Hello Folks,
I’ve been a long time admirer of the “Fine Homebuilding” school of craftsmen and feel I’m placing my self in heady company. Glad to be here and I hope I’ll soon be able to contribute something useful now and then.
While I admire nicely built homes my question involves polebarns. I want to remodel one whose metal was attached to the frame with ring-shank nails with rubber seals. I’m hoping one or more of you would be willing to share an easy way to extract the nails from the metal in a manner that does little or no damage to the metal. One of my aims is to be able to reuse as much of the existing metal as allowable.
In the past I’ve made little “dollys” from blocks of wood which fit into the raise ribs of the metal and pried against then until the nail is budged out far enough that the head can be nipped off with bolt cutters. This is pretty tedious but it does provide plenty of aerobic excercise as I alternate from working inside to outside the building (and back!)
Does anyone have any ideas how to do this in few steps? Naturally in the early stages of my lessons, I’ve tried using a clawhammer or a wonderbar with mixed (OK: actually Poor) results. The pole barn metal gets quite bunged up and the nail is stubbornly resisting.
Many thanks in advance!
mark
Replies
Make an adapter for a slide hammer that will get under the nail head. Maybe you could adapt a vise grip for that purpose.
Thanks Martha! Must a great to be back doing what you love to do. The Vice grip/slide hammer hybrid idea is a great one. I'll let you know how it works and what it does to my rotator cuff! cheers-
Drill the heads off, remove metal, remove or pound in the nails.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?
If the wood has shrunk any you might have just a bit of slack under the head. Maybe get more if you can figure a way of ripping out the rubber washer. Maybe cutting it radially with sharp pointed knife blade.
If you can get an eighth of an inch or so you could use a Sawsall with a fine toothed blade to cut the nails between the wood and siding. Maybe opening up any slack by prying gently with a flat bar or two.
Another plan would be to run any slack to the outside and use flush cutting nippers to cut off the heads. Once the heads are off you can pound the nail stubs flush to allow reuse of the wood. Be sure to note the wood, with the embedded nails as they would affect how you cut and use it. One carpenter with a similar problem takes a can of spray paint and runs a mark down the length of the pieces. A demolition blade in a Sawsall would cut the stuff safely. A circular or chainsaw could be dangerous.
Can u get to the bottom side of the roof and bang the nails up some.?That way u can put a fulcrum block made out of wood that has the profile of the ridges on it and pull it clear without touchin the tin.If not go ahead and sawsall off with the blade between the washer and the head.
A lot of them nails were alum, the lead heads were steel..drilling is real fast.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Tommy, can you hear me?
Why look here?