Recovering wood from a bad hardwood installation

[Scott Conley]

Hello All,

My co-worker had brazilian cherry hardwood floor installed and the 'handyman' used a bradly nailer on the top over every piece ruining every piece (see pic below).

http://tinypic.com/r/o8to9x/8

I have a chance to buy the wood at a steep discount and I'm looking at options on recovering most of it. One option, I'm looking at is to cut the sections between nails and re tongue and grooving the ends.

My question to all of you, Is this necessary? Can I get away with just squaring the pieces and rely on the side tongue and groove?

Thanks in advance.

Scott

[Myk Rian]

Anything is possible if you set your mind to it. If the effort is worth it depends on how short the pieces will be when done.
What the heck kind of flap jack would do that to a floor? Unbelievable.

[Dennis Ford]

Could you countersink screws in the nail holes and plug with dark plugs?

[Mike Henderson]

I don't know how thick the pieces are, but I put down some 3/4" solid oak flooring without T&G on the ends (but with T&G on the sides) and it was fine. I did it with raw wood and sanded it after the installation and that may have leveled it up.

Mike

[Shawn Pixley]

I think with the narrower the strips are, the less you need to T&G the ends. The Bamboo flooring I installed (4-1/2" wide), was T&G on the ends in the factory. When I needed to cut to clear the border, etc., I did not T&G my cut ends. Worked out fine. Though my butt ends would be more limited than your application.

[ray hampton]

If you need to buy extra flooring ,will it be in stock or will the store need to order it for you, if the edge are groove one side BUT a tongue on the other side , How will the T and G end match up ? in other words will the end T and G shown after the floor are fasten down

[Yonak Hawkins]

If the flooring is pre-finished there will probably be unacceptable uneven ends. If you plan to sand, I wouldn't see a problem.

[Scott Conley]

Thanks everyone for the info.

To clarify, the wood is prefinished 3" wide (finished) and 1/2" thick. I think I can get pieces between 8" and 16" long between the nails. The original pieces ranges from 12" to 5' long.


To answer some questions;

Myk: A complete idiot did this and my co-worker went on vacation and handed him the keys.

Dennis: I thought about adding plugs, however the dumby that nailed it, didn't use a chalk line or something similar to have a pattern or order to do that method.

Ray: I won't need to worry about more wood, there is more than enough to do what I need.

I test cut the ends with my mitre saw and surprisingly it cut cleanly on my old blade, its a really strong wood. I think I can successfully cut the ends cleaner with a new blade. Yonak you made a good point, I think if I used a router there would be splintered ends. I might take my chances with the butt jointed ends.

http://tinypic.com/r/xqc8k2/8

http://tinypic.com/r/2e5pfub/8

[ray hampton]

[QUOTE=Scott Conley;2300221]Thanks everyone for the info.


Myk: A complete idiot did this and my co-worker went on vacation and handed him the keys.


I must disagree with you about this point because I am a complete idiot [well I was until the doctor remove part of my colon ] and I would never nail this this way, do you plan on using nails thru the tongue or cinchs [spell check]

[HANK METZ]

Grab a half- dozen pieces, plug 'em, lay them down and see if it's as bad as you think. I kinda got a feeling it'll look more than alright; it'll look genuine. Sometimes these construction gaffes turn out to be incredibly fortuitous.

[Ellen Benkin]

Did Mr. Hanyman get paid or shot? What a mess!

[Mark Bolton]

If you drill and plug your going to have to sand/grind the entire floor down and finish it. That would seem like tremendous amount of work (on top of laying a floor out of tiny pieces to begin with). If you blow through the factory finish anywhere you'd then have to take it all down for color. Would seem like a potential nightmare.

Id try to lay a small closet or a small test room first and see how it looks/acts with all shorts (my guess will be - bad) and go from there.

I'd think the price of this material from your friend should be -free- because the work that will go into this to have a floor of all shorts will be tremendous. May be better to just take some of it for small projects and go on.

[scott vroom]

I can understand wanting to save money through recycling, but 8" to 16" length flooring would look terrible IMO. I'd tell your friend no-thanks.

[John Lanciani]

I can understand wanting to save money through recycling, but 8" to 16" length flooring would look terrible IMO. I'd tell your friend no-thanks.

I agree, this is one of those deals that even free is going to seem very expensive by the time you're done.

[ray hampton]

You can buy floor tiles this size SO WHY not use short length of hardwood flooring

[Mark Bolton]

You can buy floor tiles this size SO WHY not use short length of hardwood flooring

A floor tile and hardwood flooring are not even close to the same animal. A floor tile is laid in an adhesive bed giving it 100% bond to the substrate. The tile could be 1/4" square and not matter. Many of these shorts may only have a single or two nails in them holding them down. If the material is very hard you lay likely blow the tongue clear off an 8" long board when you try to put two nails in it.

