Removing Nailed Down Tongue & Groove Floorboards

Before insulating the floor I had to get the the floorboards up in the studio. The tongue and grooves make it tricky so here's how I did it.
𝐓𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬
Pallet Buster amzn.to/2WGSYaA
The Dewalt kit (pricey but game changing) bit.ly/3gOrfvU
Hammer
Crowbars
As a couple of you have commented, the better choice of screw would have been something like this to keep the floorboards tight down for the long term:
www.screwfix.c...
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[@traindrivernick]

Hello! I came across this video trying to remove a whole T and G floor and thought, nope, i want to. save the tongue too. Funny thing is you had the right tools, just the wrong method. What i did was give a firm bump from the underside wide a hammer/mallet, enough for the slightest rise. Also do this with the next board (important). The reason to do this is so the tongue or groove isnt pinned down by the next board as this will cause damage. I then used the multitool with a nail cutting attachment to cut all the nails under each board, gently prizing each board up while cutting so not to load the cutter with weight. Once all the nails are cut, the board will slide out the way it went in, with zero damage!

[@davidroth7586]

Hi mate grate content as usual. Ive found in my experience when lifting t and g its easy to punch the nails down with a good old fashion nail punch and hammer then your bords just lift away with out the need of cutting every one. Good choice on the dewalt kit. You no what they say if it aint yellow and black it aint all that 👍👍👍

[@dennisfrier3191]

After 35+ years of using a drill / screw gun , I'll take Ryobi any day over De-WON'T. i have a compact impact gun that is 20 years old , has been to the bottom of 2 swimming pools , and STILL GOING STRONG !

[@i_know_youre_right_but]

@@dennisfrier3191are you joking hahahah

[@poppad2943]

@@i_know_youre_right_but Not at all , still have it and it still works ( new bat) I built screen pool enclosures for 35 years .

[@mikiex]

There are floor screws with two separate threads, eg Spax with fixing thread that is meant to minimise the chance of creaking.

[@AliDymock]

Thanks for the tip, I've used spax before, very nice but pricey, wasn't aware of the double thread thing though

[@timearl1524]

Hi Ali, I look forward to seeing your video on the insulation, something I am toying with doing in our 1930's house. Just completed our garden rooms floor/base with insulation. Using Gapotape made life really easy in terms of getting a tight seal between the joists.

[@AliDymock]

Nice, I may well do the same for the rest of the house, esp. if we go with UFH but mineral wool does do a nice job, just not as good as PIR :)

[@kylecroft5807]

Hi Ali, I wouldn’t recommend the screws you used as the might squeak over time with the thread going all the way up the shaft, floor-tite do a specific screw for floorboards that you can get from screwfix

[@joehart3826]

defo

[@AliDymock]

Super, lesson learnt! I'll change the description to point to better ones. 👍

[@fenners1290]

Hi, I am doing a similar project at my house from 1926 soon. How come you stuck back to floorboards. Would you not use floor panels like the ones that are moisture proof or not? I’m not technically minded so forgive me!

[@marionshoemaker1917]

At the very start (0.01) the tool was made by you?

[@joehart3826]

You could use the depth gauge on your multi tool, to help with depth of cut.

[@AliDymock]

It has a depth gauge? Will look into that lol. I found the blade width happened to be exactly 18mm so could push it all the way down and cut through without touching the joists.

[@PopeJackI]

I feel like I'm missing something. Why did he pull up the boards just to put them right back down?

[@pkini99]

Stop uploading videos at 2 AM Ali ! You need your beauty sleep. Early to bed, early to rise..... and lots of roughage 😁

[@pkini99]

Been waiting for your garden room cladding video for a while now Ali. Do upload soon mate. Am sure you will provide valuable info which will make it much easier for me (and many others) to complete the task 👍👊

[@strballr]

More videos more often please…pleaseee

[@benmcdonnell4167]

Am I correct in observing that your floorboards are no longer tongue and groove, as you had to remove all the tongues to get the boards up?

[@PercyJackson93]

Yes, probably creeking when put back down I am guessing but I have no experience

[@steo-m5563]

I would have thought once you get the first couple of boards up there would be no need to cut the rest of the tongues, just lever them up from the groove side and slide out?

[@hijackstudios]

I've removed some old t&g boards a few weeks ago which weren't going back down, so did just pop them up from the groove side. The tongue is strong enough to split a decent chunk off the face of the board - and this happens within the first ~5mm of vertical movement of the groove. So if the intent is to put them back down it does seem better to either pull the nails out first or cut the tongue.

[@joehart3826]

They are nailed so you cant, + tongue will split

[@mikiex]

@@joehart3826 I've seen longer tools than a pallet buster that lift 3 boards and the slight angle is such that it doesn't destroy the boards. None commercially available in the UK of course!

[@AliDymock]

As everyone below said - it just breaks the boards no matter what i tried. Of course if they'd been screwed down then I could have slid each one out and up after the first one was removed. Crazy to use nails but I guess that was standard back then.

[@ottofumbler7267]

I've now got one of these long bar lifters, but unlike the video, my floorboards are nailed not in the center, but right on the tongue. Absolute nightmare trying to get each board up without splitting the T&G. Success rate only about 80%, so I'm going to have to buy a lot of HP wood filler.

[@PercyJackson93]

Same problem with me. Did you just nail the boards back in with the nail in the centre?

[@ottofumbler7267]

@@PercyJackson93 No. In case I had to lift them again for any reason, I didn't want to nail them down. I used Spax TX flooring screws (WIROX). Robust and squeak free installation. Drilled 3mm pilot holes to avoid splitting the boards on the edge.

[@PercyJackson93]

@@ottofumbler7267 That's a good option, thanks for the tip. Fed up of seeing nails everywhere, having to damage one piece or another. I'll try it like this

[@AJ-ds5gf]

what it this. I'm use to seeing videos about your ever-building garden room.

[@AliDymock]

Ha and we shall return to it soon!

[@mattwaddy1]

Did you have to cut all the tongues in order to loft with the palet buster?

[@jononeill2008]

I was thinking the same

[@DlStreamnet]

You should have cut the boards where they still span 3 joists.