Removing Floor Staples

[Burt Alcantara]

Wife and I are removing our ultra ugly kitchen floor. It consists of a top layer of faux wood vinyl, 2 layers of linoleum, a layer of paper and a 1/8" thick layer of glue(?). The "glue" layer is a dark red and is a gummy/brittle.

The linoleum is attached to the floor with 1"x1/4" round staples. They are almost impossible to remove. When we pop off the linoleum, the staples stay put. We are doing this because all of our neighbors have gorgeous wood floors in their kitchens.

We are unable to get the staples out using an assortment of pliers & screw drivers.

Anyone have any suggestions on removing them?

Thanks,
Burt

[Heather Thompson]

Burt,

I have removed staples like that with a small pry bar, it may need to be ground a bit to fit under the top of the "u". Do wear saftey glasses, I also had to use a small hammer to drive the pry bar under the "u", not a fun job to be sure.

Heather

[Eric Larsen]

I'd cut them off as close to the floor as possible with a pair of snips, then hammer whatever remains into the floor, using a nail set if necessary.

[guy knight]

having tore up hundreds of floors i usually just pound them flush unless there is an issue like going threw the ceiling below

[Burt Alcantara]

The staples are about 50+ years old, or at least dated back to when they were first used. The house is about 65 years old.

They tend to break regardless of the removal method. Since we will have the floors sanded professionally, will driving broken staples into the floor create another problem down the road?

Thanks,
Burt

[Eric Larsen]

Didn't get that part in your original post. The original floor is in good enough shape to sand and refinish?

Then, yeah, remove them.

[Burt Alcantara]

The rest of the house has stunning old hardwood floors. When we bought the house the floors were covered with thick ugly carpets. The owners told us that the original wood floor was intact so we ripped up the carpet and had the floors done. Beautiful!

So now it's time to attack the ugly kitchen. We removed a small hallway segment and ran into the problem with the staples. Seems like the stapler person really loved his job as there are staples about every 4".

I can't imagine trying to remove the staples from the main part of the kitchen. Both my wife and I are no spring chickens.

Getting the various sub flooring up was reasonable but we are currently defeated by the staples. I'm concerned that they would damage a sander.

Burt

[Jim O'Dell]

Burt, thinking out loud here and I don't know if it exists or not, but maybe some type of puller with a slide bar? Something that will grab under the staple, then has a weight on a slide that when you pull it up hard, it pulls the staple out. But if the staples are brittle and break anyway, there may not be a method or tool that will work.
I would think that the sander would have major problems, and you would end up with a lot of extra expense for sanding pad/drum replacements. Not sure what the floor would look like even if you could get all the staples out. Thats a lot of holes in the floor. I somehow doubt that filling them would make them disappear either.
Other than suggesting pulling the hard wood out and redoing it, or going with a laminate wood floor, I'm not sure what to suggest. Sorry. Jim.

[Burt Alcantara]

Jim,
I don't mind the staple holes. In a way, it's part of the charm of an old wooden floor. One of the amazing things about this floor is every board is from a different tree. It's the Joseph's Technicolor Coat of floors so a few holes actually add to the charm.

Burt

[Norman Pyles]

Vice grips, clamp the head onto the staple rite against the floor, and roll the round part of the vise grip head to pull the staple out.

[Burt Alcantara]

What worked was channel lock pliers. The angle of grab and the camming action of the head makes easy removal. We were able to get about 90% just pulling them out. A number of them broke. Some we were able to extract but there are still a few stubs sticking up that I guess we'll have to hammer in.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Burt

[Alan Schaffter]

Jim,
I don't mind the staple holes. In a way, it's part of the charm of an old wooden floor. One of the amazing things about this floor is every board is from a different tree. It's the Joseph's Technicolor Coat of floors so a few holes actually add to the charm.

Burt

I am unclear about your situation. Was all the linoleum, etc. laid on top of a finished (hardwood) floor or a subfloor? Are the staples around the perimeter or all over the entire floor (to hold the linoleum down before applying the faux wood vinyl)?