The joints will be very close together with very few long runs in the field to tie the floor together. With any hardwood floor, the lower the quality (cheaper the floor) the shorter the boards. This is because the longer boards in the floor are much nicer but also make for a much more stable floor. If you imagine a floor of all 8" and 16" boards you may be lucky to have 4"-8" between joints in the majority of the floor with no long runs anywhere. A less than ideal situation. Keeping it straight during install alone may be a chore depending on the room size.

If this were going to be a glued tongue floating floor it may be a bit of a different story in that when complete the floor would act as a single mass. That may be an option if the flooring profile allows.

To me, unless the material is free, and I had copious quantities of free time, I wouldnt be thinking about it but thats just me.

[eugene thomas]

I guess would depend on where using if worth the effort. Big room no thanks dut small space???

[Pat Barry]

I can understand wanting to save money through recycling, but 8" to 16" length flooring would look terrible IMO. I'd tell your friend no-thanks.
I agree with Scott. For a new floor this would be no good at all. On the other hand, if its not pre-finished material you could face glue it up and build your self a nice workbench top. If it pre-finished, which I bet it is, then its completely useless with type of damage thats been inflicted. Some handyman!

[Peter Quinn]

Quietly in the middle of the night bring the flooring back to your coworkers home, stack it neatly in his garage, run, and deny you ever had knowledge of said flooring product. The prefinish finish tends to be a ceramic reenforced UV cure resin, that translates to real tough to sand. I'm all about found treasures....but you have to know when to call junk a loss. You might make some sort of parquet from it, but it will be hard on tools, wreck bits, kill cutters. I wish you luck with it, I'd say burn it but you don't want to breath those fumes.

[scott vroom]

You can buy floor tiles this size SO WHY not use short length of hardwood flooring

IMO small tile is GENERALLY better suited to wall/backsplash/shower trim/feature strip, vanity counter etc. and would not be a good choice for a floor. Just my opinion but I think it's reflective of current tile flooring trends. Exceptions would be e.g. 2" hex tiles in a Victorian bathroom floor, etc.

Of course the OP can do whatever he wants...it's his house, his money, his labor.

[Bill Orbine]

Normally, I 'd not get involved with this stuff feeling that it is determined for the dump.. But I can see where you have a good opportunity to go simple parquet style and save money but invest time and hassle. You probably can do shorter lengths providing you spline the ends (not tongue and groove) and glue the floor pieces down. Using the spline technique, you spline both ends of every board to match the existing groove on the length of those boards. You provide the spline. I'd rather not make a "tongue" cut because it's more trouble avoiding the blow outs..... so stay with spline method. Then there's easing the ends and staining to match. Whoo boy.... you can go cheap but spend a lot of time, just so you know what you getting into!

[sullivan mcgriff]

Miller dowels may make it look acceptable, I think the short pieces will make the room look like a mess plus cutting that prefinished stuff will dull a pile of carbide

[Jim Andrew]

Do you have the flooring already? Are the brads in the boards, so you could possibly pull them through the flooring from the back side? If there is just a tiny hole in the flooring, and the pieces are not ruined, I'd probably just install it correctly and fill the holes with color putty.

[Chris Padilla]

Time to get creative here...shorts will look terrible. Bill is on an interesting path with creating something from the shorts that might look interesting. Either way you slice this, you have a lot of work on your hands....A LOT!

[Myk Rian]

The question to ask is "what do you plan on using it for"? A floor, or boxes, etc.
I noticed that nowhere you indicated you wanted to use it on a floor.

[Bill McNiel]

You could do a nice heringbone pattern that would work with the short lengths. Definately requires T&G or spline ends. Lot of work but....

[Mark Bolton]

The question to ask is "what do you plan on using it for"? A floor, or boxes, etc.
I noticed that nowhere you indicated you wanted to use it on a floor.

I think I the original post he questioning whether the shorts have to be end matched or if he can get away with laying it butt ends no?

[Andy Pratt]

I'm going to divert the conversation and ask who would ever face nail flooring like that? Why was that done?

Was it just near the edges of the floor near the walls or over the whole floor? If they did that to your whole floor I am astounded.


If you are getting the option of 16-24" flooring (which I am guessing) I would pass on it. You can't do much with it short of a few end tables.

[Scott Austin]

Why not buy some flooring at the full length & mix in the shorts. Your still saving money.