Removing floorboards in tact

[Michael Breen]

Am demolishing a wooden house in a country town(Gunning). We are almost down to taking up the floor. The wood looks like some kind of pine or white looking cedar. Anyway it is untouched by termites. Could anyone help with suggestions as to how to take up the boards without destroying the tongues and grooves?

[sol381]

Its pretty hard to rip up floor boards without any damage.. I would suggest ripping one board along its length and removing that first, Then you have room to lever the other boards out.. If you can get under the house i would hit them up from underneath so you can get a hammer or jimmy bar under them to lever them up.. If you want to make sure you dont damage any boards ( again very unlikely( lever the boards up about 5 mm and run a recipro saw with metal blade under to cut the nails.
Being an old house i would think the boards are 130mm a being there that long id say the nails wouldnt be in pristine condition.
stef

[Wildman]

The only way I have found to get them up largely intact is to drive the nails down through the board so you can slide them out sideways and disengage the T&G. The biggest issue though is old nails and old floor joists making it exceptionally difficult to drive the nails through the boards.
If you are demolishing anyway, Your best bet may be to cut out the floor in sections with a chainsaw and lay the sections on the ground outside joists up and knock them off sideways with a sledge hammer then pickup the boards afterwards.
Cheers
Ben

[TassieKiwi]

Are they secret-nailed or normally nailed? If secret, you can 'lose' the section of tounge at each nail position when levering it off. If normal, I would whip out the chainsaw tooo - cut the floor in as long a sections as possible, maybe sacrifice one or two boards to cut these panels into 2.5m widths, then sell like that or recover the boards.

[Michael Breen]

I will measure the boards. 130 sounds about right. They are not secret nailed.
Had thought of the chain saw and large slices. Punching the nails through might be tough as I imagine the joists are hardwood and as you said the nails will be old. However the idea of a recipro saw sounds worth follow up. (especially as it gives me an excuse for buying a new tool. And of course, I can justify the cost by arguing how much flooring I will be getting for nothing). We do want to use the flooring on a couple of jobs at home and possibly as flooring for the dreamed of straw bale building we have always wanted.

[TassieKiwi]

How have you managed to do a demo without a recipo? Wonderful things. You wouldn't believe how fast wooden window comes out, and old plumbing, and, and.....you get teh picture. Don't bother with a battery one IMHO, the 240V ones are heaps gruntier.

Good luck.

Den

[Michael Breen]

How have you managed to do a demo without a recipo? Wonderful things. You wouldn't believe how fast wooden window comes out, and old plumbing, and, and.....you get teh picture. Don't bother with a battery one IMHO, the 240V ones are heaps gruntier.

Good luck.

Den

Thanks Den, this will be excellent material to show the Treasurer and get her approval.
One thing I have made and should take a photo, is a tool for removing boards with two splines which fit across a joist or piece of 4 X 2 with a handle at right angles between the splnes, all welded. I made two at welding class from tip treasures. A photo would explain much better.
Today I will investigate a recipo.

[Michael Breen]

Den, I should have asked you if you have any suggestins as to a good brand of saw to buy.

[TassieKiwi]

I had a good deal (free!) with a national hire company, who used Makita exclusively as the're the only crowd who will honor their warranty with hire gear. I used both battery and 240v Makitas, and liked the power one best. It all depends on usage - if GMC make'em, and you only need it for this job, then I would consider this. Or, hire one, thrash it for a weekend to get the boards up, and give it back, smokin'! HAve plenty of bi-metal blades at hand. Don't scrimp on these, as the big advantage of this saw is that the blade will operate at quite astonising angles, allowing the saw to be up to 30 deg away from the cutting surface - you can sneak under anything.

A tool that never left my side is a small "crowbar" - made from spring steel, it's about 400mm long, formed from a section of about 50mx6mm. Probably has a flash name but I don't remember it.

One end has a gentle radius bent over about 100mm, with a vee cut in the end for nail pulling - the end is ground at about 30 deg. The opposite end is similar, only bent more like a crowbar's business end, around just over 90 deg. This is a formidable tool - you tap the 'flattish' end under the board you want up, which eases it out, then flip and tap the other end in right up against the nail, and lever it out some more. The wide end does little damage to the timber. Awesome for pulling off skirting etc for re-use. Buy a good one. You (better still a helper in front) could use this to ease the boards up, ready for the recipro saw. Don't touch the filled nail holes once you've got 'em up - pull the old nails through the back.

Den

[Tools]

Kennards have a board lifter...sort of like what was described above.It sits over the joist and lifts the boards easily.

Tools

[Michael Breen]

Gasweld in Canberra had a De Walt (the last one in stock) reduced to $279. So I got it. It is a made in USA job and seems to have plenty of grunt.
I have taken a couple of shots of the tool I made for taking up boards. However I have discovered the joists are wider than usual so I may weld two of the tools together and use them to straddle the wider joists.
I don't know how to attach the photos of "the Tool".