Removing an oak floor

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richard.selwyn

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I've got to try to lift and then relay about 500 square feet of oak tongue and groove flooring laid in a herringbone pattern. Seems to be nailed into the joists at either end of each piece. I'm hoping to save most of the boards but could manufacture some replacement pieces. A colleague has suggested trying to saw through the nails with a Fein saw, but I'm not sure that the cost of blades won't break the bank. Any tips or suggestions please on how to get them up doing the least damage.
 
Herringbone is a pattern more usually associated with blocks rather than 'boards' and they are usually fixed with adhesive - not nailed. Can we have a photo of the existing floor in order to help you further.

Richard
 
Perhaps herringbone is the wrong term then. In French (where I've been for the last 20 years!!) they call it "Bâtons rompus", but I'm embarassed to say I don't know what I should call it in English.

I've got some pictures of the floor but don't know how to make them available. Planks are just over 2 feet long, 3 and a half inches wide by just less than an inch thick (I hope that's right - I've been metric for too long now) and are tongued and grooved all round. I've tried to post a link to something similar:

http://www.czarfloors.com/_private/pict ... _001_i.jpg

Luckily, the floor in question doesn't have the fancy edges![/img]
 
Hi

Consider how they were originally laid.

Are they fixed through the face or secret fixed (possibly through the tongue, then holding the next board down by the groove slotting into the tongue)

If this is the case once you have lifted a couple of boards you should expose the fixing, you can then either remove the fixing or if this proves difficult punch it right through to release the board (some sort of thin drift would be preferable to a nail punch as nail punches are tapered and are likely to split the tongue off or alternatively split the board lengthways if they are fixed in the endgrain

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for the replies. It is "t & g" solid flooring on the ground floor - here we would call it parquet flooring - and it is "secret nailed", with long (now rather rusty) steel nails with a fairly large round flat head.
Any further suggestions please??
 
If it's secret nailed it might be possible to take the heads off with an angle grinder without damaging the faces of the boards, they should then be fairly easy to lift.
I bought a load of reclaimed T&G Maple flooring some yaers back and it appeared to have all been extracted this way.
 
Hi Richard
I can't see you lifting it without sacrficing a foot or two . If you set a ripsnorter to say 3/4'' and cut clear of a run of joints to dodge the nails ''panel pins was the norm for the parquetry'' then you could possibly get in under with a ''slaters'' rlpper . Mastic was sometimes used to bed them in to solid floors but I don't see you having to deal with that with the t & G. If it were a demolition job taking the sub floor up with it and then working on it would give you options. It could be up to 1 1/2'' thick . Best of luck with it anyway , keep us posted on it
Cheers !
 
Richard

Herringbone is a satisfactory description. I would be very surprised if this floor is laid on joists. If it were then most of the blocks would only be supported by the tongue and groove joints. Not at all satisfactory. Is it nailed to a previous floor perhaps? If so, then try some of the suggestions above and use the one that works best for you. If it is glued down then the slate lifter solution might be best. When I lifted a block floor, I used a spade with no ill effects at all!

(another) Richard
 
thomvic":3e57bd2f said:
Richard

Herringbone is a satisfactory description. I would be very surprised if this floor is laid on joists. If it were then most of the blocks would only be supported by the tongue and groove joints. Not at all satisfactory. Is it nailed to a previous floor perhaps? If so, then try some of the suggestions above and use the one that works best for you. If it is glued down then the slate lifter solution might be best. When I lifted a block floor, I used a spade with no ill effects at all!

(another) Richard

No - it really is a proper floor laid on joists - the planks are over two feet long and about 3 and 1/2 inches wide (I work in metric) and 3/4 inch thick and the joists are spaced about 18 inches apart. That's how they used to do it here - I suppose the term "parquet" might cause confusion - a "parquet massif" which is what this floor is called means a solid wood floor. Except that its oak and laid in a fancy pattern its just like a typical first floor strip plank floor that you used to find in Blighty (when I lived there over twenty years ago :) So I guess pulling it up would be the same as pulling an old pitch pine floor in the UK (which I never seemed to manage to do without wrecking the boards.

Anyway thanks for everyone's comments - any further help would be more than welcome as I have to start the job soon.
 
I'd try prying boards/sections up a bit then whacking them down and hoping the nail heads pop up enough to be able to catch them with a nail puller.

Or just running a saw down the inside of each nailing line, and either redoing the joists at a closer spacing if that's practical or relaying the floor on top of ply.

With t&g, I don't envy you this one.
 
Mike Garnham":2yl6h47n said:
richard.selwyn":2yl6h47n said:
the planks are over two feet long and about 3 and 1/2 inches wide (I work in metric)

:shock: :? :? :?

Sorry that does look idiotic doesn't it - what I mean is that the imperial measurements are approximative as I don't work with feet and inches any more :oops: :oops:
 

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