reclaiming wood floor

[Dan Racette]

I have an older house with a really nice fir floor in it. tight long grain. We need to take it up for various reasons, but I was wondering if anyone knew anything about reclaiming floors that could lend me a suggestion? How could I get this up with the most amount or reuseable floor. I got many months to do this and would prefer a non-dusty method but if I have to get some power tools out so be it? Also what do I do with the nails that are left in the material that comes up? Do I drill them all out??

Help and advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

[Al Lupone]

If the floor was put down with the old cut nails through a tongue, once you disturb the initial hold, then they should pop right up. If they were put in with any other nails; have fun.
Al

[Rick Haigh]

Several years ago a local school had to replace their gym floor due to water damage in part of it. I was able to salvage way more than enough to cover our kitchen floor. I individually removed each piece with a wonder bar (crow bar) and hammer and then used vice grips and the same wonder bar to remove each nail.

This was a long process, but it yielded excellent results. The flooring was maple tongue and groove.
kitchen.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

Tell us more about the floor. Is it tongue-and-groove finish flooring nailed down to a subfloor? That is, it is not subfloor itself, right?

Most wood flooring is just nailed down to the subfloor. You may destroy the first few boards getting them up, but after that you can just slide a wrecking bar under the exposed edge and tease the boards up. If it is tongue-and-groove, the nails are not visible, and are driven in on the tongue side of the board. You want to start ripping up the floor from that side of the room. Generally the nails stay stuck in the flooring as you pull it up, and you can drive them out from the back side. You'll probably destroy some boards by splitting off the tongue, and it is a lot of work.

[Dan Racette]

I will be starting the first few boards to pull up tonight. I will let you know, Jaime, what I find and sit back and listen to your advice. We are prepared for a long and careful nail removal process. I am going to grab a wood wizard metal detector so I can find all of the nails.

Crossing my fingers.

[Tom Ruflin]

I recycled a red oak floor out of a friends house. I thought I could use a sawsall to cut the nails but htey were the hardened spiral type so they wuld not cut. I used a wonder bar and crow bar to gently pry up each board with about 20% being destroyed. The nails were through the toung at 45 degrees. To remove the nails I biult a jig that held the boards at 45 degrees so the nails were at 90 degrees and easy to pound out with a hammer most of the way and a nail punch the rest of the way. It took me about 16 hours of pounding to remove the nails from about 600 square feet of 2 1/2 inch wide boards. All the boards I used in the kitchen were at least 6 feet long and the floor looks great. It's tough to find boards that long. Good luck getting the boards up, it will be worth the effort.

[John D Watson]

Hey Dan, Your right on the ball with the wood wizard. It will help you in more ways than you think. I've been reclaiming for years and cannot for the life of me remember what I did without mine. Oh and I have had great luck with knotching out the mouth of the pry bar for square nails. Good luck and enjoy the fur.

[Dan Racette]

I pulled up one board to check and it is nailed right straight down where the tongue and groove is. It looks like I could pull the whole thing up. Underneath, no sub-floor, resting right on 2 x 8's the long way gapped about an 3 inches in between. I can see right through to the basement!

So, anyone know where I can hock this stuff!!!