Recovering wood from a bad hardwood installation

[Scott Conley]

Hello All,

My co-worker had brazilian cherry hardwood floor installed and the 'handyman' used a bradly nailer on the top over every piece ruining every piece (see pic below).

http://tinypic.com/r/o8to9x/8

I have a chance to buy the wood at a steep discount and I'm looking at options on recovering most of it. One option, I'm looking at is to cut the sections between nails and re tongue and grooving the ends.

My question to all of you, Is this necessary? Can I get away with just squaring the pieces and rely on the side tongue and groove?

Thanks in advance.

Scott

[Myk Rian]

Anything is possible if you set your mind to it. If the effort is worth it depends on how short the pieces will be when done.
What the heck kind of flap jack would do that to a floor? Unbelievable.

[Dennis Ford]

Could you countersink screws in the nail holes and plug with dark plugs?

[Mike Henderson]

I don't know how thick the pieces are, but I put down some 3/4" solid oak flooring without T&G on the ends (but with T&G on the sides) and it was fine. I did it with raw wood and sanded it after the installation and that may have leveled it up.

Mike

[Shawn Pixley]

I think with the narrower the strips are, the less you need to T&G the ends. The Bamboo flooring I installed (4-1/2" wide), was T&G on the ends in the factory. When I needed to cut to clear the border, etc., I did not T&G my cut ends. Worked out fine. Though my butt ends would be more limited than your application.

[ray hampton]

If you need to buy extra flooring ,will it be in stock or will the store need to order it for you, if the edge are groove one side BUT a tongue on the other side , How will the T and G end match up ? in other words will the end T and G shown after the floor are fasten down

[Yonak Hawkins]

If the flooring is pre-finished there will probably be unacceptable uneven ends. If you plan to sand, I wouldn't see a problem.

[Scott Conley]

Thanks everyone for the info.

To clarify, the wood is prefinished 3" wide (finished) and 1/2" thick. I think I can get pieces between 8" and 16" long between the nails. The original pieces ranges from 12" to 5' long.


To answer some questions;

Myk: A complete idiot did this and my co-worker went on vacation and handed him the keys.

Dennis: I thought about adding plugs, however the dumby that nailed it, didn't use a chalk line or something similar to have a pattern or order to do that method.

Ray: I won't need to worry about more wood, there is more than enough to do what I need.

I test cut the ends with my mitre saw and surprisingly it cut cleanly on my old blade, its a really strong wood. I think I can successfully cut the ends cleaner with a new blade. Yonak you made a good point, I think if I used a router there would be splintered ends. I might take my chances with the butt jointed ends.

http://tinypic.com/r/xqc8k2/8

http://tinypic.com/r/2e5pfub/8

[ray hampton]

[QUOTE=Scott Conley;2300221]Thanks everyone for the info.


Myk: A complete idiot did this and my co-worker went on vacation and handed him the keys.


I must disagree with you about this point because I am a complete idiot [well I was until the doctor remove part of my colon ] and I would never nail this this way, do you plan on using nails thru the tongue or cinchs [spell check]

[HANK METZ]

Grab a half- dozen pieces, plug 'em, lay them down and see if it's as bad as you think. I kinda got a feeling it'll look more than alright; it'll look genuine. Sometimes these construction gaffes turn out to be incredibly fortuitous.

[Ellen Benkin]

Did Mr. Hanyman get paid or shot? What a mess!

[Mark Bolton]

If you drill and plug your going to have to sand/grind the entire floor down and finish it. That would seem like tremendous amount of work (on top of laying a floor out of tiny pieces to begin with). If you blow through the factory finish anywhere you'd then have to take it all down for color. Would seem like a potential nightmare.

Id try to lay a small closet or a small test room first and see how it looks/acts with all shorts (my guess will be - bad) and go from there.

I'd think the price of this material from your friend should be -free- because the work that will go into this to have a floor of all shorts will be tremendous. May be better to just take some of it for small projects and go on.

[scott vroom]

I can understand wanting to save money through recycling, but 8" to 16" length flooring would look terrible IMO. I'd tell your friend no-thanks.

[John Lanciani]

I can understand wanting to save money through recycling, but 8" to 16" length flooring would look terrible IMO. I'd tell your friend no-thanks.

I agree, this is one of those deals that even free is going to seem very expensive by the time you're done.

[ray hampton]

You can buy floor tiles this size SO WHY not use short length of hardwood flooring