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After cutting a hole to install a new bvent in my floor I noticed we
have wood flooring under a layer of vinyl tile and 1/4 inch plywood. In the 8×8 square i cut out there were four 1 inch ardox(spiral) nails. the flooring is 2 1/4 inch wide and 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove fir(1935 house). I would like to remove the plywood and refinish the floor, I am not expecting a “perfectly new” floor but one with “minor” flaws and character. How do I remove plywood with as little damage as possible? Is flooring with a couple hundred nail holes salvagable? thanks…….Heres the ironic part, the tile they put on the plywood is fake hardwood floor !
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Mark,
To remove the plywood cut 4' wedges from 2x4 that taper from 0 to 3 1/2" and sledge them under. Use a 2x on the flat to pry with once the ply has lifted some. I like the look of all the nail holes and imperfections.
KK
*Mark-Before you pass the point of no return, you might want to make sure that between the plywood and the fir you don't have a nasty mastic or similar. This is the situation in the kitchen of my house, and I was sad to find out that I could not salvage the doug fir planks beneath the plywood, because I was unable to figure out a good way to clean the planks of the mastic.BTW: I've seen refinished fir floors like you're describing, and they look very handsome, nailholes and all!Good Luck!-Michael Santiago
*Mark, I know this is an unnecessary question, but the T&G stuff is not the subfloor is it? Some of the old houses I work on used the T&G stuff for the subfloor or in some cases the only floor. 1935 probably is not subfloor , anyway Good Luck I also like the character of the nail holes and such .Bill D. QWC
*MARK,MY HOME HAD THE SAME CONSTRUCTION. WE EVEN HAD THE MASTIC PROBLEM, WHICH WAS EASY TO TAKE CARE OF WITH A LITTLE ELBOW GREASE AND A PAINT REMOVER. OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM WAS THE HOUSE HAD BEEN REMODELED. WALLS HAD BEEN REMOVED AND THE FLOORING WAS INSTALLED AFTER THE WALLS WERE BUILT, SO WE HAD A LOT OF SPACES WITH NO FLOORING JUST FILLER.MY WIFE AND I DECIDED TO REMOVE THE FLOORING IN THE KITCHEN AND USE IT TO FILL N THE SPACES AND TILED THE KITCHEN. IT TURNED OUT TO BE A LOT MORE WORK THAN WE PLANED BUT ONCE THE FLOORS WERE RE FINISHED IT WAS WORTH IT.GOOD LUCK,BRADINAZ
*Yes mark, do it!We bought a 1895 1 1/2 story house and turned it into a 2 story house. I left the floor down before taking the top off the house with no protection. It got scratched and stuff but it still looked good, Hey, it's an old house. Anyway, I got looking at the floor and the gaps and gunk in between and decided to take it up and clean the grooves out, put it back in ( the boards were parallel to the joist anyway).Damn it looks good! fir is my favorite wood. Turning the boards took the bounce out of the floor too, thought I was going to have to put a hidden beam in.Don't worry about messing up the floor to much. Fir is pretty tough and besides, little mistakes will blend in with the whole floor. What worries me though is finishing it. Unless there is an alterative, I'll live with the minor scratches, nail holes and edges before I sand it and lose it's patina.I hope you will enjoy your floor as much as I. We are lucky the people before us liked to hide all these beautiful treasures.Good luckscott
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After cutting a hole to install a new bvent in my floor I noticed we
have wood flooring under a layer of vinyl tile and 1/4 inch plywood. In the 8x8 square i cut out there were four 1 inch ardox(spiral) nails. the flooring is 2 1/4 inch wide and 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove fir(1935 house). I would like to remove the plywood and refinish the floor, I am not expecting a "perfectly new" floor but one with "minor" flaws and character. How do I remove plywood with as little damage as possible? Is flooring with a couple hundred nail holes salvagable? thanks.......Heres the ironic part, the tile they put on the plywood is fake hardwood floor !