of the DIY or lazy builder!

raise the rest of the board in the normal way

Go to the other side and cut a short lengh of board off to the next nearest joist to the stud wall in the centre of the joist as described above

If the nail heads have pulled out with the board fine - take the board back down and take out the nails with pinchers but this is most unlikely in 999 /1000 it will have stuck in and you now have to use a sabre saw with metal blade to cut them out (absent that a pad saw with hack saw blade and lots of hand action with a glove on!)

you now are left with a stub of wood one joist wide with the stud wall on top If you are lucky there wont be a nail there so just get a mallet and tap the board out one side or the other If there is a nail (sod's law) it will be a big 4" one and you have to use your 300mm long sabre saw blade to cut it out A hacksaw would be a real pain but with patience possilbe

Knock out the floor board sideways with a mallet or drift clear of the stud wall and you are there!

once you have dealt with your pipes reverse the actions Chris

(BTW There's something wrong with your message or my OE which is preventing the above auto-indenting)

One small tip - if you want to remove a stubborn nail rather than cutting it off, I have found the "Priory Nail Puller" to be excellent. One of the top 3 tools I ever bought.

Regards, Simon.

[Gib Bogle]

The Medway Handyman wrote: ...

I'd use a batten. Amply strong enough, so what's the issue?

[Clive George]

It's OE and the crap way it fails to cope with messages with Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable, which includes those from google groups.

Quotefix might help, otherwise you're stuck with doing it manually.

cheers, clive

[Geo]

And the problem with your delete key is...?

[Maris]

The obvious wayis to prise up the board and cut through the portion one joist away from the partition, making sure that the cut is directly over the centre of this joist (so you won't need any battens when replacing). Any old hand saw will accomplish that as long as you have prised up the board far enough. Maris

[Miles]

Thanks everyone who replied. I invested in the bosch which has turned out to be quite a useful tool. I hadn't actually thought of adding the batten, though it turns out that the width of the partition wall means the batten would have to be impractically wide - unfortunately, there's only access from one side as the other side has a shower fitted.

Miles