Our New Floors

[Fatty]

When you're refinishing the original wood, you can't leave any staples in...

[appalachian_fox]

I'd suggest a cat's paw. It's a small crowbar-type device used for pulling moulding, trimwork, that sort of thing. Usually there's a very marked groove for pulling odd things like finish nails (with no appreciable head). That might work very well for your staples.

 

Couldn't find a link to a cat's paw on Lowes' site, but here's an interesting page on a few different prybars.

http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=howTo&p=Bu...s/rightNavTools

 

I'd suggest going to a store and browsing. Lowes = Home Depot in regards to prybars, so either works. Look for a small prybar that will help you out, something with a good chiseled end that you can get under the sunken staples (I imagine they're sunken, that's the issue at hand) and you should be good. If you ask for a cat's paw, they might look at you wierd, they did to me, and it wasn't labeled a cat's paw, but they do have small prybars that should work.

 

You might also consider a wood chisel to get down in there and pry the staples up to a pryable height if the cat's paw alone won't work. Usually wood chisels have a very gentle cut and so should be thin enough to get down to the staple without gouging the wood floor (which I imagine we're trying to avoid if you're going to refinish it). Total cost for both tools should be under $20, probably closer to $15.

[Fatty]

Thanks, but I'm nearly done.

 

I just went with the brute force / fastest method...as staples were all raised because they stayed in when I ripped up the underlayment...so I just grabbed em all with my craftsman robogrip plyers and pulled...lots of times.....

[appalachian_fox]

Hehe, sounds familiar. Yeah, when you have 400 staples there's no way to save your back. The cat's paw might have saved your hands and may have been a little faster, though, but sorry:

 

stapled floor > back any day, any method. I can sympathize.

[dwEEziL]

...gotta love teh wood

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Am I a bad person for giggling at this?

[Clueless]

Gotcha, did'nt know if maybe you were doing something different in the kitchen, like i said, the info was general. Not that it matters now that your done, but I usually use a putty knife layed down flat on the floor and use regular wire cutters to grab the staple (or nail) and with the tip of the cutters on the putty knife to protect the floor from dents, just pry it up. It goes alot quicker than it sounds.

 

Just in case you have more rooms with the same situation.

[Fatty]

I'm done...sore hands, blisters...but I'm done. I'll post up some befores and afters in a week.

[nut]

Time!

 

I have now had my first plumbing experience, and it was successful <looks over at valve, no drips yet>

 

We have water, so we won't be raising a stink in church today!

 

I spent more time listening to the guys at Home Depot and sitting at a train crossing than I did installing this job!  When he looked at me and said, "This should take you 5 minutes," I thought to myself: "Dewd, plumbing, say it, Fatty no plumb."  But now I have!

 

Time for a showah!

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i envy you.. lol fatty no plumb

 

NuT-