Hey all…
The first floor in this old house is a mess. I think the previous owners nailed down vinyl tile at some point or…who knows why they did anything in here. I have all sorts in here…casing nails, brads and flat heads. What a mess.
A few of them are sticking up above the floor. The flat heads are pretty easy to pull, but the casing nails and brads are a bit tougher. Most of the nails are sunk as far as the surface of the wood.
The floor has never been refinished or sealed. We’d like to do that sometime. But these nails would eat a sander alive.
Any trick or tool for getting rid of these? We have to take out what’s left of the plaster ceiling in the basement…I could try to hammer them back up through the subfloor if any extend that far.
Or I could try a nail set and try to get the brads or casings down far enough to not mess with a sander?
Replies
There is no two way's about this.
Just do it.
YCF Dino
YC--
Could you be a little more clear on that? :) "Just do...." what? Refinish the floor and rip up the sander? I'm confused by your answer. Sorry 'bout that.
jmo
It all depend's how many nail's and what type of nail's and how good is the floor.
Without pictures is hard to get a good advice. Can you live with the look of the floor after is done? Some people like the old rough look with the nail's even shown. Or the nail's may not damage the sandpaper if they only stick out 1mm. and you know to go slow with the machine.
Few picture's and i'm sure you get a good advice.
YCF Dino
Dino--
Only for you, bless ya' love, would I be on my hands and knees trying to get a good picture of nails in a floor! Yikes! What a hard assignment you've given me. But I gave it my best shot.
For some of the nails, it looks like the PO used a nail set to sink the nails into the old vinyl tile. Then, when the daughter ripped up the tile, the nails are just a smidge above the wood.
Most of the floor is lovely. The nails become a problem at the transition areas between some of the rooms and near the back door where LONG ago they extended the exterior wall of the house out and left the old wood of the porch in the new part of the kitchen :)
It's a Craftsman house and would be a darn shame to bury these rugs under carpet, plus, I hate carpeting. I don't mind that the floors have character a'tall! It's a 90 year abused house...hopefully, someone will love the character I am SURE to have when I'm 90.
Re-laying the floor isn't an option financially. Ah well.
I combed through the Archives before I posted and found nothing to help so any creative ideas welcome.
Thanks much, all---
jmo
If you don't mind character...pound them in and finish them over.
Or...pound them through and cap them with plugs.
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
I think I will definitely do that for the ones without a large head on 'em. Too much of a headache to pull 'em.
Those large head nails, ack. I wish there was some way to slice those heads off. Oh well.
Thanks blue.
Edited 11/20/2004 9:56 pm ET by jmo
Edited 11/20/2004 11:35 pm ET by jmo
Only for you, bless ya' love, would I be on my hands and knees trying to get a good picture of nails in a floor! Yikes! What a hard assignment you've given me. But I gave it my best shot.
If that was hard, Imagine trying to pull all the nail's out.YIKES!(with caps)
Blue have the right Idea. Do what's EZ and the nails look good if you don't looking at them every time and remember the ..pictures.
The floors look good. Is what they call planking floors. You can't even buy them today.
Good luck.
YCF Dino
I wish there was some way to slice those heads off.dremel????
Set the nails and fill & finish. Just make sure the putty you use is the same color or a little darker.
onthe big nails you might try a 4.5 grinder with a 50 grit disc. lay it almost flat and grind the head off then set with nail punch. practice on a scrap board it will take a pretty light touch to keep from gouging the floor.might try a belt snder if you don't have a grinder.[i could do a better job with grinder] larry
I think I might try the belt sander...I have one on its last legs and, well, Christmas IS coming. :)
A girls gotta have her tools.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Dremel tool & patch w/ putty.
You said in your first post that you have access in the basement.
Why not just tap the nails up a bit so you can grab them with nippers ( or something ) and pull them out?
I personally don't like leaving more nails in than are really necessary. I've wasted a lot of time pulling nails over the years, but ( IMO) I'm leaving fewer problems for the next guy ( or gal, as the case may be)
One thing I'll suggest if you want to try this- use a scrap piece of wood ( plywood, mdf, pine,etc.), place it over the nail you want to drive up, and have someone stand on it. This should help minimize the floor splintering up around the nail. Drive the nail up enough to be able to grab it, and pull it out.
When I have to remove al. coil stock for trim that will be reused, I've found that if I center punch the center of the nail head and use an 1/8" drill bit, I have a pretty good success rate of removing the heads. Of course, they're usually aluminum...
After the heads are removed, set the shanks, putty and go.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
The problem with most nail extraction tools is that they are too destructive.
A couple of tricks:
Get a hollow punch just bigger than the nail head diameter. Drive the punch to create a slight ring depression around the head. This should give you a bit of space to hook it with a cats paw or similar.
Use an old narrow wood chisel, or sharpen an old flat head screwdriver to a bevel edge. Drive chisel under nail head and pry a bit to get nail head proud for extraction.
Me too..I feel for ya. do whatever it takes for the ones ya can grab w/ a moulding type cats paw..flattened end. If the heads come off(which they will) set em witha punch.
Now here is the fun part..go head and sand em down..yup..buy the belts or the drum paper...I know, it sucks. Watch out BIG time for too many sparks going into a bag of forced air and dust..just do it.
Punch em down agin..sand again..fill em and finish.
If ya want a Water based finish, and by chance ya have tannin in the wood (oak, ash, chestnut) REALLY make sure the sanding dust is GONE..vacuum, tack rag, magnet..what ever..get the metal outta there! It'll bluestain the hell out of it if ya don't be METICULOUS, about the dust.
My hickory 1x6 is full of carpet tacks ( the blue ones) and the heads have rusted off, being tapered, they withdraw kinda easy..soft steel too..not as bad as ya might think sanding.
good luck.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
i've got a buddy that refinishes for a living. sanded some floors,didn't really notice anything ,loaded it in his job trailer and went home for the night. steps out in his backyard later and sees his trailer smoking-burned the back half pretty good. as he says always empty the bag and somewhere it can't start a fire. larry
Some floor refinishers I hired came within a hair of burning down a house I was working on in the same way. Get them bags oif dust out! Small bags of sanding dust might be less damgerous, I don't know, but I can testify - spontaneous combustion works.
Ron
Pull up the planks, burn them, run a magnet through the ashes.