Our 1940s home has the original wood floors throughout, except for two areas that were add-ons. The master bedroom was extended as was the living room. We originally tore up the carpet in half the living room to divide the space into two separate areas, but now we’d like to be able to have the wood floors in the entire room. Is it advisable to transfer the wood floors from a room like the second bedroom where we want wall to wall carpet and lay them in the unfinished part of the living room?
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It can be done.
Consider it a rescue from a demolition, only it's your own rescue and your own demolition.
You will need to remove the baseboard moldings in the room that has the floors you want to reuse. You will need to find the "right way" to remove the boards (I didn't do that part). The removal itself is pretty straight forward. I've been told that waste is about 20-50%. In my case, we got it down to 5-10%. Once you get into a rhythm you understand how to remove the boards without destroying them.
The first board will pretty much be torn up during removal. We created 3 or 4 wooden wedges and used them (and small sledgehammers) to pop up the tongue and groove flooring. Another person was handed the boards and the nails were removed. Boards were put into piles of really long, medium and short. Also good idea to keep t&g separate from all tongue and all groove. If necessary you can also created a groove or tongue(just takes the right tools). Before putting in the boards,
you will want to clean out the gunk that gets between the boards.
Put 30lb roofing paper on the subfloor and use a floor nailer to put in the reused t&g boards. Be warned tho, the floor nailer takes serious strength. Once you are done the floor boards will be uneven and will need to be sanded and varnished.
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy
and will be delicious
with about a pound of Samaki chocolates. (rough week)