Is there a way to lift Tongue and groove floorboards (proper wood not the laminate flooring) and be able to put them back down? i have extensive electrical work to be done in my flat and I would prefer not to have to replace a whole flatsworth of the things!
Lifting Tongue and Groove Floorboards
- Thread starter KrisABDN
- Start date
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use the search facility "lifting tongue and groove"
Mark the boards before lifting them - then they can go back in the same places.
Mark the boards before lifting them - then they can go back in the same places.
If it is nailed down=No chance
If it is screwed down=Half a chance
But who is paying for the floor to be lifted? As an electrician myself, lifting t&g floors is not an easy task without damage occurring to the tongues.
D
Deleted member 174758
I know. As a chippie the number of times I've had to repair floors where electricians or plumbers have made a right pigs ear of it lifting the boards
TBH if the boards are old (e.g. pre-WWII) they are going to be a nightmare to lift and many can just break because they have gone brittle with age. The standard method to get them out involves cutting the tongues at one side of the first board to be removed and if you subsequently need to replace boards (as you often have to) it may be necessary to pack-up the new boards as they are generally thinner than older materials. I broke so many in our Victorian house attic room a number of years back when we rewired that in the end I lifted the lot and replaced them with new T&G boards
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Most all the T&G boards we lifted had been nailed down thro the tongue or cut-nailed down thro the face. Neither fastening presented any particular difficulties if enough time, vibration and gentle prising was allowed for.
It can be a pretty slow "easy does it" kind of work but we rarely had to destroy the boards to lift them.
In a historically significant, listed building we lifted all the upper floor boards, and re-fixed them in the lower floors. All difficult nails were cut with a reciprocating saw, and pulled thro the board so as not to spelch the surface - occasionally the boards were flipped.
Where pipe and cable runs are re-laid then, of course, screwing down is the way to go.
It can be a pretty slow "easy does it" kind of work but we rarely had to destroy the boards to lift them.
In a historically significant, listed building we lifted all the upper floor boards, and re-fixed them in the lower floors. All difficult nails were cut with a reciprocating saw, and pulled thro the board so as not to spelch the surface - occasionally the boards were flipped.
Where pipe and cable runs are re-laid then, of course, screwing down is the way to go.
D
Deleted member 174758
Maybe that's the case in the USA, Ree, and here we call it secret nailing, however in the area I live in, until the 1930s (and even later), floors were often installed using cut clasp nails. These are too large to go through the tongues so boards are fixed using 2 or 3 mails straight through the face of the boards into the joists. They are the devil's own to lift cleanly, especially as they tend to rust and weld themselves into the timber if the building is at all damp. On buildings prior to WWI a lot of flooring is actually either pitch pine or (in some cases) parana pine - both species harden and become brittle with age and are therefore very prone to cracking if subjected to excessive strain
I know. As a chippie the number of times I've had to repair floors where electricians or plumbers have made a right pigs ear of it lifting the boards
Generally do not do too bad a job of it, use a multi tool across planks and tight spots and circular to break first tongue. But as you have mentioned the condition of the existing floorboards often equals breakages/damage.
I would be surprised if a whole floor area could be lifted without some damage, regardless of how much time you took over it.
I would love to go in to properties for rewires, where the property owner has arranged for all the floors to be lifted for me!
PS has the OP got a sparky yet?
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