Preparing wooden floors

[trotter]

Morning

Just starting to prepare to strip my floorboards after lifting ancient carpets.

The boards are quite dark and a bit dirty, and therefore finding the nails to countersink in the boards is quite tough

I've googled and searched all over, perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology, but does anyone know anything about a sensor I can use to locate nails, staples etc in the boards?

 

[big-all]

take your claw hammer lay it on the the floor on its side raise the handle about 2 or 3 inches
push your hammer all over the floor systematicly
this will allow you to catch [or feel ]the nails that are proud and either knock them in for floorboard nails or remove carpet tacks ect

only proud nails are a real threat to the sanding belt so you may only have to knock a few down

start sanding accross the boards to level the edges
finnish with the grain with progressivley finer paper

and hire a floor and edging sander as this will save you days literaly

 

[trotter]

Cheers, I hoped only the proud ones needed looking at...There aren't many either, thank god

It's mainly carpet tacks but they are easy to spot and remove

Thanks