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removing hardwood floor intact Posted by tomh on March 24th, 2004 11:22 AM In reply to removing hardwood floors by scottie k on March 24th, 2004 09:29 AM [Go to top of thread]
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The first three rows of floor near the wall are most likely face nailed and will be removeable with a prybar. Use a hammer to drive the prybar under the floor near the nail, lifting straight up to start, then prying back in the opposite direction the nail is driven (away from the tounge) to disengage the groove from the tounge of the adjacent board. I have used a prybar with a thin straight end and thin curved claw end to do floor removals. Usually the prybar can be driven under the flooring at the nailing points and slowly pried up and out. It takes several passes to incrementally remove each board. Nails may be pulled through the back side of the board and left in the floor, or if they come out with the board, remove from the back (pointed side) by using a vice grips to pull the nail through. The nail will be slanting back under the back of the floor board, so it is fairly easy to grip and pull straight out rocking the vice grip for leverage across the back of the board.
I have had pretty good luck removing floors this way. Its best to work from the tounge side of the board, so the direction you need to work depends on how the floor was laid. You will have some loss of material, but if you are careful, most will come up intact. Was this post helpful? Yes: or No:
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