taking up older oak floor and reusing questions

11 years ago

We have a huge living/kitchen area with oak floors. I think they were put down around 1995. We just bought the house and it was remodeled then the previous owners said.

The floor is 2 1/4" tongue & groove. It honestly looks like it is both red oak and white oak. The brown "things" are both long and short. I cannot tell what it is.

Anyway there was a black marble floor in the kitchen that we removed in the kitchen renovation. Obviously being marble it hadn't worn well and absorbed any water that landed on it.

Due to the door openings on both sides of the kitchen we will have to put more oak flooring in the kitchen. (With the marble floor half of the new cabinets were on marble and half on wood. Looked weird.) So we have a partial wood floor in the master bedroom....why? I have no idea. It is in front of 3 huge picture windows and it is about 30' by 8'. The rest of the bedroom is carpeted. Weird, I know!

Question- we are trying to remove the old floor in the bedroom so it will better match the old floor in the kitchen where the marble was. (We also found out that the new oak flooring is not the same thickness as the old oak flooring so we cannot use new boards.) Currently my husband is using a reciprocating saw with a long blade. Is there a better way to get those old oak boards up? It is really slow going.

Question 2- We found out that none of the old oak flooring has an underlayment underneath it. It is over plywood. So what do we do with when we use the old boards? Do we use an underlayment or not?

Thanks, Peke

Comments (9)

glennsfc
11 years ago
What is he doing with the reciprocating saw?

Once you have a starter board removed, pry bars ought to help you pry the flooring up and out.
Peke
Original Author
11 years ago
Well I think he is using a pry bar, but I think he used the saw to cut the nails....??? Pry bar is taking forever. Peke
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mike_kaiser_gw
11 years ago
Is your goal to remove the old flooring for reuse? If so, it's going to be a tedious, careful process not to destroy the tongues. Rather than a reciprocating saw, an oscillating saw might be a better choice to cut through the nails.

The right bar and a bit more leverage might help too. Gently pry up the flooring and pull the nails.
millworkman
11 years ago
Different thickness flooring? No underlayment? Somebody is feeding you info that I would be willing to bet is not correct.
Peke
Original Author
11 years ago
We are trying to reuse the old bedroom floor because it is the same age as the living room floor. We tried new oak planks but they are not the same height as the old planks.We tried one. Besides the brand new floor would stick out like a sore thumb against the old flooring. We will not refinish the floor for a few years.

I will tell my husband about the other saw. Maybe he has one he can use. Thanks, and we will take any other advice you have.

Peke
Peke
Original Author
11 years ago
As to the underlayment, I am saying there isn't any under the oak in the bedroom nor under the oak in the kitchen. So should we use it or not when we put down the used flooring? Peke
Peke
Original Author
11 years ago
Update. The floor has been removed and reused in the kitchen. We are a little bit short...about 15 boards. We will have to buy new boards and hope they won't stick out too bad. We probably will not refinish until next year. We are sick of remodeling.
Peke
Original Author
10 years ago
Nope, we had enough! It worked out well for us.
SparklingWater
10 years ago
Glad to hear it worked out Peke! I will be patching my kitchen after demo with original spare hardwood pieces I'm fortunate to have. It's great you found a solution.