Face nailed? Top nailed? How do I remove?

Hello everyone, posted this in another forum to no avail, but I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

Our newly inspected and not yet closed on "fixer upper/remodel" has some beautiful original 1920's wood floors in most of the house, but a later addition has flooring (and everything else) that is stuck in the 1980's (?).

I've been searching the interwebz for several days trying to learn about this type of flooring, but have seen no pictures that look quite like it or any info on how it would have been installed, it is only present in the addition that was built sometime in the 80's and we are hoping to replace this flooring eventually.

In the meantime, I'm wondering if any one can give me any info on what this type of floor installation is called (or just the nails), how difficult it is to remove, and if the nails are likely to be nails are functional or just decorative? I have no idea if it's real wood (it doesn't feel like it), but the seller says she thinks it is. Ideally I would like to remove these nails now - they're horrid to walk on in socks - and then replace the floor when we remodel the kitchen in this part of the house in several years. Is this remotely feasible? If you think so, how would you go about testing that theory?




Thanks, can't wait to get started on some of these projects!

 

I have never seen that before.

It looks cool but you would never be able to refinish the floors with them in place.

Only suggestion I can come up with is find a joint in a closet, some place inconspicuous and maybe try a set of flat top wire cutters and see if one can be pulled up.

 

Are these nails at every joint?? That type nail is decorative and may be functional if they are long enough (doubtful) and if the joint did not need it. I would do as Marq1 said,and try to remove them using a pair of wire cutters, carefully. If it turns out they are functional, replace them with cut nails and countersink them slightly. You never need to join hardwood flooring like that as the nailing sequence and the overlap of the wood will keep the joint stable.

 

You might try a large pair of horseshoe nail pliers. AKA end nippers.



You may be able to drive a tack puller underneath to at least start getting them out then switch to end nippers to finish pulling.

 

I've seen one house with flooring like yours and I can understand why you would want to get rid of it. The floor I saw really looked like the 80's trying too hard to be rustic. The owners hated the floor for it's appearance and they cursed the nails. Apparently they snagged socks and stubbed toes/feet when barefoot. They also made cleaning the floor difficult with little dirt/dust circles around each nail. What I really noticed was the very even spacing of the nails and that none of the nails had hammer marks on the very top so it appears as though there were not nailed in place but rather were installed in a factory.

The one I saw was an engineered floor so the owners were saving up for a total replacement. Their floor just had a thin veneer of oak on top of plywood so removing the nails and refinishing was not an option. In your situation I would try to get a look at the side or end of a board to see if it's engineered or solid. Maybe you can pull up a threshold strip or baseboard to get a peek.

 

If it is solid, maybe you could replace those nails with flush wooden plugs. They would look better.

 

Thank you all so much for the ideas! Will follow up once we take possession and I can get in there and get working.

Quick followup - if the nails are just decorative, and the wood is engineered (it looks like it is to me), and given that it was installed on a new addition/subfloor in the 80s - would there have been be a standard method of installation for this type of job (nailed, stapled, glued, etc)? I know the only way to know for sure is to try to pull it up, just wrapping my head around the possible demo and hoping it isn't glued down.

 

They are at every joint. There are three widths of boards, the widest has 6 at every joint, the next has 4, and the thinnest 2. ~850sq foot room.

 

Definitely no sock skating there ! Pull up a floor register. You should be able to see residue of glue if it was glued down. Also look on the last 2 or 3 rows of flooring against the wall to see if any are face nailed with a finish nailer. It could have been nailed/stapled down. Putting in the plugs is a good idea, but you will need to stain and finish them and it may look like the mumps. I mentioned cut nails in post 3, but if the present nails are not functional I probably wouldn't chase the holes. Pull a couple out and let us see their length and size. There may be other solutions.

 

Just for interest...Standard Steel Clinch-Rosehead Square Nails | House of Antique Hardware

Plenty of options and they may indeed be functional to some extent.

 

No sock skating - my 13 year old son's dreams of reenacting Risky Business have been dashed.

Thank you all SO much for the suggestions. I can't wait to start to get my hands dirty in this house, if we can get past some weird inspection issues. I think it has a lot of potential to be gorgeous and will definitely keep me busy, will be back in here a lot more I'm sure.

 

Ask if the owner would pull one of the nails in an inconspicuous area and give it to you. That way we can give you more of a heads up. I am thinking they are going to more like upholstery tacks than nails, which would be to you benefit. Hoping anyway.

 

That is my thought also ..... and to think someone paid extra to get flooring with all those nails

 

My reasoning is based on the damage, or lack of damage, to the head. Driving a 2" nail through hardwood into a subfloor would have put more damage to the cute little heads of the nails.

 

And if they are tack like decorations then the tack puller in my post would be ideal. Maybe you can tint wood filler close enough to not be obvious to fill the small holes.

 

Colored putty would be ideal for that. It may take 2 jars, intermixing the colors to get a good match. I have on occasion put a darker/lighter putty in a portion of the hole to better match the grain differences in the wood.

 

Some of the old wood floors were pegged when installed. You would use a contrasting color peg.

 

Pegged like this one........

 

I did something similar in the 80's to my log home. I was able to get 2x8 T&G railroad boxcar flooring. The only problem was the holes which held it to the boxcar framing. We installed it via the T&G, overdrilled the holes to the next dowel size, glued in a dowel and cut it off. When it was finished, it was spectacular. Of course it was heart pine, and the finish guy said if the house ever caught fire, they could see the smoke from South Carolina

 

Is this on the first floor? Unfinished basement below where you might see nails protruding through the subfloor?