reclaimed Oak floor circa 1925...
Please any tips for saving & ripping up an old tongue and groove red oak floor, 3/4 x 2 1/4". Is it still usable to a floor guy if a groove is broken or gone ( esp bottom groove)? tips for backing the nails out?
Jim ( electrician )
No, if the toungue is gone or the groove chipped, no one is going to want to go to the trouble to re-use it. Except, of course a dedicated rec'er who might just re-mill it to slightly narrower width.
It's almost impossible to remove w/o significant damage, unfortunately.
Yeah, it's hard to imagine even the cheapest floor guy being interested
in it. The damage will pretty much exclusively be to the tongues and grooves so lots of woodorkers would be happy to just rip those off and rejoint, replane it to small width oak. I'm one such person, indeed I have a bunch of flooring like that now, in random widths up to about 10"--way too wide for normal flooring, this was from a restaraunt being remodeled.
The nails generally can be backed out easily just by hammering on the point to raise the head and then pulling with a nail puller or claw hammer. Often cut nails are used, those are tapered so once you get them started out they come out easy. This presumes you have pulled the flooring up and then pull the nails out.
I can't think of any easy way to get the nails out first.
You could reuse them for laminated oak projects. Don't throw it out, you might be sorry down the road. A recycle shed might be a good idea as well.
Tom
snipped-for-privacy@spamc : Duane Bozarth wrote: : > JJ Electrical wrote: : > >
: > > reclaimed Oak floor circa 1925... : > >
: > > Please any tips for saving & ripping up an old tongue and groove red oak : > > floor, 3/4 x 2 1/4". Is it still usable to a floor guy if a groove is : > > broken or gone ( esp bottom groove)? tips for backing the nails out? : > >
: > > Jim ( electrician ) : >
: > No, if the toungue is gone or the groove chipped, no one is going to : > want to go to the trouble to re-use it. Except, of course a dedicated : > rec'er who might just re-mill it to slightly narrower width. : >
: > It's almost impossible to remove w/o significant damage, unfortunately.
: Yeah, it's hard to imagine even the cheapest floor guy being interested
: in it. The damage will pretty much exclusively be to the tongues and : grooves so lots of woodorkers would be happy to just rip those off : and rejoint, replane it to small width oak. I'm one such person, : indeed I have a bunch of flooring like that now, in random widths up : to about 10"--way too wide for normal flooring, this was from a : restaraunt being remodeled.
: The nails generally can be backed out easily just by hammering on the : point to raise the head and then pulling with a nail puller or claw : hammer. Often cut nails are used, those are tapered so once you get : them started out they come out easy. This presumes you have pulled the : flooring up and then pull the nails out.
: I can't think of any easy way to get the nails out first.
: --
: FF
--
Thanks everybody! I pulled about 200 sq feet up last night (not easy), and about half of the boards have split or broken grooves, most of the tongues are ok. The nice thing about this floor is it was very well taken care of and only refinished once, it also is extremely clear. How much would this red oak cost new today?? ( and would it be this clear?)
Jim
I must be the odd one out, as I have and still do re-use floor-boards in pretty sorry state.
It all depends on just how bad the damage is, of course. If the damage is less than 6" in length (usually at the ends) I use them as is. Should it be a couple of feet I'll trim that section out (throwing it into my odds'n'sods pile for other projects) and use the remaining lengths. The odd short board in a floor looks good, so long as you keep an eye on where the joints are in the adjoining boards.
A rule of thumb is to make sure that the nearest joints in the 4 adjoining boards (2 on each side) are _at_least_ a couple of feet away.
For longer lengths, I put that board aside to use along walls, etc. where it's not of vital import. Of course, if *every* board is damaged I wouldn't recommend their re-use unless both you and the homeowner (assuming they're not the same) know what you're doing.
- Andy
..
But the question as I read was whether a pro would want it--and I'd guess very few would be willing to invest the extra time/effort unless it was to match/repair and existing floor...
W/ us here, in general, all bets are off as it's a challenge to use/reuse stuff... :)
(It would probably be hard for most any non-rec'er to imagine the initial condition of some of the material I've salvaged and reused in the barn restoration.)
Ahhh... I just reread the post and I think you're right about the question.
I 'm not a pro; I don't earn my $ laying floors on a daily basis. But I am the bloke a friend (who is a pro) calls in when he has to lay old boards in a new house. In other words, I'm the sucker who gets lumbered with the jobs the pro didn't want but got stuck with. Even over-quoting doesn't work if the customer thinks "he must be good to ask that much!" Fortunately, it's only once every coupla years or so...
And that's why I'm here. To learn alternate methods for turning sawdust into cabinets. My methods are sufficient to keep my customers happy, I wanna learn how to make things with which *I* am happy. As I'm sure you know, there's a big difference.
Oh, I dunno. The ol' kerbside shop has been one of my staple suppliers for as long as I can remember and, so long as 'tis bug-free and doesn't turn to dust at first glance, it all gets used one way or another. Errm... and sometimes even if it isn't bug-free.
- Andy
Many red oaks are moderately fast growing, and they are widespread in range so it is not particularly hard to find clear red oak even today especially in narrow sections. Old growth red oak (tight growth rings) is uncommon of course. Wood prices vary enormously with distance from the native range. In Panama, mahogany is cheap, red oak is expensive. On the East Coast of the US red oak is a common pallet wood. The price also rises rapidly as the lumber changes hands from the feller to the sawyer to the wholesaler to the retailer.
Thin and narrow boards are sold as 'hobby wood' in the local Home Depots. I've seen poplar, pine, aspen and red oak there. Those floor boards would readily convert to 'hobby wood' sizes. If the underside is grooved or otherwise relieved as is common with flooring today (so it doesn't rock on the subfloor) then once that face is planed flat you'd have something like 1/2" to maybe 5/8" thick.
Figuring you get 3" wide, I'd guess comparable red oak hobby wood would be around $0.50/linear foot, just a rough guess. Could easily be twice or half that. That works out to a terribly high price per board foot but with hobby woods you're paying for all the work done to mill it into those small sizes as well as for all the sawdust that was made in the process.
For uses for that wood, Google for 'pencil box'. It would be great also for smallish drawer casings, clock cases, any sort of small box where the thinness is not a problem. You would not necessarily have to plane off the grooves for some applications, if they won't show or you can explain them as an artistic element.
If any of it was quarter sawn (again, Google is your friend) then it would be good for jewelry boxes.
And as another person has pointed out, it can be laminated back up into thicker sections, or resawn to 1/4" thick for bent wood.
Oh, and I should add I have a slightly different perspective to you on this...
Where you are Red Oak might be considered a throwaway. Here it's an exotic import. That makes a difference and although I realise he was asking locally, the net makes you all seem so close that I sometimes forget where you are. [shrug]
- Andy
Yes, red oak while not "throwaway" (anymore at least, decent hardwood is that anymore) is certainly one of the more common and less expensive in the US, particularly, of course in the Eastern half...
Here in the UK, where we don't still have huge forests to fell, recycling this type of flooring is standard practice. You throw the T&G away and just re-cut them to make a narrower board.
Thank you everyone for all the messages. I got another 100 sqft and removed all the nails today, almost as hard as pulling up the floor. The tops of these boards are perfect (except the butt ends that were under the quarter round) and I am going to reuse all this floor, even if I have to put screws and oak plugs in the ends. Jim
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