Topic: Salvage Wood Flooring and other remodel questions

[CBJoe]

Question for all you woodworking crafty folks.

I have a 1.5 Story cottage built in the 1920s.  The upstairs is currently about 300 square feet with a ton of dead space on either side.  We are getting ready to totally gut and expand out to 4ft knee walls and install a full bathroom.  I'd like to save and re-use the old growth tongue and groove pine flooring in what will be the main bedroom area.

Its currently installed directly to the joists with no subfloor. I did a half ass sanding/finishing of the floor about 10 years ago. We're gonna pull it all up and lay down 3/4" tongue and groove plywood subfloor.

Assuming we can pull it up without damage i'm considering running all the boards through a planer to refinish them before laying them down again.

I'm worried about the tongue and grooves lining up proper if I do this....but it seems to me that as long as I'm planing them from the top down to a uniform thickness they should line up ok since I am not planing the bottoms.

Is this crazy talk?

If the floor is brittle and gets too damaged when I pull it up its all a moot point.  But my better half would like to save it if possible.



 

[jgger]

Joe, you are correct in that if you flip them then the toungue will not align with the groove. The other thing is nails in 1 board and you will destroy a set of planer blades. I don't think any mill would be willing to run them for you either. They can be thickness sanded also, but might have the same issue with nails.nails.

The best bet would be to drum sand them after reinstalling them,  then the walking surface will be nice and even.. Also you are not going to have the same amount to put down as you remove due to breakage. If you plan on milling them yourself it will be a long time before you get to ride another bike.

When you pull them up they are probably blind nailed at the tongue,  good way to do it/hard way to remove. This may cause a lot of the boards to have the tongue broken off. Go slow and easy when you demo.

Good luck!

[CBJoe]

Hey jgger,

By thickness sanded do you mean this?  http://www.recobklyn.com/sanding.html widebelt sanding

Agreed about the nails.  To be honest i currently have no clue how these boards are fixed at the moment. Took the next 2 weeks off so demo starts on Saturday.  Gonna vacuum all the old insulation out and open the full space up to start framing planning.  Hoping to start removing the floor boards this weekend as well.  Big project as I'm going to do all the soffit and fascia at same time since i'll have great access inside and out.  I already know a ton of my rafter tails have rot so will be sistering quite a few.

May turn this into my remodel thread for help 

[jgger]

Joe, that's it. They can precision sand to thickness, might be expensive though.

Let me know if you need some advise, if I don't know I'll tell you!

[Don R]

 My late brother in law knew a guy that used slices of free old antique telephone poles. They used a metal detector to find the nails. Just a thought. I'd think they'll need sanded after installation anyway.

[demon78]

From my experience at things like that, an old log cabin built by a minister, that should have stuck to preaching and a couple of other things I found that some of the stuff came up easy other bit's shattered and it wound up that there wasn't enough good bits and time to be useful, so an exercise in frustration and time wasted.
Bill the demon.  Good Luck.

[CBJoe]

From my experience at things like that, an old log cabin built by a minister, that should have stuck to preaching and a couple of other things I found that some of the stuff came up easy other bit's shattered and it wound up that there wasn't enough good bits and time to be useful, so an exercise in frustration and time wasted.
Bill the demon.  Good Luck.

Hi Bill,  that’s kind of what I’m expecting...but told the wife I’d do my best to save them.  If it’s too brittle and the tongues crack then we’ll abandon attempt.

[jgger]

Joe get a roll of shrink wrap like they use for shipping stuff and bundle the flooring as you remove it. Place good side to good side then bad to bad, alternate as you stack it. You can bundle it before you clean it up in bundles that are a convenient size to stack/handle.

You can open a bundle and clean it up (pull nails, scrape crap off, or what ever). Then re wrap for trans port or storage. You will be SOOOOOOOO happy you did! The wrap is about $7.00 a roll at Wally World, can find it at office supply stores and probably Home Depot or Lowe's.

[CBJoe]

great idea!  Thanks jgger

Doing all the drywall and insulation removal on Saturday so hopefully on Sunday/Monday will do the first attempt at floor removal.  I'll post how it works out

[CBJoe]

From my experience at things like that, an old log cabin built by a minister, that should have stuck to preaching and a couple of other things I found that some of the stuff came up easy other bit's shattered and it wound up that there wasn't enough good bits and time to be useful, so an exercise in frustration and time wasted.
Bill the demon.  Good Luck.

Oh Bill old buddy...you were right on the money.  I think things would have been ok with some effort, but they used these ridiculous nails.






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[demon78]

It was really a shame but even on the walls which were pine boards 12" by 1" the #$%*ing idiots used nails that were far too long, ahh well such is life I was wishing you well so it's sad.
Bill the demon.