Hi All, We are doing some remodeling, and we are looking into putting radiant floor heating under about half of our downstairs floors (which are all being ripped up anyway). The radiant floor is the kind that is basically plywood nailed onto the subfloor, with little grooves running through the plywood in which PEX is placed, with metal sheathing to direct the heat up. This type of product adds about 0.75" to the height of the floor, so that when we put the real floor on top, there will be a 0.75" height difference between where there is radiant flooring and where there is just regular subfloor with no radiant flooring. All the top wood/engineered wood flooring we are using will be the same. We have three transition spots: 1) between dinette area and a mudroom area (not a big deal); 2) between the front door area and a living room area; and 3) between the kitchen and a kids' playroom area (will be directly under sliding french doors). Our builder/general contractor has recommended putting plywood down in all other areas so that it matches the height of the radiant floor areas - meaning there would be no transition areas. That would be more expensive than I would like, meaning the installer has said probably on the order of just over $10k to install (about 650 sq feet of radiant flooring, and maybe like 900 sq. feet of non-radiant - would probably mean we would not do the radiant floor heating. I'm wondering how bad the transitions would look and if they would affect us during regular living. I could easily do the additional plywood in the first transition because its very small (i.e., not too expensive). What are people's thoughts on how a transition would be under interior French sliders? What about between the front door and living room? Any other suggestions on what we can do? Thanks for any help!

I am looking for the best way to remove the nails from 2'' x 5/16'' red oak floor boards so that I can reuse them to repair sections in the house I moved into. I do not want to mangle the boards up and was wondering if anyone knew of a process that would leave me with usable boards after nail removal. Floor boards are already removed from floor. I just need to get all of the nails out of the boards. Thanks!