How to remove parquet/wood block flooring??

[Mike B]

Hi

I need to remove some parquet/oak block flooring, preferably without destroying it so it may be reused later. It is tongue and grooved in a herringbone pattern, secret nailed through the long groove side.

Does anyone have any cunning/professional tips as how best to do this??

I have tried gently prying it up and removing a block at a time, but as the nails are angled this is not really working. Also, it has many many many years worth of varnish on it "gluing" the blocks together...

Now I am considering trying to slide a hack saw blade underneath to cut the nails then try to split the blocks apart with a mallet on an edge.

Cheers
Mike

 

[AndyBoyd]

I just pried mine out but they were not tongue and groove joints.

So not much help I'm afraid

 

[Mike.C]

Hi Mike,

I am no expert (far from it) and so this might not be suitable for you, but when a friend of mine needed his removing, I sacrificed about 4 of them in the middle of the floor, and with a hammer and chisel broke them out.
I then took a good quality flexible hacksaw blade (Eclipse are very good and nearly unbreakable) and without the frame, I slid it under the first block and working outwards cut through the nails.

What ever method you use, I hope you have no problems.

Cheers

Mike

 

[RogerS]

Mike

I think that this is a job for the Fein Multimaster that you are about to go and buy :lol:

Don't forget to get some e-blades that cut wood/metal.

I can promise you that one you've bought it, you'll wonder how you did without it!

 

[Paul Chapman]

Were they put down with an expansion gap around the edge, which was then covered by the skirting board? If so, removing a piece of skirting might help you to get a few out, and then proceed with the hacksaw blade as Mike C suggested.

Paul

 

[engineer one]

i'm with roger on this one. whatever you do, you will always have to waste
at least one piece, but the fein with e blades will save a bundle more than
other items might, and in view of the cost of parquet these days,
i would guess the tool price would be well worth it.

paul :wink:

 

[Mike B]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

I have tried the hacksaw approach and apart from a couple of scraped knuckles is working well, the main problem being the layers of varnish "gluing" the blocks together (why is this stuff never loose when you want it to be...)

Will also look into the metal cutting blades for the Multimaster although I will have to approach the blocks from the groove side, else the blades probably won't be long enough.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Colin C]

Try running a knife down the joint to help break the varnish

 

[mack9110000]

This may be too late to be of any help, but when you get around to relaying the reclaimed wood block,consider gluing instead of nailing.This will help if the tongues are broken and is usually how this type of floor is fixed anyway.As far as damaging the surface is concerned you will have to sand the floor after it is relaid,so once again Lecol filler gets a plug.Hope this helps.