Your description makes it sound like the staples are in a subfloor so am unclear where the sander comes in. Are you trying to refinish existing hardwood or using the sander to remove the paper and adhesive from the subfloor before installing new hardwood? Be careful, the paper backing on many old floor coverings contained asbestos so the dust is hazardous.

For either situation, try using a tile removal tool for the adhesive and the staples. The tool is a substantial (slightly heavy) long handled (you use it standing upright) steel bar with a sharp-edged trowel-like end that is used for removing tile and works quite well on adhesive. They are available at home centers (to buy) and rental centers. The combination of the weight and sharp edge make it easy to remove tile. It should also clip off your staples. Staple remnants sticking up can be driven in with a hammer if you are working on a subfloor. If you are working on the surface of the original hardwood floor, you will need to either fully remove the staples or drive them below the surface with a nail set. A floor sander equipped with a 36 grit abrasive will probably sand off the staples also, but any staples flush with the surface will likely be visible and can even stain the wood floor, especially if water-based poly is used for the sanding sealer and/or topcoats.

[Tom Veatch]

... Some we were able to extract but there are still a few stubs sticking up that I guess we'll have to hammer in.

Be aware that if you don't get the stubs either removed or set to a level that will be below the sanded surface you stand a very good chance of having ugly black stains generated by the powdered metal in the sanding residue.

Any tannin in the wood will react with iron in the presence of moisture to stain and discolor the surrounding wood. I don't recall if you said what the floors are made from, but oak is very prone to such staining as are many other wood species.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Burt,

I did the same thing you are doing some years ago. I just used a pair of visegrips. I locked it onto the staple and the rolled the visegrips on the convex shap of it. It cammed them right out.

[james gerus]

Burt, Lee Valley sells several styles of nail pullers. Good Luck , Jim Gerus

[Burt Alcantara]

The layers are as follows:
Vinyl
particle board
linoleum 1 stapled into the floor
linoleum 2 directly under linoleum 1, possibly glued together
thin substrate -- unknown composition glued to hardwood flooring
green glue layer.

We were able to easily remove the staples with channel lock pliers but a few broke off all the way down to the hardwood flooring level.

We used the sharp end of crowbars to remove the layers down to the thin substrate. Most of the substrate comes off using the same technique with the crowbars but will also require some chiseling.

The whole point of this is to get to the hardwood floor so we can have it professionally sanded and finished. At that point, the kitchen floor will be integrated with the rest of the house.

I'll try to get some pictures up so you can see what I'm talking about.

Burt

[Alan Schaffter]

Sounds like a real mess. Previous owners or tradesman should have removed previous layers before recovering the floor.

Since there is hardwood under it all, see my comment about setting any visible staples or nails that can not be removed. After setting, you will want to fill the holes. The filler will depend on your selection of stain or no stain, and to some degree on the finish- water-based poly is pretty clear, while oil-base poly is a bit amber.

Good luck!! Don't forget "before" and "after" pics!

[Wayne Cannon]

I've found the Extractor Nail Puller Plier to work significantly better than Channel Locks, Vise Grips, end cutters, or any other pry bar or plier. I just finished pulling nearly a hundred 2" flooring staples and cleats and I'm more sold than ever. I was even able to pull face-nailed serrated, cement-coated, flooring cleats ("L-head") completely through 3/4" oak from the back with ease. The wide, flat, cam surface is also quite good at not marring the surface significantly, even without a shim or putty knife under it to distribute the pressure.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=54191&cat=1,43456,43400

http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/woodworking/assorted/64k0205s1.jpg
The only negative I have found is that, having a plier-like jaw, it needs about 1/8" to grip a nail that will need a significant pull. End-cutters or diagonal cutters can get a better grip on an extremely short stub -- but do not have nearly the pulling leverage as these "Extractors".

[Burt Alcantara]

Wayne,
That looks like the ticket! When we begin the rest of the floor I'll pick up 2 of these.

Thanks for that one!!!
Burt